The Normans - The Complete Epic Saga (2008) Review

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(More customer reviews)Well,I'll have to give this production a big thumbs up.
I enjoyed it immensely.
If you are an avid student of history-which many here are-I doubt you'll learn much that's new to you.
But,if for no other reason,the thing is worth owning for the visuals,which are magnificent.
And yes,this type of production will seem familiar to anyone that watches The History Channel.
They used re-enactment groups for the battle scenes,which of course are never very realistic.No actual heads and arms being lopped off.But the regalia is all authentic,so you get an excellent visual sense of the era.
The Bayeux Tapestry footage is superb.
The disc is actually presented in 3 installments.
It shows the progression from Rollo down through William and on through the end,under John.
The main thing I'd never seen much about was the stuff about Robert Guiscard and Sicily.Never have really looked at that too closely,as my interests lie mainly in the goings-on in Northern Europe.The architecture and artwork shown from each era is all breathtaking.
My main quibble-and I'll probably be in the minority-is the soundtrack.It's like they are afraid of leaving much empty space.I always find it distracting while listening to narration,to have period instruments playing-too loudly-and singers singing-too loudly.It's like-enough is enough,ya know?
But then again,I'd rather listen to Muddy Waters singing Hoochie Coochie Man.

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This 3x60 minute major landmark documentary series presents the epic history of Normans in the round. They were the brutal band of thugs who civilized a nation, conquered a kingdom and uncovered a continent. They were at once the most civilized of statesmen, the most fearless and skilled of warriors and the most gallant and accomplished of explorers. Theirs is a saga of epic proportions. They were the pioneers of the New World and the trailblazers of our modern society. They rose through the ranks to reign in France; they conquered England through fear and terror then Scotland by way of invitation before they moved on to Ireland with Papal permission. Wherever they went they penetrated the power elite the dual axis of the Church and the Monarchy and left their mark. Born of Scandinavian roots, we chronicle their emergence from the forests and the fjords in search of a new homeland. With the inexhaustible energy of their Viking forefathers they sailed their longboats up the Seine into Northern France. They were the lawless bandits who embraced the French legal system, the heathens who infiltrated and dominated Christian Europe. But the law and the Papacy were slaves to the Normans and a strong slave is much better than a weak one. Northern France became the most progressive region of Western Europe while the Normans, hungry for Lebensraum and with a thirst for adventure, embarked on another epic voyage. This voyage led them across rugged terrain and high seas from Greenland and Iceland to Nova Scotia and New England they were the pioneers of the New World who faded from the memory of man to be replaced by the likes of Columbus and Cabot. Piracy, perjury, robbery and rape were staples of Norman rule and traveled with the accomplished statesmen and expert warriors as they worked their way across the continent and across the high seas. The other Norman Conquest in Southern Italy placed the Normans at the very hub of Papal Politics, cementing the unholy alliance between the Normans and the Pope. Before the southern sun had a chance to mellow the Northmen, they embarked on a campaign against the Byzantine Empire under the banner of the Pope, but with the Normans very much at the helm. The campaign resulted not in a Christian Eastern Europe but in the Islamisation of Eastern Europe and their terrifying use of force and efficient and deadly warfare set a chilling precedent for the Crusades. Conquerors of half the known world, New World pioneers, enemies of Islam: the Normans, once illiterate barbarian thugs, came to be the most civilized statesmen, the most valiant and skilled warriors and the most gallant and accomplished of explorers

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