Donald Sutherland fans beware!
Suvayd Allenger | Ottawa, Ontario Canada | 06/24/2009
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Love him or hate him, Napoleon is without a doubt one of the most fascinating historical figures of all times, and though my views on him have evolved over the years, I admit I still find just about every detail of his life most intriguing. In this respect, the three documentaries featured on this DVD will certainly satisfy anyone who, like me, is interested in various aspects of Napoleon's life, not to mention the mystery surrounding his death (although I seriously doubt that his last word was "Josephine!"... oh well...).
The only trouble is I also happen to be a huge fan of Donald Sutherland, and I bought this particular DVD mostly because it came up under his name... But instead of three blissful hours of listening to his magnificent voice (seriously, the man could read the phone book and I'd still want to hear it), he turned out to be only in the middle segment, the one about Napoleon's lost fleet, and the sound in it wasn't all that hot either. The other two, whose sound was just fine, were narrated by a very nice British gentleman, whose only fault was that he is not Donald Sutherland!
So the bottom line is: if you buy this DVD, make sure you do it for the subject and not for the narrator!
Oh and, by the way, while the DVD is recent, the documentaries themselves date from 2000, i.e. almost ten years ago. It probably doesn't matter much but it's still worth mentioning."