Civilisation : Complete BBC Series (4 Disc Box Set)

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Customer reviews

review by: date: 2008-09-22 rating:
Not what the title suggests...
When I ordered the series, Civilisation, I did expect exactly that - A broad, informative and exciting review of civilization on our planet. What I got was a Mr. Clark's narrow-minded view bordering on arrogance, a series full of long, sweeping self-congratulatory panning camera shots of artwork set to classical music Mr. Clark, concentrates on what is mainly Western Europe art history between the 5th Century A.D. and the 20th Century. As if Western European civilization just sprang up out of its own efforts and devices, the great civilizations preceding it are hardly even a footnote. The shining beacon of Moorish or indeed Islamic culture and science as a whole during the dark ages, the power and influence of a Byzantium that stood alone while Europe was crumbling, the great Chinese, Japanese and Indian civilizations, who were flourishing while most Europeans were living in mud huts, the influence of Russian culture, the Pushkin's the Tolstoy's..None of these are seen in the series (or even mentioned) as an influence in Western European culture, positive or otherwise. When one watches the series, one can't help but marvel at the Western European high culture and how it seemed to just rise up from nowhere to become the epitome of "civilization" and that we owe most of it if not all to the Catholic church - Absurd. There is very little military reference in the series, one needs to understand what had been happening militarily and how that would change or influence the culture of the conqueror as well as the conquered. I don't recall any explorers mentioned, no Marco Polo or De Gama or even Columbus, yet isn't it through exploration and discovery that new ideas, new commerce and everything ultimately benefiting civilizations arise?

On the whole I was very disappointed with the supremely narrow-minded view that suggests that civilization did not and indeed does not exist outside of Western Europe. I completed the 4th DVD with great difficulty and was overwhelmed with the feeling that I was escaping from a long, boring and pretentious wine and cheese party.

I recommend this series only for students of Western European art...And for insomniacs.

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review by: date: 2008-05-28 rating:
Great, but watch with a pinch of salt
There is great detail and Clark is clearly very knowledgeable. If you are interested in art and the development of culture, then this box set is very good and of the quality that is not made these days. So 5 Stars.

The problem is that it really needs to be watched with a pinch of salt. This is because Clark struggles to convey history accurately. He has the idea in his head that Christianity=Civilisation. The truth is that the Islamic world was far in advance of our own and contact with them kick-started the Renaissance. He fails to see that the Greeks, that he reveres, took most of their culture, mathematics and ideas from Egypt, Crete, Asia Minor, Persia and China. It was these ancient cultures we should really look to as the birth place of civilisation. The "Ascent of Man" is very diverse and enjoyable and for a better history of the Mediterranean try "the first Eden" and also "Simon Schamas: A history of Britain" is good.

In conclusion, this is a superb exercise in the history of art, it is not however a truthful history of civilisation and hence 4 stars.

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review by: date: 2008-03-01 rating:
The top of the top
Today there is no time and money for this kind of deep intellectual program, describing the last 2000 years of western civilization in one breath. Kenneth Clarks view of the subject is personal and not everyone has to agree to it, still no one can ignore it.

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review by: date: 2008-01-02 rating:
Difficult to love
Judging by the other reviews here it seems that not many people are going to agree with me, but in the belief that dissent is good and that civilisation thrives on alternate points of view I'm going to challenge a lot of the superlatives that have been thrown at the series.

Speaking as someones who is passionately interested in the arts I was surprised that I didn't like CIVILISATION more. What the series most powerfully shows is that nothing dates so quickly as the medium of television. TV's greatest asset is it's immediacy, but if CIVILISATION is anything to go by, it's also its greatest weakness.

I was born 2 years after the programme originally aired and admit that I find Lord Clark's manner off-putting. I'd be surprised if I am the only one of my generation who has this experience. He is clearly passionate about what he considers to be "high art" but his means of expressing this enthusiasm is delivered with a seriously patrician stiff upper lip and a surprising abhorrence (considering the subject matter) of revealing any intense emotion. The most excited he seems to get is when he speaks of something (for example, the entrance to Chartres Cathedral or various Renaissance sculptures) as being "moving". However, it's hard for this viewer to be swept up in the wake of his feelings. It's equally hard to share his dislikes. When, for example he refers to the elaborate Baroque decorative style at Versailles as "odious pomposity", not only did I find the phrase jarringly dated, I also found myself yearning to see more of this style that annoys him so much if only to work out what could possibly have produced such a reaction.

But the series' worst fault lies not in Lord Clark's dry tweedy manner, nor in the succession of horrible brown tweedy suits he wears, but in the way that the power of art to shock, to overwhelm, to change lives seems to be wilfully ignored. Lord Clark is fond of speaking about the humanizing influence of art, but seems unwilling to confront the less respectable, less genteel aspect of the arts and therefore of humanity itself. He mentions Peter Abelard in the 3rd episode and neglects to speak about his passionate love affair with Heloise. The scandalous lives and deeds of writers or artists like Byron or Caravaggio either have polite veils drawn across them as if such vulgar things would offend the delicate sensibilities of his audience or the artist in question is left out of the programme altogether. It is as if sex and violence have nothing to do with the arts and nothing to do with the human experience. If my fellow reviewers don't find anything to criticise here then I'm sorry, because I find it a problem. What seems magisterial to them feels hopelessly old-fashioned to me. Naturally I understand that the value of the arts lies not only in their ability to shock (we would all be the poorer if this were the only criterion), but the picture of the arts that Lord Clark presents seem to be made dryer and more fustian by his austere presentation - almost emasculated.

Nowhere does this feel more wrong than in the episode about the Romantic movement when the subject matter cries out for some red-blooded passion. I also notice that apart from a snatch of the KING LEAR overture, Lord Clark leaves out Hector Berlioz altogether. A glaring omission surely, as few artists let alone musicians more vigorously lived out the Romantic ideals, not even Beethoven. This, by the way is not the only sad absence, but I suppose one could argue that Lord Clark covers himself from the charge of superficiality by the programme's subtitle: A PERSONAL VIEW and the fact that this is something of a whirlwind tour.

On the positive side the photography is often extremely beautiful and occasionally the series can stir the viewer to want to find out more about a particular work of art, artist or building. Lord Clark's learning and erudition is there for all to see and the subject matter is highly interesting even if I have problems with the conservatism of the presentation. Therefore I cannot in all honesty dismiss it out of hand. One can also see why CIVILISATION is considered to be so highly influential. Many contemporary documentaries on the arts owe much to the style and techniques (if not the tone). For example Matthew Collings' wonderful recent Channel 4 documentary, the suspiciously similarly titled: THIS IS CIVILISATION must have had half an eye on it. Collings devotes an entire programme to the study of the apparent apple of Lord Clark's eye: John Ruskin. I find this detailed approach more user-friendly. If nothing else, CIVILISATION is an interesting document of a certain class and a certain attitude to the arts.

What slightly worries me is that if about 35 years is enough to make Lord Clark's work look so mothballed, then will time be as unkind to the work of our own contemporaries?


review by: ronilev date: 2007-08-25 rating:
Genuis at work
I first watched Kenneth Clark's Civilisation when I was in art college. I'm now buying it so I can enjoy it all over again. Clark links art, society and the world of ideas in an exciting sweep. Wit, intelligence and ravishing images make this endlessly satisfying. It was a formative influence on how I see the world, and I think everyone should watch and enjoy!

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