Product: Savage Earth [VHS] (1998)
Rating: 5.0
PBS Series on Extreme Nature
While this edition is a bit dated (1998), this is a PBS series and it shows. The stories are event focused and not just a group of clips featuring narration. While you may have seen some of the clips before, there are stories you may not have heard of and they are covered in-depth with thoughtful and informative narration by Stacy Keach. Many of the stories are haunting and heartbreaking displays of the power of nature. This was PBS' attempt to do what the History Channel used to do so well. Savage Earth features four DVDs with a different focus. All feature interviews with victims, rescuers and experts.Hell's Crust: This is a volcanic eruptions episode, featuring Mt. Saint Helen' 1980 side eruption, two interviews I had not seen elsewhere, an earthquake in Italy that killed 3000, a plane caught in volcanic ash, the Westminster Islands 1973 volcanic eruption were resident used sea water to stop the lava flow and save their harbor, lava destroys a town in Hawaii. The Hawaii and Iceland segments are reminiscent of the later History Channel show, How the Earth Was Made, an excellent informational series.The Restless Planet: An Earthquake episode featuring the 1989 Loma Prieta bridge and freeway collapse, 1906 San Francisco quake, a Mexican quake of 1985, the 1994 Northridge quake and the Japanese quakes of 1923 and 1995 Kobe quake that was deadlier than the Northridge quake.Waves of Destruction: A Tsunami episode- Krakatoa's devastating 1883 tsunami that killed 36,000 (this episode is also a forerunner of a How the Earth Was Make episode), the 1946 Hawaiian tsunami in Hilo, efforts of the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center - Okushiri Japan's 1993 tsunami, animals that can sense disasters and China's efforts to predict earthquakes - one effort that succeeded and one that failed, resulting in the deaths of 250,000 killed and 750,000 wounded.Out of the Inferno: A volcano episode- my favorite of this set- featuring Mt. Vesuvius' eruption that destroyed Pompeii, a Mexican 1943 eruption of an unknown volcano-residents fought to save their town and lost, San Juan was destroyed and lava flowed for nine years, a 1983 effort to divert lava from Mt. Etna from destroying a town, the heartbreaking story of the 1985 eruption of Columbia's Nevada Del Ruiz, where no one believed the scientists warnings and the town of Armero was destroyed and 25,000 killed by pyroclasitc mud flows; a 13 year old girl was trapped in the mud for days and died of a heart attack; Mt. Unzen in Japan whose huge eruption in 1991 killed renowned volcano experts Maurice and Katya Kraft in a pyroclastic flow that killed a total of 43 people, and the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo, formerly dormant for 600,000 years that caused the evacuation of Clark Air Force base.I did enjoy this series and this set. The focus is similar to the History Channel's Wrath of God series that likewise featured disastrous acts of nature and the stories behind them. You many have seen some of these stories before, but there are interviews and information that I haven't seen in some newer documentaries. If you are looking for a clip show about disasters, this is not for you. If you are looking for a more in-depth experience, this set is a great collection of stories.