‘The Trials of Life’ is one of the most impressive nature documentary series ever made. Originally broadcast in 1990, it has lost none of its original impact. The subject of the series is animal behavior, and the mechanisms and strategies that different species have evolved to ensure their continuance. The sheer diversity of form and behavior is simply astounding. It is an old clich?, it is true, but life is apparently far stranger than the most imaginative fiction. And here, life in all its incredible variety is captured magnificently on film, much of it never before observed.
From the darkest depths of the deepest ocean beds, where all varieties of fishes and invertebrates have developed spectacular luminous displays as lures for drawing near prey and for communication, to the rich green forests of the tropics where birds have evolved magnificent colours and extravagance of plumage, and where insects are virtually indistinguishable from the leaves, flowers and stems on which they live, every conceivable landscape and environment is explored. No where on earth, it seems, is life absent, and each of the great many different environments create their own unique stresses upon the populations that inhabit them, calling for ever new and strikingly original solutions thrown up by nature in the constant struggle for survival.
Written and narrated by David Attenborough with the same faithful adherence to clarity, entertainment and education that we have come to expect from him, ‘The Trials of Life’ bears witness once again to his determination, dedication and professionalism. In one episode we are taken beneath the ground, into the cellar of a west African termite mound where a cramped Attenborough, rapidly becoming covered in affronted termites, lovingly explains how the intricate system of vanes beneath the mound act as an air conditioning system, keeping the mound cool beneath the burning African sun. One is not sure which deserves greater admiration, the minuscule insects who, in spite of their small brain size, are able to build such complex cathedral like structures, or David Attenborough himself as he struggles to overcome his claustrophobia in ORDER to present this alien world to us in the comfort of our loungerooms.
And it is, indeed, his love of nature that makes Mr. Attenborough such a compelling presenter. One feels that there is nothing in the world that he would rather be doing than climbing or crawling into the most unlikely and unwelcoming places, in the hopes of finding animals or plants in their own environments.
The real stars of this series are however, as they should be, the animals themselves. Arctic tern, who each year heroically traverse the immense distance between the Arctic and the Antarctic, army ants which form a living portable bivouac and attack and eat just about everything that is unfortunate enough to lie in their path, chimpanzees who not only eat meat, but actually go out on regular hunting expeditions to catch and eat colobus monkeys, planning their offensive with a remarkably familiar level of intelligence. Vervet monkeys who have a vocabulary of over sixty words.
Special Features
As well as the original twelve episodes of ‘The Trials of Life’, this DVD package comes with a disc containing a fifty minute documentary ‘The Making of The Trials of Life’ .At least as fascinating as the series itself, this documentary reveals the total dedication of both scientists who devote their entire lives to observing individual species in the field (and without whom, of course, a series such as this would not be possible), and the film makers themselves who repeatedly go to extraordinary, often life threatening lengths to capture on film that rare, perhaps previously unseen behavior. To these men and women, we owe a great debt for enriching our understanding and enjoyment of the natural world.
Menus are user friendly and subtitles are available in English and Greek.
Overall:
An exquisitely produced and presented series that will appeal to anyone who enjoys nature documentaries - and after all, who doesn’t?