List Price: $39.95You Pay Only: $23.99 You Save: $15.96 (40%)Prices subject to change.
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: DVD
Brand: A&E
EAN: 9780767027717
Format: Box set, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
ISBN: 076702771X
Label: A&E Home Video
Manufacturer: A&E Home Video
Number Of Items: 2
Picture Format: Pan & Scan
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Region Code: 1
Release Date: August 29, 2000
Running Time: 200 minutes
Sales Rank: 8723
Studio: A&E Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2000
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Editorial Review:
Description:
Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons stars in this sweeping adaption of Dava Sobel's best-selling book of high seas adventure and political intrigue. Determined to stop shipping losses on the oceans of the 18th century, Britain's Parliament offers a fabulous cash award to anyone who can devise a way to determine longitute at sea. Convinced he can solve the problem that has defeated England's best minds, rural clock maker John Harrison (Michael Gambon) begins an obsessive, 40-year struggle to claim the Longitude prize with his ingenious marine clock. 200 years later, naval officer Rupert Gould (Jeremy Irons) stumbles across Harrison's forgotten chronometers and devotes himself to restoring these long-neglected mechanical masterpieces.
Amazon.com essential video:
Gracefully adapted from Dava Sobel's extraordinary bestseller, the four-part TV production of Longitude combines drama, history, and science into a stimulating, painstakingly authentic account of personal triumph and joyous discovery. Equally impressive is the way writer-director Charles Sturridge has crafted parallel stories that complement each other with enriching perspective. The first story involves the successful 40-year effort of 18th-century clockmaker John Harrison (Michael Gambon) to solve the elusive problem of measuring longitude at sea. In 1714 the British Parliament had offered a generous reward to anyone who solved the problem, and Harrison devoted his life to that solution. The second story, some 200 years later, involves the effort of shell-shocked British Navy veteran Rupert Gould (Jeremy Irons) to restore the glorious clocks that Harrison had built. Like Harrison, Gould is the most admirable type of obsessive, but, also like Harrison, he risks his marriage to accomplish his difficult task.
Thousands of sailors perished at sea before Harrison's triumph changed history, but Longitude demonstrates that Harrison's glory was slow to arrive--and his prize money even slower. A fascinating study of 18th-century British politics and clashing egos in the arena of science, the film is both epic and intimate in consequence, and Sturridge's magnificent script inspires Gambon and Irons to do some of the best work of their outstanding careers. The ever-reliable Ian Hart appears in Part 3 as Harrison's now-adult son and apprentice, and Longitude approaches its dramatic climax with the exhilarating tension of a first-rate thriller. Rallying after sickness to prove the integrity of their marvelous seafaring chronometers, the Harrisons still had to fight for official recognition, and Gould's restoration of the Harrison clockworks provides a fitting coda to this exceptional story about the thrill of discovery and the tenacity of remarkable men. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Must See for all
Absolutely wonderful - first class acting and incredibly informative. My teen daughters, were as engrossed as their father and me. Top notch and recommend to all high school and up who have an interest in science, geography, history or any number of other subjects that this movie based on a book covers. Having seen the actual clock in Greenwich many times, it made the viewing even more delicious and interesting. I certainly would not rate it R, there was nothing remotely distasteful in this movie. Buy it, rent it, but don't miss it!
Rating:  - Well Worth Your Time
This is a visually stunning 2-disc dramatization of Dava Sobel's book about 18th century struggles to produce an accurate, seaworthy clock that would enable sailors to know their location by knowing precisely what time it was.
The acting is superb; the settings and production values are magnificent. This film does a worthy job of telling the story of John Harrison's 50-year battle to be granted the prize promised by the English Crown to the man who could produce a reliable timepiece.
However this film attempts an expansion of Sobel's book that I'm not sure was quite warranted or that works. There is no full-length Director's Commentary on these DVD's. There is only a relatively short "Making Of" bonus feature. In that extra, it's revealed that the producers/director thought that they would bore modern audiences if they stuck to Sobel's almost exclusively 18th century narrative. They thought they had to introduce a more contemporary dramatic line that modern audiences could identify with better. So they layered Harrison's story with the story of Rupert Gould, the Englishman who in the 1930's undertook the task of restoring Harrison's clocks.
The two men's stories are closely interwoven and indeed do have a lot in common. Both men became fixated on the minute workings of clocks - to the exclusion of most human relations. Both let their projects grow to engulf their whole lives. Both were continuously balked by the English Maritime bureaucracy.
The ... Read More
Rating: - Excellent,but "R" rated
This movie is excellently cast, directed and filmed. However, it went from a film that could have been used for educational purposes to one you hide from your young children by the insertion of two scenes of women's bare breasts that were totally unnecessary! That was my only disappointment. As a teacher, you always look for excellent resources that can be used in the classroom. If those two totally unnecessary scenes had been done differently (which they easily could), this film could have been used all over the U.S. in classrooms. I suspect that it's use will be much more limited now. How sad for this excellent film!
Rating: - Human nature against New inventions.
As a veteran Airman ( I used to be a Combat Pilot for over 40 years ) and today the President of an Avionics Development and Production Company, I was exposed time and again to bureaucratic friction which works against any new invention. During my life time ( I am now 65 years old ) I have learnt that this phenomenom repeats itself through mankind history. It seams that the only thing that has changed is technology, while human nature remained the same.
The film "Longitude" and book are both a good example to emphasize this problem. I use them when lecturing about this subject.
Rating: - Longitude
I had seen this video before purchasing my copy. I must admit that I have a vested interest in this movie because the main character John Harrison, rural clockmaker and maker of the chronometer which was used by the British Navy to plot Longitude is my 6th Grandfather!!!! My sister, a geneologist had only recently come to research this fact and told us about it.
It is a classic tale of how a person's perseverance can affect the lives of many. The fact that he had to spend 40 years of his life fighting the unfair bureaucratic system of the times was sad and yet his determination paid off for the benefit of others.He was certain that despite the many failures he had, that he was right and his chronometer which is now on display at Greenwich in London saved the lives of many shipmen and prevented ships from being lost at sea or running aground. I have tried to teach my sons that any job worth doing is worth doing well and that perseverance in any job which is worthwhile will pay off. I am proud John Harrison was my relative. Janet Watson
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