Talk:Pompeii: The Last Day

Event itself should not be focus of article

I've done some cautious cleanup of the style and grammar, eliminating sentence fragments and a few rhetorical excesses. But the main problem of this article is that it reads like an essay on the events, though the stated subject of the article is a documentary, not the events themselves. If the article is intended as a summary of the documentary, this needs to be made clearer, and there should be some discussion of the documentary itself. If it's intended as a history of the Pompeii eruption, it's in the wrong place. GMcGath 14:38, 26 March 2006 (UTC)

• I have added details of the production itself, however the section "The unexpected catastrophe" is a straight copy of the text from the BBC history site here [[1]], and is thus a copyvio. I have tagged the section accordingly.

dawkeye 11:52, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

Not Lava

Dude, no lava covered Pompeii or Herculaneum. There was ash and pumice, plus the pyroclastic flow (superheated dust and gas) in Herculaneum, but no lava reached either city. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.18.180.84 (talk) 05:27, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

Long and short versions

There are definitely long (about 2 hrs) and short (about 1 hr) versions. The original 2003 UK BBC version was about 100-120 min. The same or similar was shown in 2005 on Discovery Channel in US. But the US DVD seems to only be about 50 min (combo with "Colosseum: A Gladiator's Story") which may be the same short version shown on WGBH in 2011. Is there really a version with British narration and a version with American narration? Can you reconcile all these factoids for the article? Can you find any authoritative source for the WP article claim of 90 min runtime? The infobox says Narrated by Alisdair Simpson UK, (F. Murray Abraham US); are there any sources for this?

Factoids:

The original UK BBC version ran 2 hours (IMDb 120 min) and was narrated in British.

• Release dates for

Pompeii: The Last Day (2003) (TV)

UK 20 October 2003

• Exceptional--and quite moving, 21 October 2008

Author: planktonrules from Bradenton, Florida

By the way, this BBC production was shown on US television and was highly edited and material was added. I have seen both and prefer the original British version--though both are worth while.

'POMPEII: THE LAST DAY' Looks at Final, Horrific Hours Before Worst Natural Disaster of Ancient Times in New Discovery Channel Special Sunday, January 30, 2005, at 9:00 PM Eastern Standard Time ----- A Discovery Channel/BBC co-production that ranked as the highest rated history program ever shown by the BBC when it aired October 23, 2003, POMPEII: THE LAST DAY was hailed by critics as "an involving and evocative account" (The Guardian), "a triumph ... gripping" (Sunday Express), and "documentary making of the highest order" (Daily Mirror). More than ten million viewers watched the program.[2]

US DVD according to Blockbuster[3]:

Release Date: 02/01/2005

Running Time: 50 min

US Amazon has the same info.

Excellent DVD combo..., February 18, 2005
By A. Verlay "A. Verlay" (Montréal, Canada)
This review is from: Pompeii - The Last Day/Colosseum - A Gladiator's Story (DVD)
...but not the one shown on the Discovery Channel though. 

"All the reviews you are going to read below are excellent, this DVD is a very good combo (the gladiator documentary is also of very good quality) extras are numerous and interesting.

HOWEVER the version played on TV was 1 hour 40 minutes long instead of the English version of 50 minutes we have on this DVD. The editing is different, the music is different, the narrator is different (american accent). There is a 50 minutes additional part with all the actual site of Pompeii and it's dangers to the new cities that were built since the eruption which is also very informative.

Both versions, English and American are very good, I guess you just have to make your own opinion when you'll see a reprise of the show on TV (or you can still go on the discovery web site to find the American version DVD which does not include the Gladiator combo...)"

http://www.mycinema.com.cy/site/movie_details/787

Director: Peter Nicholson

Run Time: 100 mins

Released: 20-10-2003

AMG AllMovie Guide:
Pompeii: The Last Day
Release Year: 2003
Country: UK/US
Run Time: 120 minutes

-96.233.21.76 (talk) 14:26, 5 February 2011 (UTC)

Science

The name of the volcano is 209.35.172.126 (talk) 02:42, 12 February 2023 (UTC)