Lost Horizon

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James Hilton's novel Lost Horizon proposes a perfect hidden community within the uncharted Himalayas, a land where peace reigns and the inhabitants live for hundreds of years. So indelible is this mythical land that its name has entered the culture: Shangri-La. Director Frank Capra, riding high during his mid-'30s hot streak, spared no expense in creating Hilton's paradise onscreen, taxing the coffers of Columbia Pictures and the patience of mogul Harry Cohn. The results, however, are magical: shimmering, seductive, and maybe a bit foolish, truly the creation of an idealist (understandably, the spectacular art direction won an Oscar). And Capra's hero is an idealist, too. Ronald Colman, at his most marvelously elocutionary, plays a wise diplomat whose plane crashes in the snows of Tibet. He and the other survivors are guided to Shangri-La, where they wrestle with the invitation to stay. The young Jane Wyatt plays Colman's love interest, but leaving a more lasting impression are H.B. Warner, as the benevolent Chang, and Sam Jaffe, in great old-age makeup, as the wizened High Lama. This version has been restored as closely as possible to Capra's original cut; the film had circulated for many years in a trimmed form. Lost Horizon was remade, notoriously and hilariously, as a big-budget musical in 1973; it was a complete flop. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

A gem of a movie........2007-09-03

It's been decades since I last saw this movie. This DVD, except for the footage that could not be reproduced/digitized, was as if I saw the movie yesterday. This was an excellent purchase.

Paradise lost.......2007-07-31

In 1933, when James Hilton's utopian novel LOST HORIZON was published, the threat of the world again at war was such that novel about finding a hidden and peaceful paradise could become a bestseller in the United Kingdom and the United States (it was, incidentally, the first contemporary novel to become a Penguin paperback because of its popularity). It was inevitable that it would become a movie, and Frank Capra was probably the ideal person to direct it, given his interest in happy endings and his previous film on war-torn China THE BITTER TEA OF GENERAL YEN. His 1937 LOST HORIZON evokes that earlier film in its superbly suspenseful opening scenes on a Chinese airfield as its city is overrun by invaders. These early scenes and the subsequent sequence on a hijacked plane (which Steven Spielberg clearly did homage to in INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM) and the subsequent sequence with the pane's crashing in the Himalayas, and the passengers making passage through the mountainous waste to the hidden haven of Shangri-La, are about as fine as anything Capra ever did in terms of sheer suspense, and could scarcely have been bettered. It's only once we get to Shangri-la itself--which, as Graham Greene famously noted, looks like a film star's Beverly Hills mansion--that the film runs into trouble. The tedious scenes with Sam Jaffe as the High Lama passing on wisdom to the film's hero (Ronald Colman) are just about insufferable, and paradise hardly seems the best topic for a film (it inevitably looks pretty boring, as Shangri-La does here). But Colman and the rest of the cast are in fine form; few directors could get such consistently strong and naturalistic work out of their actors as could Capra. Colman is superb, as are John Howard (as his dissatisfied brother George) and Margo (as a Russian woman eager to leave Shangri-la); Jane Wyman does a fine job with the awful role of Sondra, who was born and raised in the mountain enclave, and she gets a sexy nude swimming sequence that must have been inspired by Hedy Lamarr's work a few years earlier in ECSATSY.

The film was notoriously and fatally trimmed soon after its release, but eventually the entire soundtrack was restored and most of the missing film sequences; those few sections still missing the actual film footage are allowed to run with the soundtrack and stills to show what happened. The cinematography is excellent. Much of the outdoor scenes in the Himalayas were clipped from the German Bergenfilms on the 30s, but Capra at least had the wisdom to steal from the best: some of the shots are absolutely breathtaking especially given their age.

Beautiful .......2007-07-02

A beautiful story I can watch over and over that always leaves me feeling good.

Another Frank Capra Masterpiece..........2007-06-04

If you're bored with the notion of Shrek 329 or Mission Impossible 741 - if you're looking for something more challenging in movies than special effects, then you may be in the market for Frank Capra's "Lost Horizon", made in 1937. The 1930s generated more movie classics than almost any period in motion picture history - either before or since. In that context, make no mistake, Lost Horizon is not just a classic, it is a movie masterpiece.

In one interview, Frank Capra remarked that one of the most difficult things to achieve in film was to make the passing of time and distance plausible for the movie viewer. It was Capra's mastery of making time and distance pass, coupled with his innate sense of understanding of human nature, that made him a genius, and nowhere was this better exemplified than in Lost Horizon. The film completely draws you in. It takes you on an extraordinary journey which begins with a plane flight that spirits you away from a war weary world to the utopian world of Shangri-La. Ultimately, the film is a metaphoric exploration of what happens to different people when they are exposed to utopia - some have the intellect to understand that it is what they have been seeking; some refuse to accept it; some adapt to it and some learn to embrace it.

The cast will be familiar to Frank Capra fans and includes H.B. Warner as Chang(brilliant); Thomas Mitchell (outstanding), and of course the charismatic Ronald Colman (also brilliant). The high-lama, played by Sam Jaffe, is extraordinary. The sets are visually stunning; the movie is haunting, enchanting and intellectually challenging. One of its characters ultimately summarizes the possibility of Shangri-La's existence with the statement "...I believe it because I choose to believe it..." After you have seen Lost Horizon, you may also choose to believe it. Buy the movie, don't rent it - this isn't Shrek or Mission Impossible - this is something you will treasure and will watch over and over again.

One of the best.......2007-04-25

I first got to see this in about 1987 or '88, when I was in high school. I fell in love with the story in general, and also the idea of Shangri-la. I think that's what draws most people to this movie; the idea of an ultimate Utopian society. The special features are also an added bonus. What really struck me about this was the one conversation Conway has with the High Lama. Now I have probably seen this movie one time since high school and didn't remember it very well. But, the High Lama is talking about all the problems in the world, and how mankind is going to destroy itself. The remnants of humanity will then want their knowledge and the people of Shangri-la will be there to greet them and help them. The chilling part of the whole thing is how much it sounds lilke what is happening today. The ultimate message is as relevant today as it was 70 years ago. This is very worth the watch.

Event Horizon (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)

Average customer rating:

In Space, No One Can Hear You Gag
GOOD COMBINATION OF SCI-FI AND FANTACY HORROR
Rent it
Efficient horror/sci-fi crossover
Could've been great.

Event Horizon (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)
Starring: Laurence Fishburne , Sam Neill , Kathleen Quinlan , Joely Richardson , and Richard T. Jones
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000E1NXAY
Release Date: 2006-04-18

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Drawing from Andrei Tarkovsky's heady science fiction meditation Solaris by way of Alien and Hellraiser, this visually splendid but pulpy piece of science fiction schlock concerns a mission in the year 2047 to investigate the experimental American spaceship Event Horizon, which disappeared seven years previously and suddenly, out of nowhere, reappeared in the orbit of Neptune. Laurence Fishburne stars as mission commander Captain Miller and Sam Neill is Dr. Weir, the scientist who designed the mystery ship. Miller's T-shirt- and army-green-clad crew of smart-talking pros finds a ship dead and deserted, but further investigations turn up blood, corpses, dismembered body parts, and a decidedly unearthly presence. It turns out that the ship is really a space-age haunted house where spooky (and obviously impossible) visions lure each of the crew members into situations they should know better than to enter. The ship is gorgeously designed, borrowing from the dark, organic look of Alien and adding the menacing touch of teeth sprouting from bulwark doors and clawlike spikes inexplicably shooting out of the engine room floor. Unfortunately the film is not nearly as inventive as the production design--it turns into a woefully inconsistent psychic monster movie that sacrifices mood for tepid shocks--but the special effects are topnotch, and ultimately the movie has a trashy B movie charm about it. --Sean Axmaker

Description

The year is 2047. Years earlier, the pioneering research vessel Event Horizon vanished without a trace. Now a signal from it has been detected, and the United States Aerospace Command responds. Hurtling toward the signal's source are a fearless captain (Laurence Fishburne), his elite crew and the lost ship's designer (Sam Neill). Their mission: find and salvage the state-of-the-art spacecraft. What they find is state-of-the-art interstellar terror.

Customer Reviews:

In Space, No One Can Hear You Gag.......2007-08-28

The movie wasn't what I'd expected, which was a mix of future science fiction and the supernatural. That makes it admittedly hard to be impartial, because what you do get is a gore fest that must have exhausted Hollywood's supply of fake blood for months. The bad part is that this goulash of gruesomeness is by and large pointless, other than to shock and disgust the viewer.

A rescue ship is sent to find the Event Horizon, an earlier space craft that was launched and then vanished. It is found indeed, and (it's never quite clear) turns out to have gone to Hell and back, literally, or at least to some warped dimension. The ship is possessed. To further complete this religious image of hell and horror, the captain of the Event Horizon even spews a little Latin while the screams of the damned surround him on a record found by the rescuers.

There was trouble right off the bat in the movie when the rescue ship nearly rams the EH. Hey guys, if you read the ship on your sensors but can't see it through all the nebulae, slow down. Further making it hard to take this movie seriously, other than the endless butcher shop scenes, is its characters' actions. If you've left your son on earth and you're now at the other end of the solar system, and yet you see him running around on the EH, get a clue. He ain't really there.

It's legitimate to criticize the movie for its firehose-connected-to-a-slaughterhouse scenes because they're so gratuitous, unlike the mess in "Saving Private Ryan" or even "300." Because I'm afraid my disgust at the blood-soaked dementia portrayed in the movie might unfairly bias me, I err on the side of generosity and give it three stars, barely. The show's premise was both promising and interesting, but its execution was middling to fair. And there's more to a good movie than just making spectators squirm in their seats.

GOOD COMBINATION OF SCI-FI AND FANTACY HORROR.......2007-08-11

This movie is MUCH better than alot of the reviews have lead to believe. Relased in 1997, this is one of those movies that didn't have a sucsessful run in the theater, then throughout years, developed a cult following.
As the movie starts, We are given some brief info. concerning the history of the space program, as well as THE EVENT HORIZON itself. Aparently, THE EVENT HORIZON was an experimental spaceship designed to explore the boundaries of the galaxy. As the E.H. was preparing to launch, it disappeared. Seven years later, a signal from the E.H. was found in an orbit around NEPTUNE. The opening scene is really good, very 'dark' but colorfull at the same time, it sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
We are then introduced to DR. WEIR, who seems to be a troubled man, who is preparing for his new assignment, acompany a salvage crew to find out what happened. The salvage crew consists of: CAPT. MILLER(LAURENCE FISHBURN) STARK, SMITTY, JUSTIN, D.J., PETERS, AND COOPER and you really get the impression that none of them want to be there. Once they reach NEPTUNE'S orbit, DR. WEIR informs the crew about the history of the ship, as well as a single message that was slavaged. Upon listening, D.J. is able to translate the message as LATIN: "Liberate' me'", "save me". As the crew investigate what happened to the ship and her crew, bizarre things start to happen, and the crew slowly realize that the ship brought 'something' back.
EVENT HORIZON is similiar to ALIEN, with a H.P. LOVECRAFT twist, it has an effective 'other-world' vibe to it. The biggest flaw, in my opinion, is the editing. The movie 'feels' like it moves way to fast.EVENT HORIZON was originally rated NC-17 and there were major cuts to the movie to get an R-rating for release. Unfortunatly, this was before the DVD boom and the footage was discarded and lost. The lost footage, from what I've heard, consists of the gore-flashes in the latter part of the movie.
Great acting, Great story(although moves a little to fast), and good editing(considering R-rating) 4.5 out of 5!!. Fans of fantacy horror will NOT be dissapointed!!!!!

Rent it.......2007-08-06

Think The Shining set in space, with touches of Alien (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) and Hellraiser. That would be the film but not as good as any of them. The movie's concept is great and could have been a scary film but drops the ball. The movie was somewhat predictable and the cgi wasn't that great. If the space ships were cgi, then the cgi for the items floating around in the space ships weren't the greatest. The cinematography was excellent but again, the story falls short and almost close to boring. As it stands, the best horror movies out there are:
Hellraiser, The Exorcist (The Version You've Never Seen), The Exorcist 3, The Thing (Collector's Edition), Saw - Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition), Saw II - Unrated (Two-Disc Special Edition) and Saw III (Unrated Widescreen Edition).

Efficient horror/sci-fi crossover.......2007-07-24

Formulaic sci-fi shocker that while not being as good as, say, Aliens, still manages to pack a punch. The plot seems to be made up of elements of Aliens 2 and Sphere (and Solaris); you'll see what I mean when you watch the movie. Laurence Fishburne wheels out his Matrix role to play the big, butch captain of the spaceship, while Sean Pertwee (son of Dr. Who Mk. III actor John Pertwee, fact fans, he even has the same voice), Kathleen Quinlan and the ubiquitous Sam Neill provide support. The acting is generally more efficient than inspired.
There's more bloodshed in this than many other sci-fi flicks, and fans of the horror genre may find stuff here to get their teeth into. The effects are pretty good - extra credits for the powerful sound FX - but at times they come close to overshadowing everything else (sound familiar?).
A typical 4-star movie, then.

Could've been great. .......2007-05-27

This movie had so much going for it, but it never really found its groove. So many elements necessary for a good sci-fi thriller were there but not put to good use.
Having said that, I still recommend checking it out. It's kind of a mess, but I can't deny the creep factor of this movie. It's dark and brooding and has a few good shocks.
As with everything else I've seen by Paul Anderson, something's missing. It's the body of a good movie absent a soul. Maybe one of these days he'll get it all together on one. I'll look forward to it.

Average customer rating:

In Space, No One Can Hear You Gag
GOOD COMBINATION OF SCI-FI AND FANTACY HORROR
Rent it
Efficient horror/sci-fi crossover
Could've been great.

Event Horizon
Starring: Laurence Fishburne , Sam Neill , Kathleen Quinlan , Joely Richardson , and Richard T. Jones
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Manufacturer: Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: 6305222916
Release Date: 1998-12-15

Amazon.com

Customer Reviews:

In Space, No One Can Hear You Gag.......2007-08-28

GOOD COMBINATION OF SCI-FI AND FANTACY HORROR.......2007-08-11

Rent it.......2007-08-06

Efficient horror/sci-fi crossover.......2007-07-24

Could've been great. .......2007-05-27

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classic duke fare

John Wayne: Hell Town/Frontier Horizon
Starring: Hell Town , and Frontier Horizon
Manufacturer: Delta
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ASIN: B0009NZ76A
Release Date: 2006-02-13

Description

HELL TOWN John Wayne Dare Rudd takes a liking to his cousin's girl, who asks to have Dare hired to head the big cattle drive. FRONTIER HORIZON When ranchers learn their land has been condemned for construction of a new dam, they decide to fight. When they delay the construction, they are promised a pipeline...but there is no intention of actually building a pipeline.

Customer Reviews:

classic duke fare.......2007-02-22

This is the type of classic that you can see why John Wayne became a household word. Lots of action and romance

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Lost Horizon (Import)
Director: Frank Capra
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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Korean Import
Language: English
Sub-title: English, Korean, Chinese
Full Screen
NTSC all regions

ASIN: B000TKYY6C

Product Description

John Wayne, Vol. 3: Frontier Horizon/The Lawless Frontier/West of the Divide

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John Wayne, Vol. 3: Frontier Horizon/The Lawless Frontier/West of the Divide
Starring: John Wayne
Manufacturer: Alpha Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FVQLMK
Release Date: 2006-07-25

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Terrible movie....but entertaining commentary
another entertaining Fred Olen Ray joint
ICE T SWEETENED
Worst Movie In All History of All Planets of All...
The Art of Black Horizon

Black Horizon
Starring: Hannes Jaenicke , Ice-T , Paul Michael Robinson , Michael Dudikoff , and Yvette Nipar
Director: Fred Olen Ray
Manufacturer: Lions Gate
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0000YEELW
Release Date: 2004-01-20

Product Description

The Russian space station Avma is disintegrating and an international bad of scientists is sent to the dying station to salvage valuable technology left on board. But fate has other plans and when a rogue meteor collides with the station, leaving them with all communications lost and live giving oxygen bleeding into space, one man has only hours to save all the lives on board.

Format: DVD MOVIE

Customer Reviews:

Terrible movie....but entertaining commentary.......2005-01-05

Wow, watching this movie alone on a Saturday night was torture. This is almost an unwatchable, cheap low budget action flick with plot holes abound. The film begins like a average cop thriller with a crackdown and Ice-T sporting a lame car chase sequence. But then the film takes an odd turn and goes to outerspace Russian space sation and Ice-T is hardly in the rest of the film. They seemed to only have time to actually film 3/4 of a movie and padded the rest with stock footage from NASA and the Navy. When the film was over, I couldn't believe I a actually sat through it. While I was sitting there I was checking out the special features and low-and-behold it had a feature length commentary by the director and producer. I had to watch the film again to see what these numbskulls had to say about the abomination. To my surprise the commentary was very entertaining and very well done. The guys seemed to have a lot of humor and gave a really professional and entertaining commentary. Too bad the film came out so horrendously bad.

another entertaining Fred Olen Ray joint.......2004-09-15

I was initially attracted to the films of director Fred Olen Ray due to the casting of Fred "The Hammer" Williamson in his movie ACTIVE STEALTH. I soon realized the Fred Olen Ray doesn't only have the savvy to utilize a legendary actor like "The Hammer," but Ray is a fine filmmaker in his own right. Ray's movies (especially with a director's commentary track on the DVD) are very entertaining... don't expect the big-budget fireworks of ARMAGEDDON, SPACE COWBOYS, or INDEPENDENCE DAY, but prepare yourself for a fun 90 minutes anyway.

BLACK HORIZON concerns a rescue effort in space. The Russian space station AVMA is in trouble. A team of astronauts, including Michael Dudikoff and retired Navy diver (?!) Hannes Jaenicke, visit the space station on the rescue mission. Meanwhile, the reentry codes have been stolen or changed by some opportunistic Russian. Here on Earth, Ice T pursues the Russian scoundrel to get the reentry codes.

The acting is spotty. I thought Dudikoff's acting was convincing and edgy. The female lead, Yvette Nipar, was very good. The rest of the acting varied from fair to poor. Usually Hannes Jaenicke does a better job.

Essentially, BLACK HORIZON is a low-budget action movie. Sometimes the pace drags, and sometimes (like when during a meteor storm all hell is breaking loose aboard AVMA), it's quite exciting.

The inclusion of a Director's Commentary track from Fred Olen Ray was a must. Ray, as always, is a barrel of laughs. He talks about how various scenes were shot and what locations were used. He pulls the rabbit out of the hat--special effects are demystified and explained. It's a fascinating glimpse into the world of low-budget movies, and all aspiring filmmakers should experience some of his commentaries.

Also check out the DVDs for ACTIVE STEALTH and VENOMOUS, two other Ray-helmed flicks. Each is available with a commentary track.

Ken Miller

ICE T SWEETENED.......2004-09-13

In the lower right hand corner of your screen you see "January 7, blah blah." However, later on in the movie, we see Christmas decorations up, people buying Christmas trees. Now how careful an editing job is that?
BLACK HORIZON is very dull and lifeless. The fx are cheesy; the cast is about as exciting as watching a toilet flush, and Ice T continues to get roles when he wouldn't know how to act if he were coached. Michael Dudikoff, Hannes Jaenicke and Larry Poindexter aren't even watchable. The fake Russian accents are atrocious..it's just not a very good movie.

Worst Movie In All History of All Planets of All..........2004-05-21

I rented this because of Michael Dudikoff. I realize his career is on the skids, and he'll agree to any job, but this is just awful.

I cant count the number of times I saw stock footage. They stole a scene from "Space Camp" where the NASA computer was calculating the chances of thermal curtain failure. You can even seen Jinx in the reflection. I also saw the F16/F15 swap. And what about the Space Shuttle scenes where it's the Enterprise, the Columbia, and the Atlantis?

There was a budding romance that quickly ended in the vacuum of space right when it was getting interesting. They also blew up the shuttle in the fakest explosion I've ever scene. Looks like a sparkler. The same goes for when they blew up the station. And what about the artificial gravity? I might have believed it of the station (even though it wasnt rotating), but they had this space elevator that also had artificial gravity. It was just killing me. And this is a recent film!

Doctor Who was far better filmed. This movie now rates worse than "Clockwork Orange" and "Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask". I demanded my money back when I took it back to Blockbuster, and they gave it to me. This movie should be reported to someone for copyright infringement. Space Camp was never listed amongst the credits.

The Art of Black Horizon.......2004-04-09

This was one of the worst movies I've seen. I couldn't even watch it. In the opening scene, the footage where Ice T jumps out of the black truck on to the truck with pipes is the EXACT same footage from The Art of War. This movie is terrible, crap and should not have been made. If you spent money to buy it, you got reamed.

Average customer rating:

Fascinating footage of submarines and submersibles
Fabulous glimpse into 1960's explorations of the deep sea !

Submarines: The Deep Horizon
Director: Various
Manufacturer: Periscope Film
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000EAVAUU
Release Date: 2006-02-10

Description

While the "Space Race" captured the public's attention in the 1960's, another frontier beckoned: the inner space of the world's oceans. Featured on this DVD are six rare and historic films -- produced by the U.S. Navy -- showing some of the technologies developed to explore the ocean deep.

Watch as U.S. Navy aquanots live and work in the SeaLab I + II habitats, and see future astronaut Scott Carpenter as he sets an endurance record: thirty days at 200 feet below.

Learn about the submersible Aluminaut, and see how the Navy's deep submergence rescue vehicles (DSRV) Avalon and Mystic can be used to rescue the crew of a disabled submarine.

The DVD concludes with a technical film which reveals the techniques used to raise a sunken or disabled submarine, and shows footage of the ill-fated USS Squalus.

Digitally remastered and restored from original 16mm prints retrieved from forgotten archives, many of these films have never been available to the public, and some have only recently been declassified.

Please note, due to their age and rarity, image and sound quality can vary.

Films are color and black and white.

Running time: over two hours.

IMPORTANT: This DVD is presented in the DVD-R format. It may not be compatible with older DVD players. Please check your DVD player's manual for more information.

Customer Reviews:

Fascinating footage of submarines and submersibles.......2006-03-22

"The Deep Horizon" contains some outstanding footage of the U.S. Navy's amazing DSRV submersibles, as well as the Aluminaut. There's also a terrific film on this DVD showing how the Navy salvages a sunken submarine. What I think is really amazing however are the films showing the SeaLab I and II missions. These often-overlooked inner space habitats on the bottom of the sea were major accomplishments for this country, perhaps ranking up there with our accomplishments in outer space. It's neat to see such terrific footage and to learn more about this country's efforts in deep sea exploration. Too bad that as a nation we no longer probe the sea or subsidize these types of bold ventures -- the government has abandoned the sea to private enterprise.

Fabulous glimpse into 1960's explorations of the deep sea !.......2006-02-22

If you grew up in the 1960's you might have put a poster of Apollo 11 on the wall. Some of us however aspired to see another frontier -- right below the waves! The U.S. Navy in the 1960's was very much dedicated to exploring the deep and while many of the things that were done in that era are classified, some bold ventures were well publicized. On this DVD you'll see films of two of the more interesting adventures, SeaLab I and II. Both were pioneering undersea laboratories which perfected techniques still used today for human exploration of the deep sea. Some of it, such as breathing gas mixtures, enabled SEALs and spooks to accomplish missions you and I can only dream about. It's neat to see how men learned to live at incredible depths, and especially to see footage of Scott Carpenter, a Navy poster boy who became an astronaut, aboard SeaLab. He set an endurance record and one of the funniest things you'll see / hear, he speaks to President Nixon with a high-pitched voice (due to breathing helium at pressure). Many of us really wish the government had not so quickly abandoned this kind of research, although nowadays what you're seeing are a lot of commercial companies doing this type of cutting edge stuff -- and doing a heck of a lot of impressive things with robots (they do far better than humans past 100 feet!) Okay, also on this DVD is an amazing film about the capabilities of the DSRV, the Deep Submergence Rescue Vehicle which was the subject of the fictional movie "Gray Lady Down". We never had to use the DSRV for a real rescue thank God, but just knowing they were there was a big psychological help for us submariners. The last of the two DSRVs is just about to get replaced with a new craft, so this is of real historical interest. Another film on the DVD shows divers and Navy engineers at work trying to retrieve a submarine that has sunk. This is quite an interesting film although nowadays I am certain the techniques used would be much different -- since even the smallest attack submarines in our Navy are vast compared to the WWII fleet boat seen here. Still this gives real insight into how they retrieved the Squalus -- and I had no idea how complicated or potentially dangerous it really is/was till I saw this film. The last thing on this DVD is a film about the Aluminaut, which was a submersible built by the same people that make Reynolds aluminum foil. It had a very short career but part of that included something pretty amazing -- helping the Alvin retrieve a lost atomic bomb off the coast of Palomares, Spain. That incident is not seen on this DVD but you get a good sense of the little craft's capabilities. I understand the vessel is now on display in Virginia at a science museum. Just to wrap up, these are beautiful color films and all well worth seeing. They make this old salt want to take scuba diving lessons in fact...

Historic Travel US Wild West: Reaching Out To New Horizons

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High Quality Travel Footage
Good Indian Footage

Historic Travel US Wild West: Reaching Out To New Horizons

Manufacturer: www.TravelVideoStore.com
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009F4YY4
Release Date: 2007-09-07

Description

"Tenacious, adaptable, enduring and deeply spiritual" is how the largest and the most influential Red Indian tribe in the United States - the Navajos - has been described and the fascinating clip, "Navaho Canyon Country" included on this historic set of DVDs provides a fascinating close up of their lives. This surely is one of the most edifying sets of clips put together on DVD about the rich and pulsating western half of the United States.

Steeped in the history of native Indian tribes and early settlers, blessed with unmatched scenic beauty and abundant sunshine, abounding in natural wealth and holding prospects of a better tomorrow, the west remains one of the most promising corners of the earth.

This set of DVDs offers a fairly balanced view of the factors that contribute to making the west what it is - fascinating! Equally delightful and informative is the coverage of Navajo Indians, places of tourist interest (Amateur Film Northwest), the mineral and agricultural wealth of the region (Good Wrinkles and American Frontier) and above all the rich history and culture of the place (Our Texas Heritage). The clips are well preserved, the audio quality great despite the age of the clips, and the viewing entertaining enough to keep you glued to your screen till the end.

This set of DVDS is a revelation to those who have never had the opportunity of experiencing the thrills and excitement of the dazzling West and an unforgettable trip down memory lane for those who have. I have no hesitation whatsoever in recommending this fabulous set of DVDS to all history buffs and to all those who take pride in calling themselves lovers of travel and adventure.

Customer Reviews:

High Quality Travel Footage.......2006-07-24

The best part of this DVD set are the pictures and films about the Grand Canyon. They are very well shot and give a great view of the majesty of nature's beauty. There are also some great clips about the navajo indians and a nice overview of the landscape of the west. It's good travel stuff.

Good Indian Footage.......2006-05-06

Documentaries come and go and obviously some are better than others. This collection has five different documentaries in it, all of them relating one way or another to the American West.

While most of them are good, but not exceptional, the one about the lives of Native Americans on reservations is phenominal and worth the price of the set on its own.

You get a really good sense of just how taken advantage of these people were, and how they fought to preserve their heritage and dignity in the face of incredible odds.

The piece is very well balanced and shows you both sides of the story, which is rare in movies about this subject matter.

Average customer rating:

Black Horizon

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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DVD

DVD