Crusades (4pc) [VHS]

Crusades (4pc) [VHS]
by Alan Ereira, David Wallace

List Price: ~~$39.95~~
Our Price: $9.95
You Save: $30.00 (75%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $1.67 (click here)
Category: VHS Video
See more movie releases

Compare Prices for Crusades (4pc) [VHS]

Buy this VHS video movie at online store in your country
Canada

VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: Anthony Smee, Marcello Marascalchi, Robin Sebastian, Steve Purbrick, Terry Jones
Director: Alan Ereira, David Wallace
Writer: Terry Jones
Cinematographer: David South
Producer: Alan Ereira
Writer: Alan Ereira
Producer: David Wallace
Producer: Laurence Rees
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Box set, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 200 minutes
Release Date: 1996-12-23
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Studio: A&E Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of Crusades (4pc) [VHS]

Movie Review: "Bohemond's Breathing..."
Summary: 1 Stars

An atrociously poor attempt to portray history.
The desperately saddening aspect of this DVD is that many people will believe that this is historically accurate.

In essence this documentary selectively uses Sir Steven Runciman's "History of the Crusades". Unfortunately Sir Steven's three volume history has in the last few decades become largely obsolete as many of his interpretations and conclusions have now been proven incorrect by the mass of recent scholarship. Consequently these volumes should be avoided for any serious study.
In addition, Terry Jones's editorial comments and modern approach to a medieval situation detract further from Runciman's work producing a documentary with barely an accurate paragraph.

The Fourth Crusade section in particular is maddeningly and excusably inaccurate with a complete disregard of all serious scholarship over the last thirty years by Prof. Donald Queller, Prof. Tom Madden, Prof. John Pryor and Prof. Alfred Andrea.

Be warned any similarity between the historical facts of the Fourth Crusade and this documentary is purely coincidental.

Admittedly the Fourth Crusade, unlike many of the other expeditions, is incredibly complex and cannot easily be treated without an understanding of the contemporary history of Byzantium, Venice and the Crusader States.

Considering just the Fourth Crusade.
For example:
* Insistence upon the Treason Theory to explain that Doge Dandolo deliberately diverted the Crusade from Egypt to Constantinople as Venice did "Good business with Egypt" & the Doge promised Egypt the crusade would never attack them. What a fantasy! The Treason Theory for the diversion of the Fourth Crusade to Constantinople, first proposed in Bernard the Treasurer's continuation of the Ernoul and discovered by Hopf in 1867, was proved indefensible by Hanotaux in 1876. Egypt did not do good business with Venice as Terry Jones proudly announces. In fact in the late twelfth century they only did about 11% of their trade with Egypt due to Papal prohibitions against trade with Moslem states. They did the majority of their trade through Constantinople at this time, albeit this plummeted between 1171 and 1184, and thus risked a great deal by attempting to replace Alexius III with Prince Alexius Angelus. The Treason Theory is now only entertained by popular historians, not serious scholars, who play upon the conspiratorial aspects to sensationalise.

* That the Crusaders were trapped on the Lido by Doge Dandolo. This is incorrect. Dandolo threatened to cut off the food & water shipments to the Lido. This was not designed to starve the army into submission as such a strategy would only work if the army was trapped on the Lido & yet many were travelling between the mainland & the island by boat. Dandolo's threat makes sense only from a commercial perspective. The Franks' failure to pay for the Venetian fleet meant that the Venetians no longer had a responsibility to feed the crusaders. Cutting off food & water shipments would not starve the Crusade, but it would require the Franks' to decide quickly between what they owed & leaving Venice altogether.

* The Zaran phase is omitted entirely. The Zaran phase was crucial as here Prince Alexius's envoys & the crusade leaders signed a treaty to travel to Constantinople and place the legitimate Byzantine Prince on the throne.

* That they attacked Constantinople because the Emperor Alexius IV had no money to pay the crusaders for placing him on the throne. This is a gross simplification and paints the crusaders as avaricious and motivated solely by profit. In fact the following reasons are some of the complex motives behind why they conquered Constantinople in 1204 rather than simply sailing home to Europe:
* Humiliated & angered by the Byzantines for ten months of treachery & duplicity.
* Removal of the usurper, Mourtzouphlus. Since it was the duty of all crusaders to fight for right & justice (a similar reason why they accepted the Treaty of Zara as Philip of Swabia highlighted to them)
* Anger at eliminating their chance of reaching the Holy Land (in effect by killing Alexius IV). After his death, & the natural death of his father, the promised money & provisions which were essential for their crusade would never be provided.
* Allure of the glory & power of Constantinople; especially for Boniface of Montferrat who had tasted what his erstwhile brothers had no doubt enjoyed as Caesars & wanted his inheritance of Thessalonika.
* The 200,000 marks that was still owed from the Treaty of Zara & the extended Treaty of Venice. Although they considered the Treaty of Zara terminated when Alexius IV, & Isaac II died, they were impoverished & were in great need of money.
* They had no provisions & the area near Constantinople had been foraged to exhaustion.
* The wish to accomplish at least something, rather than returning home in ignominious failure.

To appreciate the crusades requires a great amount of time and effort and a real dedication to understand the motives of medieval men and cannot be adequately treated by a comedian in the time allowed.

Avoid this documentary if one has any interest in the truth.
Read Hans Mayer's "The Crusades", Jonathan Riley-Smith's "Crusades-a short history" or Don Queller's "The Fourth Crusade" instead.

The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople (The Middle Ages Series)

The Crusades

The Crusades: A History

Write your own review

More Crusades (4pc) [VHS] VHS Movie Reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Summary of Crusades (4pc) [VHS]

" Join Terry Jones, founding member of Monty Python, author and medieval expert, for this magnificent four-volume chronicle of the Crusades. One of history's most epic adventures, the Crusades began as a holy mission to liberate Jerusalem, and became the largest mass migration in European history. When they ended 200 years later, the Crusades had created a mythology of knights and chivalry, and left a legacy of distrust between East and West that continues to shape our world today. Filmed on location throughout Europe and the Middle East, this acclaimed production brings the Crusades to life with an army of innovative techniques, including animated mosaics, restaged battles and extraordinary computer graphics. Produced in consultation with the world's foremost experts on history and theology, it's a witty and thoroughly fascinating account of one of civilization's most legendary and least understood chapters. Please note: This special sale price applies only to orders placed online, and is NOT applicable to telephone orders."

Of all the wars waged in the name of God, none has ever matched the arrogance and conceit of the Christian Crusades. For nearly two centuries (1095-1291), this medieval "holy war" variously raged, sometimes so spiritually misshapen by rapaciousness, murder, and political greed that to think it all had to do with Christian faith is absurd. And really, there is no one better to dramatize such a theater of holy war than Wales-born Terry Jones, host of The Discovery Channel's Ancient Inventions and an accomplished medievalist. Best known for his absurdist contributions to all things Monty Python--he was a founding member of Monty Python's Flying Circus and cowriter of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, and Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, among others--Jones wields an uncanny ability to explain the methodologies and madness of the Crusades while not failing us his sense of humor.

Jones wrote the scripts for each 50-minute presentation in the four volumes of The Crusades, which originally aired on The History Channel. His narration is not without an occasional sardonic air, almost of the roll-your-eyes type, which not only lends a skeptical perspective to a frequently misunderstood era in Western Europe, but also quite frequently editorializes the events that occurred between Pope Urban II's call for liberation of Jerusalem from the "infidels" of Islam and the embarrassing moment when officers of the fourth Crusade are conned out of its divine calling by the Venetians. While Jones's reconnaissance is sometimes oversimplified by casually not mentioning several Crusade sorties after the fourth (there were several, but by the 13th century they had become redolent of ennui and misguided commercial adventure), the technical ingenuity of the production and Jones's use of anecdote backed by academicians and preserved eyewitness accounts cinches a viewer's interest. Medieval "siege machines" are re-created to test their mettle against legends of famous battles, Jones dons real 11th- and 12th-century armor to demonstrate the outlandish appearance of Crusaders in the lands of Mohammed, mosaics come to life with body-painted characters of medieval fable, and computer graphics are deployed to re-create the interior of the great cathedral at Cluny.

All these elements are contrasted with intermezzos of contemporary European and Middle Eastern society and a moving original soundtrack to make The Crusades a thoroughly engaging documentary of the bloodletting of medieval Christian conquests and the ultimate result of Islamic fanaticism born from its crimson tide. In Jones's own words at the end of Volume IV: "It took 200 years for the Crusaders to create [this] Muslim fanaticism. It was the exact imitation of Christian intolerance." To understand the effects of the Crusades is to understand much of today's religious geography, and Mr. Jones and company can fairly lay claim to having helped set the record straight. --Jamie Friddle

Documentary VHS Video

Television

VHS Video Movies

Movies most talked about in KNIGHTS IN FILM: Men of Iron

Prince Valiant [VHS]
Fox Home Entertainment; Release date: 1998-07-21; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops: ~~$79.98~~

Prince Valiant [VHS]
20th Century Fox; Release date: 1998-01-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $3.15
Price in other shops: ~~$12.98~~

The Mists of Avalon
Turner; Release date: 2001-12-11; DVD
Best price: $8.22
Price in other shops: ~~$14.97~~

Merlin
Release date: 2001-08-14; DVD
Price in other shops: ~~$14.98~~

Ivanhoe [VHS]
A & E Home Video; Release date: 2002-04-23; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $8.85
Price in other shops: ~~$39.95~~

Young Ivanhoe [VHS]
Hallmark; Release date: 2000-10-17; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.72

Ivanhoe (1982) [VHS]
Sony Pictures; Release date: 1994-06-24; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.88
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~

Ivanhoe (1952) [VHS]
MGM (Warner); Release date: 1999-09-22; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $4.38
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

Knights of the Round Table [VHS]
MGM (Warner); Release date: 1998-09-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $5.99
Price in other shops: ~~$19.98~~

First Knight
Sony; Release date: 1997-10-07; DVD
Best price: $5.74
Price in other shops: ~~$14.94~~

Similar VHS Movies

The Terry Jones Collection
Release date: 2008-10-07; DVD
Best price: $9,999.98

Chaucer & the Canterbury Tales
RYKODISC; Release date: 2009-03-31; DVD
Best price: $11.70
Price in other shops: ~~$19.95~~

The Dark Ages (The History Channel )
A&E; Release date: 2007-05-29; DVD
Best price: $11.20
Price in other shops: ~~$24.95~~

Who Murdered Chaucer?: A Medieval Mystery
by Terry Jones, Robert Yeager, Alan Fletcher, Juliette Dor, Terry Dolan
St. Martin's Griffin; Published: 2006-06-13; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.00
Price in other shops: ~~$19.95~~

The History Channel Presents The Crusades - Crescent & The Cross
A&E; Release date: 2005-12-26; DVD
Best price: $7.70
Price in other shops: ~~$19.95~~

The Story of 1
PBS; Release date: 2006-05-21; DVD
Best price: $16.61
Price in other shops: ~~$29.98~~

Terry Jones' Medieval Lives
by Terry Jones
BBC Books; Published: 2005-05-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.15
Price in other shops: ~~$14.95~~

Terry Jones' Barbarians: An Alternative Roman History
by Terry Jones, Alan Ereira
BBC Books; Published: 2007-11-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.85
Price in other shops: ~~$16.95~~