Search - Olympic Century on DVD

Disapointment with Olympic History

R. B Kvalvik | 08/09/2004

(2 out of 5 stars)

"This is a two DVD set with a third disk that is a CD with music. The length of the program suggests that the two DVDs are just a gimmick. The whole program could have easily fit on one DVD.

Do not buy this if you are looking to watch Olympic athletes in action. The program is a general history of the Olympics. It only shows very brief clips of events. The program focuses more on the controversies and politics of the Olympics rather than the pure sporting events.

One of the main reasons people like to watch and follow sports is because they are usually separate from the negative issues in the news. This DVD seems to focus on every negative thing that ever happened in an Olympics.

I was disappointed because I had hoped that this DVD set had highlights of complete competitions. They gave virtually no statistical information such as winning times.

If you want to find out about how the games got started and all the controversy from every Olympics this is the DVD for you.

Also part of the DVD is a trivia section which had numerous errors. One questioned asked when was the first photo finish taken? The answer is Los Angeles 1932 if you watch the DVD. In the question field the correct answer was 1936.

Another questions asks when was the first moving picture used in the Olympics? Again the answer was wrong.

Another flaw in the documentary was when they start to talk about Bob Beaman's historic jump the clip is cut off while the narrator is still speaking then it cuts to another scene.

I am so amazed that NBC and so many other organization pay billions to promote an stage the Olympics but I can't go on Amazon and find any DVDs that feature Olympic highlights.

There must be a market for them.
"