The Remarkable 20th
Century (Documentary TV
Mini-series)
Picture: C
Sound: C Extras: D Episodes: B
The great Howard K. Smith hosts The Remarkable 20th
Century, a ten-part, nearly ten-hours-long TV mini-series that does an
amusing job of covering each decade of the previous century. The decades are 1900/1910, 1920/1930,
1940/1950, 1960/1970 and 1980/1990 across five DVDs and all but the final disc
are up to what one would hope for such a series. The problem comes when the 1980/1990 disc is so loaded with
played-out news events, that it skips other trends, entertainment items and is
far too glossy about politics by then.
While the Nixon resignation is well told in the 1970s
installment, the Clinton fiasco is actually treated like a bigger event than it
was and is so lopsided to the right that the actual box the discs come in
mention that when Watergate was a far more serious affair. The culminated footage is very good and
Smith only appears three times a show: beginning, middle (for mid-hour commercial
breaks perhaps or if the shows were to be broken down into half-hour segments)
and the conclusions. He is one of the
best possible prestige reporters Passport and the producers could have signed,
so his presence is a plus.
However, the 1.33 X 1 image is a tad degraded for whatever
reason and the older Passport logo suggests an early NTSC/MPEG-2 transfer that
was done when it was not as easy or common to do so for DVD. Also, the Dolby Digital 2.0 is surprisingly
weak and monophonic in playback, which is odd for such a recent
production. However, despite no extras
whatsoever, this is a good set that particularly shines in the first 80% of the
shows. It is easy to say they could
have said more and the shows could have been two, three or even four hours, but
that still would not have been enough. The
Remarkable 20th Century may not be remarkable, but it is often
watchable and worth a good look.
- Nicholas Sheffo
