Standing with Stones (DVD)

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"Standing with Stones: A Journey Through Megalithic Britain" is an enjoyable trip, even though by its own admission it's a limited one. In a way, it's like climbing aboard Disney's Soarin' ride, in which you "glide" over a giant screen that regales you with images of the Earth and the natural world. In this case, the terrain is England, Wales, Ireland, the Isle of Man, and Scotland, and the natural wonders are manmade ones from the Iron Age.

Michael Bott's photography is astounding, and Rupert Soskin, who's our on-camera tour guide, is a genial fellow who reminds me of several gents who led me through such sites when I visited western Ireland with a group of students. As Soskin rests on a stone wall that's at least 500 years old he admits he's not an academic, but that he's visited many of the thousands of megalithic sites in Great Britain as a layperson who's fascinated by the stone rows, stone circles, barrows, henges, cairns, cists, standing stones, and burial sites that dot the landscape. To visit all of them would take more time than any DVD could hold, and he admits that there isn't much to say about many of the sites because even scholars aren't sure of the original uses for some of these ancient structures. And being a non-scholar gives him license to speculate more without fear of collegial censure--which means, he says with obvious relish, he can talk "rubbish" if he wants.

Well, there's not much rubbish spoken here. He may go off on a fanatic's tangent every now and then, belaboring a point, but Soskin's speculation seems solid--especially when assisted by CGI artwork that "reconstructs" what he thinks an original structure may have looked like. It's all as fluid-looking and persuasive as an FBI facial reconstruction.. Along with the cinematography itself, which employs as many artsy angles as it does panoramic shots, that's one of the chief pleasures of this DVD. When Soskin speculates that a multi-circled tree-trunk circle may have been used for blood sport and advances his argument, it makes as much sense as any theory I've heard.

Curiously, though, for all the talking, there are times when this little tour moves along too quickly-just like a real tour, in which I often find myself lagging behind to capture a photo or consider something else about the site while the tour group has already moved on without me. I wish that were possible here, because, as you can see from the chapters below, some sites are glimpsed so quickly that if we were on a group tour we'd barely have had time to get off the bus.

The West Country & Dartmoor
1. Introduction & Titles [1:51]
2. Ballowall Barrow [5:15]
3. West Cornwall [:44]
4. Men-an-Tol [1:25]
5. East Cornwall [3:51]
6. Dartmoor I [1:37]
7. Dartmoor 2 [2:32]

Southern England
1. Driving East [1:24]
2. 9 Stones [:43]
3. Knowlton Henge [1:15]
4. The Chestnuts [1:16]
5. London Stone [1:42]
6. Wiltshire [2:58]
7. Stanton Drew [4:11]
8. Barrows [2:14]
9. Rollright Stones [5:26]

Wales
1. Into Wales [2:53]
2. Gors Fawr [:54]
3. Cromlechs [:52]
4. Ysbyty Cynfyn [1:15]
5. The Druids [2:57]
6. A Witch's Brew [1:59]
7. Bryn Celli Ddu [1:14]
8. A Discovery [4:04]
4. Ireland [4:14]

Ireland
1. Welcome To Ireland [1:16]
2. Castleruddery [2:29]
3. Irish Potpourri [1:27]
4. How Many? [3:10]
5. Carrowmore [1:15]
6. Maeve's Cairn [3:57]
7. Beaghmore [1:41]
8. Brú na Bóinne [3:17]

Isle Of Man & Northern England
1. The Isle Of Man [1:51]
2. Footprints in the Sand [5:15]
3. Arbor Low/Nine Ladies [:44]
4. Bleasdale Circle [1:25]
5. Rudston Monolith [3:51]
6. Axe Factories [1:37]
7. Cumbrian Circles [2:32]

Scotland
1. SW Scotland [:53]
2. Rock Art [1:55]
3. Interpreting the Past I [2:12]
4. Interpreting the Past 2 - Kilmartin Glen [4:14]
5. The Recumbents [3:36]
6. Clava Cairns [2:47]

The Scottish Isles: Highlands & Islands
1. Journey to Western Isles [1:51]
2. Callanish [5:15]
3. Final Journey [:44]
4. Maes Howe, Brodgar & Stenness [1:25]
5. Skara Brae [3:51]
6. The Tomb of the Eagles [1:37]
7. Epilogue [2:32]

While I got the sense that much of the information was becoming repetitive over the course of this 136-minute journey, I couldn't help but think that it might have felt more substantial if more time were spent on the first architectural feature of its kind. When we see the first "henge," for example, let's really have a go at it and find out who gave it this name, what we know for sure, what scientists are in disagreement about, and what Soskin's take is. And while the term "Iron Age" is used often, how about a working definition with some characteristics thrown in? Sometimes it's not clear just where everything sits, and it feels like a tour that's more scenic than educational. Then again, scholars can't even agree on how old Stonehenge is, with guesses ranging from 2500 to 3100 BC.