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 Entertainment | April 2008 
How the Earth Was Made
 Reg Seeton - The DeadBolt
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The History Channel (recently renamed to History) has come a long, long way from the early days of its war-heavy programming. I mean the days when that’s all there was on the channel. Although conflict and warfare have been an unfortunate and natural role in the evolution of mankind, there’s so much more to be learned from the planet we’re renting. After watching The History Channel’s recent April DVD release How the Earth Was made, it’s sobering to know that man is nothing but a brief blip in the planet’s timeline. To think that humans have only been around for thousands of years as compared to the planet’s billions, it’s clear that man isn’t all that he thinks he is. You can blame the human ego for our naivety, arrogance, and inflated sense of importance.
Coming away from the 90-minute How the Earth Was Made, I found myself fondly thinking of the words of legendary comedian George Carlin, who so aptly addressed the rise of the environmental movement and the issue that man needs to save the planet from extinction, "Save the earth?" Carlin once asked, "The Earth is in no danger. We need to save the people. The Earth will shake us off like a bad case of fleas."
The Earth had existed long before the first reptiles roamed the planet (at the 300 million mark) and it took another 70 million years for the first Dinosaur to appear. As revealed in How the Earth Was Made, almost 200 million years went by before a giant meteor struck Mexico and killed off all living species on the planet. 60 million years later when the first humans began to take shape, huge sheets of ice enveloped the Earth and man didn’t reappear for another 2 million years. So, given the cyclical nature of the Earth and its ability to regenerate, it’s fair to say that George Carlin is on to something.
Narrated by the familiar History voice of Edward Herrmann, How the Earth Was Made traces the planet’s timeline from its explosive solar inception 4.5 billion years ago through almost every phase in the Earth’s evolution. While a variety of scientists provide expert analysis, the documentary explores the planet’s life like rings on a tree, including the formation of the atmosphere, the emergence of the first supercontinent called Rodinia, the advent of the first Ice Age, the development of the Ozone Layer, the birth a second supercontinent called Pangaea and the rise of insects and reptiles, the birth of the Dinosaurs, the Mexican meteor and volcanic activity, the birth of the Grand Canyon, the second Ice Age, and the appearance of man.
There’s a ton of educational info to be had in How the Earth Was Made, much of which will make you question whether man can really save the planet at all or if the environmental changes that we’re experiencing today are simply part of the Earth’s natural and organic life cycle. It’s one of the coolest educational trips in time I’ve taken in a while. If you’re even the slightest bit interested in how the planet came to be, this is a must watch.
Big Bang Bonuses:
Inside the Volcano: At 90-minutes, the disc offers a deeper exploration into the Earth’s mysteries via a second bonus documentary that focuses on the affects of volcanic eruptions and how the brute force of a volcano can shape the many atmospheric patterns around the planet. Although we still don’t know much about volcanoes, the documentary reveals how certain volcanic actions have a ripple effect on the planet at large. It’s a great companion to the feature documentary, which sheds even more light on what mankind has yet to truly understand about Mother Nature.
Deleted Scenes: As an added bonus, the disc also includes a series of deleted scenes that didn’t make it into the feature documentary. Although the main feature is entertaining and educational enough for anyone interested in the planet, the five included deleted scenes expand on some of the high points and cover the questionable discovery of armored dinosaur bones, how the Grand Canyon became grand, the first life on Earth and more. They only add up to about 10-minutes, but we certainly appreciate the fact that the disc actually has deleted scenes.
Packaging: In this day and age, you can't package a DVD about the planet in a non-environmentally friendly case. It wouldn’t be PC. The great thing about this one is that it will eventually "become" part of the Earth since it’s 100% recycled and recyclable. For those who aren’t environmentally sophisticated, it feels like an egg-carton.
In an inconvenient age when everyone seems to be jumping on board the planet bandwagon, How the Earth Was Made is not only informative and entertaining, but also highly educational. It definitely puts a lot of today’s challenges and problems into scientific perspective and it’s time well spent from one of the best channels on TV. |
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