Movie review - "Mummies: Tales from the Egyptian Crypt" disc one

Movie review number 41

PLOT

This is a two disc DVD set I bought at the British Museum in London after seeing their Mummies expedition back in March.  It's narrated by actor Frank Langella.  The first disc is all about the Pyramids and the Sphinx and discusses how mummies came to exist as originally bodies were simply buried in the sand and it was the natural drying from the environment that preserved them so well.  It goes on to tell of how the embalming system was created, and incorporated into the religious thinking and how tombs were initially created as "bench like" buildings.  One of the pharoahs had the bench like tombs built one on top of the other, resulting in the stepped pyramid (the first pyramid built in Egypt) which then were later recreated into the smooth sided pyramids of Giza for other pharoahs.

The second part of disc one talked about the Sphinx, and how it the head was based on one of the pharoahs and still had some of the paint and glazes showing.  Unfortunately, the directors of this part decided to over-use the echo chamber on some of the period quotations which is just downright annoying - for those who are in use of hearing aids this could actually prevent hearing the words spoken.

Otherwise, this was a very interesting dvd - I'll review the second disc later!

RECOMMENDED

For those interested in ancient history/archaeology, this would be an interesting purchase to make.

SCORE
Disc one, six out of ten.  The echo drags it down from an eight!!

SCOOBY SNACKS
Dates and figs and a milkshake (flavour, viewers choice!)