Educational Media Reviews Online

This lavishly produced, intelligently written and narrated, and gorgeously photographed series is a must-see for anyone interested in nature, anthropology, and ritual. Mysteries of the Landscape opens, as all of the films in the series do, with pulsating tribal music and a montage of striking images of landscapes, antiquities, masks, and rituals. The camera pans in on the Australian desert and closes in on Ayers Rock, also known as Uluru. The British accent inflected alternating male/female disembodied voices of the narrators begin with the story of the aborigines’ creation myth, “In the Dreamtime,” which explains the significance of Uluru. The globetrotting documentary’s vivid script is filled with fascinating stories of myths and shamanistic rituals. And, we see how contemporary groups of people, like the nomadic Mongols, for example, live in harmony with nature. The viewer gets a close-up look at ruins, natural wonders, and awe-inspiring landscapes.

From the Mayan’s major city Chichen Izta, and its rings that suggest an early version of basketball; to the pyramids and sun worshipers of Egypt; from Buddhist monasteries built high up on mountains to be close to God, to the Buddhists’ cultivation of the gingko tree; from the Belgian and French trees thought to be laden with holy powers; to the incredibly voluminous (40,000 to be exact) columns of rock near the sea in Northern Ireland; from Zeus’s birthplace in Crete, to a cosmic explanation of the four cardinal points, this documentary takes the viewer and her senses on a magical mystery tour.

Water and its Powers – Lush shots of dazzling waterfalls abound in this documentary. I wish they were always identified, though, so I could plan to visit them! Water is life. Water is the great mother of the universe, it’s a powerful force that keeps us alive and activates our imaginations. It is cleansing, but it can be punishing. Rain gods abound in many cultures, as do tales of tsunami-like floods. The Mesopotamian tablets on which “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” the oldest story known to humankind was written, are shown, and we learn that the flood of Nor which appears in it precedes the Bible story of the flood and Noah’s Arc. In fact, all mythologies have floods—Chinese, Indian, Polynesian, and it’s usually the same story: water is the favorite weapon of angry gods who men have offended. The Mayans purified their sacrificial children with water before drowning them. A long segment filmed in India shows people washing away their sins in the Ganges River, explaining the cult surrounding this practice. We also see an African voodoo ritual that involves people smearing their hands with the sacrificial blood of an animal followed by water. Water, we learn, is “charged with contradiction, it is a symbol for transformation, but it never dies.”

Animals as Divinities – Primitive rock art experts analyze carvings in Niger and Vancouver Island, and these carvings tell us a lot about how early man worshiped animals, who were thought to have greater powers than humans. It’s clear from artistic representations and renderings however, that man’s dominion over beasts at some point became a reality. In Canada, we see images of eagles whose eyes and beaks are exaggerated. Totem poles honored sacred beasts—beasts that men were forbidden to eat or kill. The crocodile is sacred in parts of Africa because it is the incarnation of a fearless warrior. Images of mummified baboons in ancient Egypt are haunting and fascinating. We learn of a cult that worshipped cats as goddesses. Birds were, by some cultures, considered emissaries of the gods. Animals were thought to have no free will—divine gods guided them. In Western Africa, a witch doctor predicts the future by the language of the crab. He takes a hallucinogen so he can hear the crab whisper its message. Snakes appear in all mythologies, and there’s a cult of the python in one culture. We see the holy cows wandering the streets in India, where Ganesh, the half-human, half-elephant creation is deified. In Sri Lanka, we see a rousing reenactment of the Buddhist ceremony, Temple of the Tooth, in which elephants are costumed. The visual and aural sumptuousness of these films is matched by their educational value. It would be better, however, if the research for all of these splendid documentaries was documented.