5/5 A Must!
  by D. DEGEORGE (Ellicott City, MD USA)
First, make no mistake, this is a must-buy for anyone with a large-screen HDTV and Blu-ray player; it contains the most stunning cinematography and sharpest HD available for home use. Secondly, it carries a message that should make it required viewing in any format, on any screen.

That this is a film with a point of view is an understatement. The unrelenting gloom of the narrative during the first 90 minutes or so, playing behind some of the most stunningly beautiful views of earth ever committed to film, has led some to label it a propaganda film for environmentalists; and the film unfortunately encourages that charge by an unnecessarily preachy tone. The use of the second person, "You are changing the planet" versus "We are changing the planet" makes one wonder if the producers and narrator consider themselves not to be a part of the same human race whom they are addressing. Furthermore, although I am moderately environmentalist, I take issue with the assumption that nature is beneficent and that humans are the only thing standing in the way of nature. There are two things wrong with this view: (1) nature is often cruel and destructive, whether one looks at the evil inflicted by microscopic viruses or monstrous storms--man may in some cases make these phenomena worse, but man did not create them; and (2) humans are a major part of nature itself, not just some alien attacker.

The producers of the film do attempt to strike a balance during the last 20 minutes of the film by pointing out what some countries are doing to slow, halt, or reverse the damage to our planet; but for both sides of the environmental debate, these 20 minutes come as too little, too late. The narrator states that it is "too late for pessimism" after a film that predominantly leaves the impression that it is too late for optimism, that it is too late for hope of reversing the overwhelming momentum built up by overpopulation in developing countries and overconsumption in the richest countries. One can only hope that the movie overstates the catastrophe that is already well under way on our planet; but even if the film's emphasis is skewed (I don't think it is), even if statistics are used selectively to drive its point home (probably true to some extent), and even if it got a few facts wrong, if even half of what it shows is correct, this is one of the scariest films one could possibly see.

A review of this disc in terms of whether or not one should buy it, or at least rent it, could pretty much end here--just get it! If you simply can't abide its message, either for political reasons, or just because you don't want to ruin your day, then watch it with the sound turned off, at least for the first time through. But we ignore its message at our peril. (OK, now I sound preachy; but watch the film; too much of it is simply irrefutable.)

To put on a critical hat, however, there are several things wrong with this film and its packaging. First I have to point out an irony: the Blu-ray version of this film adds its own little bit of environmental damage, and I don't refer to the natural resources required to produce and view it; these are more than justified by the positive impact it could have. Rather, I refer to the completely unnecessary and annoying use of Java to author this disk. This system prevents many or all Blu-ray players from being able to resume a video where the viewer left off; so if you want to watch half the film one day and the other half the next, you have to leave the player on, drawing a small amount of electricity, for as many hours or days over which you wish to spread your viewing. If you so much as press the stop button, you will not only have to wait through all the start-up loading (in several stages) and logos and piracy warnings, but also have to search for your place in the movie because not even a bookmarking function is provided. Many Blu-ray productions use Java to enable all sorts of bells and whistles, including interactivity over the Internet ("BD-Live"); but this disc has no special features; and I could see no benefit at all to the use of this obnoxious technology. To the producers: Use Java (make it do something worthwhile) or lose it!

This leads me to another curious thing about this production: lavish as the photography is, the product is otherwise skimpy, with no program booklet and no special features on the disc. This would not be so bad were it not for the fact that many of the interesting places filmed are not identified in the narrative or by titles, at least not until the very end, where it is done in retrospect. Much of this information is available on the Internet, at [...], an English-language version of the French site; but the "Home" Book itself is only in French. It's impressive that the foundation made this very attractive and informative book available on-line with all its photography and charts intact, and you can begin to get a feel for the magnificence of the pictures right there. In addition, if you want to subject the film's allegations to a fact-check, this book lays out its statistics. Even if you are like me, and know only a little bit of tourist French, I think you can decipher most of the book, which is also available for sale in hardcopy.

To be picky, there are lapses in the editing of the English narrative (faults that may not exist in the original French), with Close stating that there were no towns on Earth until 600 years ago. Huh? And she mispronounces several words, including "indefatigable," "superfluous," and "Qatar," which leads me to hope that the fact checking was more thorough than the final edit of the English soundtrack. But I'm glad they saved money in these aspects rather than in the filming itself, which, I cannot repeat often enough, is spectacular; and even if a few factual errors may have slipped in, the bulk of the information is fascinating, shocking, and vital.


5/5 Absolutely Breathtaking Images
  by Jamie Ratliff
HOME features absolutely breathtaking images of our HOME planet. If you loved Planet Earth, you will enjoy this one as well. Many people have stated that the dire environmental warnings are annoying. However, no matter where you come down on the debate you can still enjoy the breathtaking beauty of this wonderful place we all call home!

Bottom Line: If you enjoy watching video that puts you in awe of this amazing place we live called Earth, then you will love HOME and it's amazing images. Yes, some people may be annoyed by the message conveyed, but don't let that take away from the amazing imagery!

1/5 Beware
  by C. Gonzalez Aviles (La Serena, Chile)
My copy was defective and disc did not play. I requested refund and got it, but was disappointed since I really wanted to watch this documentary. #$%&!"#!!!

1/5 Region problems
  by M. Sarstam
Hi!

Just want to note that if there are no Region information on a title, that is the case of this one it is Region 1. So don't bother if you live in Europe. The Amazon were kindly to refund my money because of this issue.

5/5 Incredible cinematographic detail and style, iffy script!
  by D. E. Hill (Centennial, CO United States)
The aerial cinematography in this film is terrific to watch, and that is why it rates 5 stars. You will definitely want the blu-ray version, because the detail is astonishing. There are some strange things about the American language script however. First, some poor, yet should-have-been-obvious edits for this audience, for example: 1) Grand Canyon of Arizona, or of the Colorado, not in Colorado, 2) Towns started up more than 6,000 years ago, not 600 years ago. Second, the message often had nothing to do with the images. You notice this right away when we are looking at glacial ice-fields in Iceland, and the narrator is talking about rivers. What was that all about? What does a healthy, swimming whale have to do with the plight of ocean fisheries? It appears that there was a collection of TERRIFIC video, and someone needed a "socially relevant" script to accompany its presentation, but the match was not tight. Third, there is an enormous dichotomy between more than an hour spent in hopeless and dreadful pessimism about the planet, followed by a few minutes of optimism that was kind of unsupported. I mean, if Americans are the worst offenders on the Planet, what does more education and aid to third world countries have to do with the impact of overpopulation and technology? Fourth, core issues like population control and political instability were not addressed at all. I am afraid that valid points like the link between meat consumption and high levels of resource utilization get lost in the message of aid to developed countries, or the lack of a real solution here. After all, if we are all vegetarians consuming 1/10 of the agricultural resources per capita, what happens when there are 10 times as many of us in a few years? What about this urban blight? Can we all go rural, not suburban, but really rural? Aren't we better off when people in third world countries don't drive automobiles? So, I think the messages here do raise a lot of thought, but are short on convincing answers, or convincing video evidence. The "feel good" stuff at the end is just that. My well-to-do neighbors have college educations, and they still eat beef and shrimp from shrimp farms that are destroying mangrove forest,fill their refrigerators with bottled water, and they drive SUVs without remorse! Maybe we need more clear thinking about human nature, not just some comforting blurbs about how good we could be if things were just right! But, such a cinematographic journey this is!