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What are your favorite Wild-Life / Historical Documentaries?

shyam09

shyam09

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Oct 31, 2010
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I'm catching Planet Earth II right now and it's bringing back nostalgia from the other David Attenborough BBC documentaries I used to watch.

I do have a collection built up with some major titles like Earth (1), First Life, Life in / Of ..., and some movies like Disney's African Cats, Bears, Chimpanzees, etc.

I love a bit of (ancient) history, and absolutely love nature documentaries, so what are some ones that you like and recommend?
 
My wife and I actually just watched a new documentary about the first climbers to successfully ascend Meru. It was a fascinating story.

Meru is a 2015 documentary film chronicling the first ascent of the "Shark's Fin" route on Meru Peak in the Indian Himalayas. It was co-directed by married couple Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and won the U.S. Audience Documentary Award at the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.

After attempting but failing to summit Meru in 2008, Conrad Anker, Jimmy Chin, and Renan Ozturk return to the mountain in order to conquer its peak – a 4,000 foot wall known as the "Shark's Fin". As they climb, the men also document their ascent. The film is a mixture of footage that chronicles both attempts (the failed 2008 and the successful 2011) while crafting a narrative about the climbers' attempts to face their demons.
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meru_(film)

http://www.merufilm.com/

MV5BMTQ4MDM3NjY2Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNjkyNTIzNjE@._V1_SY1000_CR0,0,687,1000_AL_.jpg
 
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I love the Battlefield documentary series, especially the episodes about WWII. It makes learning history a lot more interesting than the heavily biased textbooks I had in school.

The nearly zero bias is what makes the series so appealing to me. Most war documentaries have interviews with veterans, which gives a nice personal view of history, but it also introduces a lot of bias. The Battlefield series has no interviews. It takes an outside observer POV.
 
shyam09 said:
I'm catching Planet Earth II right now and it's bringing back nostalgia from the other David Attenborough BBC documentaries I used to watch.

I do have a collection built up with some major titles like Earth (1), First Life, Life in / Of ..., and some movies like Disney's African Cats, Bears, Chimpanzees, etc.

I love a bit of (ancient) history, and absolutely love nature documentaries, so what are some ones that you like and recommend?
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Planet Earth II would probably be my favourite. Excellent camera work.
 
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Apple fanboy said:
Planet Earth II would probably be my favourite. Excellent camera work.
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Agree completely about Planet Earth II - it was stunning. That would easily top my list of Wild Life documentaries.

Now, as for history - I will have to give that some thought.

However, a few superlative documentaries ought to be mentioned: The BBC series "The World At War" was superb, and Claude Lanzmann's "Shoah" was astonishing, and horrifying, and brilliant, as was "The Act Of Killing".
 
Fantastic collection everyone -- so far I'll be adding Meru, Battlefield, and The Act of Killing to my collection (the ones that stood out to me the most).

I'll take a look at The Civil War, The World At War, and Shaoh later on. And of course Blue Planet II when that comes out.
 
My favorite was Battle Field series. I think it is the best documentary, I have ever seen.
 
Back in 1974, we were forced to watch a documentary about wildlife, I believe it was called Beautiful People. At that time, I thought it was the most awesome documentary about animals that I have ever seen. Now I want to see it again and see if it still holds the same charm.
 
Planet Earth II - Mountains was just hilarious and awesome. The bears danced, the flamingos danced, the eagles did some high jump kicks in slow-mo.

So far (only two episodes in) it's the best episode I've seen. Highly recommend that one.
 
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shyam09 said:
Planet Earth II - Mountains was just hilarious and awesome. The bears danced, the flamingos danced, the eagles did some high jump kicks in slow-mo.

So far (only two episodes in) it's the best episode I've seen. Highly recommend that one.
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Planet Earth II was stunning - one of the best wildlife documentaries I have ever seen, a superb series, one I cannot recommend highly enough.
 
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