The Dark Ages

This lushly produced 90-minute History Channel documentary does a pretty admirable job of covering some major figures and events of the Early Middle Ages or "Dark Ages," i.e. the period of European history between the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century that represented the end of classical antiquity and the First Crusade in the 11th century that heralded the start of Europe's rise to world dominance.It finds an admirable central narrative regarding Europe's emergence from political and cultural chaos after the fall of Rome, depicting both the negative elements (continual war) and positive elements (monastic outposts of learning under men like St. Benedict and St. Bede) of that period. Much is omitted, of course, but what's included moves pretty quickly and is fairly compelling. This video is really one of the best History Channel documentaries I've seen, giving us a relatively balanced view of history (both the good and bad) while avoiding many of the staple weaknesses of that channel's productions. Unlike the 1990s documentaries, it isn't talky or biased, reveling in anti-religious intellectual hubris. Unlike the early 2000s documentaries, including the lamentable production "The Plague" that is appended to this disc as a special feature, it also doesn't revel in the grotesque elements of past events in an effort to convince us how ignorant people were in the past and how enlightened we are today by comparison. (There is one fairly gruesome and unnecessary re-creation of a Viking disembowlment torture, but that's about it.) Nor does it give us endless, repetitive, or cheesy battle re-enactments that limit our view of history to military events. Rather, we get a fast-moving overview of Europe's gradual emergence from post-Roman chaos that embraces multiple elements of medieval life, including well-chosen experts who are quoted in acceptable sound bytes to supplement a narrator who (unlike some History Channel documentaries) doesn't go to excess in over-simplifying events.I was pleasantly surprised that the film even treated the Crusades with a reasonable amount of balance, declining to engage in the relentless criticism favored by many post-9/11 scholars, and that it is also fair to the medieval Catholic Church. Although the film admits that Christian knights wrought a great deal of destruction in the Middle East, it also notes that the Muslims had invaded Spain in the 8th century, acknowledging at least tacitly that the Crusades were in fact a much-belated counter-attack on Europe's part to check several centuries of Islamic aggression and expansion. It generally presents the Catholic Church as a humanizing rather than incendiary influence on Europe's plunder-driven knights, directing them outward in a necessary effort to unite Europe against Islamic incursion after centuries of internal warfare -- a unity that is arguably unduplicated in all of Europe's subsequent history down to the present day. It's odd that the narrator at one point calls the Crusades an act of "vengeance" despite the film showing far more nuance overall in explaining European motives. In fact, the film concludes on the surprising and rather nuanced note that Crusaders brought back knowledge and culture from the Holy Land that aided Europe's rise to global prominence. That level of nuance (i.e. that the primary benefit of the Crusades to Europe was NOT loot, plunder, or bloodlust) is something I haven't seen in any other History Channel or A&E documentary -- and is almost worth the DVD purchase in itself.Overall, a great documentary on the Middle Ages, not boring at all. I suspect history students would particularly enjoy it.

This is an excellent documentary. This is historic record as entertainment and extremely well done. I read many of the reviews before purchasing and have to comment on some of the negatives. Yes, some of the details are inaccurate: the costumes, the housing, the actual living conditions. This period covers hundreds of years. If one were to do a documentary today of the USA from 1776 to 2016, the conditions, costumes, housing have changed dramatically. How would a filmmaker depict the age of USA? It is, to my mind, more important to convey the events as accurately as possible and this film does exactly that. The history is a matter of record. The film attempts to make the history palatable to the current generation. It succeeds. I was particularly interested in the bonus feature about the details of the plague of the 14th century and its after effect on the modern evolution of Europe. With the demise of half the population because of plague, Europe prospered in a way that would not have been possible which, in turn, led to mechanization and to our modern era. Well worth the purchase. I have revisited this several times and learn something new each viewing.

Very good documentary 9/10, wish they had brought up more about the disruption of trade on the Mediterranean sea caused Arab pirates.

This overview of the Dark Ages is an excellent choice for the classroom or pure historical pleasure. First of all, the video is 90 minutes so please ignore the posts that say only 30 minutes! I actually used this video to help bring my junior high text alive for students and they loved it! It took us three days to go through the video, discuss scenes, and read the corresponding text from our book. Students really enjoyed the parts concerning the Vikings - especially the "blood eagle". As a teacher, I was please with the Vikings portion because our book only contained a footnote concerning their role in the Dark Ages. However the video does not discuss their travels to America. Basil II is not mentioned at all and Constantine not nearly enough. However Justinian, Theodora, the plague, Charlemagne, the priesthood/Catholic Church, Clovis, and more are discussed at length! This makes an excellent resource for one to use with any unit on the Dark/Middle Ages.

Personally for me, this "Age" of history has long held a fascination for me. History channel seems to have a talent for presenting complex issues and events in a concise manner. One reviewer mentioned it only being 30 minutes long, but I watched 94 minutes of well presented history.Besides the content, it always amazes me the level of competence in these films, and the narration that allows one to understand the material. One is always left with a hunger for more, which is usually satisfied in the next segment.The names and characters are presented well, and often, so I could add this knowledge to my base understanding. If there is a complaint, it would be yearning for a more developed presentation of the culture that survived in the East, versus the West, yet that may be material for a separate DVD. Being raised in the West, we are often not told what the East did in culture and maintaining "classical" knowledge, when the Fall of the Western Roman Empire started the loss of all that was good.I left this DVD with a better understanding of the age, and a desire to dig deeper, which for me, is a winner!

This documentary explores the Dark Ages as well as the French victory(led by Charles "the Hammer" Martel) over the invading Muslims who invaded Spain, then France

Wa-a-a-y too long for even one segment of it. It's also dry, adult-oriented, and not really kid friendly. It does have really good information a teacher can pull out of it to make the material of her/his own for the kiddos.