The Ascent of Man (5 volume set)

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Starring: Dr. Jacob Bronowski
Rated: G (General Audience)
Type: DVD
Directed By: Adrian Malone
Studio: Ambrose Video Publishing, Inc.
Release Date: 2007-03-01
Running Time: 676 minutes
Number of Items: 5
An American Film Festival Award winner, this 13 volume series on 5 DVD's attempts a massive survey of science, from flint tools to the theory of relativity. The series, a co-production of the BBC and Time-Life Films was made as a science counterpart to Civilization. It is a given superb technical support, with two crews using innovative filming techniques, shooting in 27 countries.

Dr. Jacob Bronowski makes for an unorthodox narrator, his non-scripted delivery ranging from hushed awe to trembling passion. He uses the crawling infant, the performing athlete, the development of the hunt and the discovery of fire to illustrate the most distinctive feature of man: imagination. His Scientific-Humanism is often spectacular, always provocative.

As relevant today as it was when it was filmed
Jacob Bronowski, unusually for an academic, performs admirably as a television presenter. He is charming, persuasive, and intimate as he conveys the gradual forward-march of scientific understanding from pre-history through to his own period at the end of the sixth decade of the twentieth century. He handles complex subjects and trains of events by reducing them to their essentials without undue simplification, and he shows how social factors have so often influenced the development (or conversely the stultification) of science. He conjures up moments in time, important personages, and vital ideas with a few well-chosen words and he is gently passionate in his art of persuasion. For anyone wanting an encapsulation of scientific thought since Euclid, this series is worth every penny for that alone.

Yet it is more. Bronowski is above all else a humanist, deeply concerned about the way in which knowledge liberates mankind from suspicion, error, and confusion. In his personal view, the ascent of man is an ascent from ignorance towards understanding, and from actions ruled by dogma and fear to actions guided by reason and tolerance. This is an idealist's series of programs aimed above all else at encouraging the viewer to consider life more carefully and in consequence act more thoughtfully.

As such, of course, it can aspire but perhaps not succeed. One of the most revealing moments in the series is when Bronowski talks about evolutionary theory being completely accepted and no longer argued over. He could make that statement in 1971 but in 2008 it is untrue. In the opening of the 1970s Bronowski was worried about the post-hippy tendency towards vague mysticism and escapist fantasy. Some forty years on, the world is a much worse place for humanists than he could ever have imagined. The intellectual life of the USA has been addled by bigoted mythologists and Islam has become a pejorative term through association with barbaric terrorism. Academic discourse in the west has long since been hijacked by irrelevant idealogues preaching illiterate nonsense and the rest of the world lacks almost entirely any domain in which thought may run free. Clearly the ascent of man is far from being a linear process and it is entirely possible that our dazzling inventions will ultimately be the cause of our demise as a species. We have mastered the art of fire, but we have not acquired the cast of mind necessary to use it wisely.

From a technical perspective there are several irritations: far too many sequences of pictures with awful music, really bad artwork and worse ties, poor sound quality and grainy video quality. But ultimately none of that matters. We do not disparage Thucydides' writings on the Peloponnesian War because the parchments on which they were transmitted are now yellowed and cracked with age. We do not dicount Newton's masterful account of a clockwork universe because his handwriting was awkward and his terminology somewhat obscure. And so the technical imperfections and stylistic infelicities of this series should not interpose themselves between us and our deep appreciation of this unique work. It is sadly quite unimaginable that any equivalent set of programs could be made today. Our age is darker than Bronowski's time and so we shall not see its successor.

Really good fun !!
I was hooked as soon as I saw one episode. Had to have the whole collection

The Ascent Of Man is excellent!
Just an incredible series! Got to love the music that opens every episode. I liked the way Bronowski meters his speech. Five stars.

Necessary viewing
As someone who watched it when it was first broadcast, and again recently, I still find it an enthralling documentary. It's a pity other reviewers have concentrated on the lack of both gee-whizz computer graphics and sound-effects, but they should realise that it was made in a not-so-distant time when people didn't collectively suffer from ADD, and had the ability to concentrate and think. Dr Bronowski's commentary is fascinating and riveting, and that's what it is about. TAOM is a brilliant educational tool which remains as relevant now as ever. And for those who have a problem with the title, well, to put it in your generation's vernacular - build a bridge and get over it. It's a study of the human race; not an exercise in gender appeasement.

Brilliant !!!
I viewed this brilliant series as a set of 4 DVD's and was stunned by the brilliance of Dr. Jacob Bronowski as a teacher. He deals with every subject imaginable, including scientific work which ordinarily, I would not have attempted to follow, but he makes it all so easy that you begin to feel quite clever and to wish that you'd had him as a tutor. The series was 3 years in the making with location filming in over 20 countries and I would energetically recommend it to anyone to broaden their knowledge and especially to those with children, who will, I promise, be fascinated by all the events which shaped the world as we know it...an absolute masterpiece!