Search - NFL Films - The Green Bay Packers - The Complete History on DVD

Perhaps the last game before football went corporate

A. Hogan | Brooklyn, NY USA | 03/22/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The ice bowl is the first football game I have clear memory of. This tape,which is very well done, sets s up the game by showing what happened the year before in the championship game in Dallas,and how the Cowboys were ready to avenge that loss. Also, juxtaposed nicely, are the story of the 1967 packers, in the final year of their glory under Vince Lombardi. The tape brings the voice of Ray Scott,longtime voice of the packers and the NFL before the corporate suits took over the broadcast booth with ex jocks. The the game itself is shown virtually in its entirity, with clever voiceover by Scott sounding very much .like it did that day. With the temperature being -16 below zero, the players and fans literally were trying to survive as well as win. This is the best of the NFL tapes that I have seen,perhaps because of the seminal importance of the game,or simply for nostalgic reasons. Either way, this is an excellent tape and a good bargain,considering that you are likely to re-watch a sports tape. And, listening to the voice of the great Ray Scott is a distinct pleasure."

The Greatest Coach, and a Still-Greater Football Team. . .

Carl Hoffman | Cleveland Heights,, OH United States | 01/21/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"DVD #1 presents a terrific hour-long history of the franchise. It hits both the high- and lowpoints, and indicates why the Packers are a national treasure and probably the greatest team in NFL history. Lambeau, Hutson, Lombardi, Starr, Nitschke, the Ice Bowl, Favre, White, the nine NFL championships, the three Super Bowls they won (I, II, and XXXI), and the one they lost (XXXII). The best fans in the league, the smallest venue, the most legendary stadium, and the team's miraculous survival over 80+ years, in no small part because they are the only pro team in any sport that is entirely owned by their fans. The highpoint, of course, is the 15-minute section entitled "Lombardi" which encapsulates the Green Bay career of the NFL's greatest coach--but at the end of this DVD about the Packers' heroic ongoing history, you realize that as great as Lombardi was, the team is greater still.

DVD #2 was produced earlier in VHS format (I bought it at the Packer Pro Shop in GB) and portrays the greatest game in Packers history and one of the greatest in NFL history. Other reviewers have justly praised its play-by-play reconstruction and modern-day interviews with the participants. Yes, Kramer was offside--but luck is a part of any game, and the Cowboys had a generous helping of it in the second quarter. Like another reviewer, I love the postgame interviews, even the glimpses of Green Bay in 1967. The muted colors of the frigid game (maybe Packer jerseys actually were that dark in the 60s--I see the same thing in footage of other games) and the elegaic tone of the final interviews give a haunting sense of a world that is now departed."

Good, almost great

A. Hogan | 06/18/2001

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Being only five years old when the Ice Bowl took place, I have spent much of my adult life attempting to re-create in my mind what it must have been like that arctic Sunday afternoon when the Packers and Cowboys attempted to play a game of football in weather unfit for man or beast. This video does a remarkably good job at transporting you back to the late sixties, when NFL football was still very much a game.The reminiscences of players, coaches, journalists, and broadcasters is blended quite skilfully with the vivid footage of players shivering in makeshift tents on the sidelines, errantly melting their shoes in front of portable heaters (because they had no feeling left in their feet), mistaking effects microphones for sources of heat, and fashioning makeshift ballaclavas out of whatever was available. Such imagery lends great credence to the words of the participants.Under such conditions you could forgive NFL Films for reducing the actual game to little more than a sideshow, but with many drives presented play-by-play, the tape pretty much flows like an actual broadcast (maybe better, given the absence of commercial breaks). For once, the famous goal-line sneak by Bart Starr is presented in its proper context - as part of an amazingly determined drive in which Chuck Mercein's reception a few plays earlier probably swung the game the Packers' way.If there are any complaints, they're that Earl Mann's narration is sometimes a little too melodramatic and the "play-by-play re-creation" of the inimitable Ray Scott cheapens the overall quality of the production. Scott's voice still has the same remarkable sense of drama and suspense it did when he was the top voice at CBS, but surely it would have made more sense for him to have replaced Mann as narrator. "Re-creating" a play-by-play seems a overt appeal for the dumbed-down market. That this is "The Greatest Game Ever Played" may be moot, but certainly this is one video whose time is long overdue. In the absence of footage from the original CBS broadcast, this is as close to real as it will probably ever get."

Nice historical documentation

Carl Hoffman | 12/06/2003

(3 out of 5 stars)

"NFL Films did an admirable job transferring the footage into the digital age, although the color of the Packers jerseys almost look black in many cases. Otherwise, the overall color and clarity are exceptional. I agree with one of the reviewers who noted that the voiced over play-by-play done by Ray Scott (as well as the canned fan responses) cheapens the product somewhat. It lacks the energy, timing, spontaneity and adjectives of his typical broadcasts, which all Packers fans became so familiar with at that time. Without much live reaction from players, coaches and fans during the game it seems a bit too sanitized. I would rather that NFL Films simply remastered the original version narrated by "the voice of God", John Facenda, then have Ray Scott add narration to whatever additional footage was necessary to spice it up. It was great to hear the perspectives from some of the former players, although I would like to have seen more post game interviews and in particular, live commentary about the playing conditions. No matter, any Packer fan will enjoy reliving one of the most memorable games in sports history."