The Life of Mammals

Good series. I'm loving this series which will teach you something new. Especially this nice way with close shots and many details.

The Life of Mammals look for me little older, than filmed in 2002, it look as something +- 1990 or similar quality. Because it, my vote for this beauty series isn't higher. The quality isn't so high, how it may be...

In summary this is good education film about mammals, each its part is well separated.

Comments are well and not too scientific, so this film may be good for all age groups especially the youngest ones.

For me personally may be the film little more scientific. I'm see his main purpose to teach kids in elementary school. But its good for older too...

As with all BBC "Life" series of documentaries the life of mammals contains, and in spades, amazing never seen before footage, an appropriately matching musical score, high production values and the calming, fascinating narrative,and infectious enthusiasm of sir David Attenborough .

All these elements mean some of the best TV has to offer and a benchmark for documentary. Some of the highlights of the series are the never seen before footage of the platypus nest. The Kangaroos giving birth and the elephants salt mining. Yet life of mammals scores, in my book, less than all other Life series.

so what went wrong here? i am afraid old Davy dropped the ball with this one; he has remained respectably fairly neutral on the subject of evolution in his past series, he mentions the facts, why and how animals, plants..etc are behaving, and leaves it up to the audience ,to conclude for themselves ,if its all the result of evolution or intelligent design .

This time around ,he threw the rules and long standing tradition of BBC aside and instead decided to keep regurgitating the still much debated theory of evolution through out each and every single episode in this 10 parts series as if it is a universally agreed upon fact ! And then ends the series with an hour long episode citing the similarities between apes and humans and regurgitates that human's were apes again and again as if it's a universally agreed upon fact . So much, that my uncle, a long time fan of David's work, was rolling his eyes many times during the last 2 episodes.much of the footage in last two episodes highlighting monkeys social nature and behavior is interesting,but clearly the narration was not objective.Rather than wasting time trying to shove evolution down peoples throats, precious time could've been spent showing more rare species and fascinating FACTs about mammals.

This review is not intended to spark a never ending evolution / creation debate, but with all due respect to the BBC and sir David, if you want to make the case of evolution, then make another dedicated show to debate the theory and represent other points of view in a neutral and objective way, the BBC way, or at least the way it used to be. That being said I still feel this series is worth watching, but ,for many may not hold the same replay value as other "Life" series .

I remember when I was a child seeing David Attenborugh BBc documentaries , fascinated sitting in my sofa.

This is another excellent new Attenborough documentary, I am surprised not to find more comments about Attenborough BBC films. It's a different style, it's other kind of TV, it's closer to art, or novels. It's simple. artistic and deep It's artistic and abstract, changes themes and the plot of the screenplay looking for a different wildlife overviews.

It is a musical and complex docu film and very simple too, uses the scientist concepts and artistic wonderful language which every can understand and gets quickly people attention. I am worried about not to find 10000 votes, I expected to find perhaps not less than 1000 IMDb votes. On other hand I have a question for anybody who read this comment ¿ are Yang Tse dolphins who appear in one of this episodes? I am very sad to listen that could be almost extinct.

This giant documentary series is quite simply astounding. The 10 part series should stand as one of the most exhaustive filmed studies of mammals ever made. And, yes, the film covers the most wide spread mammal of all -- humans.

What sets this film apart from all others are the messages the film is trying to convey. It is not content with simply showing us animals in action, but at every turn tries to make us realize the place the animals shown play in relation to our own mammal species -- homo sapiens.

In the first few episodes, this message is not so clear, because the focus is on small mammals like anteaters and beavers. Gradually, though, the film focuses on primates and ends with two hour long episodes about monkeys and apes that are at the same time moving and deeply disturbing.

Some of the footage of chimpanzees is so violent and disturbing it makes you look at humans in a whole new light.

Throughout is footage that is completely unique. Some of the footage captures images never seen before by anybody. Some of it shows us things not normally shown before. Every show was filled with facts and information that I had never heard before and by the end I felt enriched beyond belief.

Finally, I would like to point out that this film stands as one of the greatest proofs of evolution I have ever seen. Although the film never comes right out and specifically talks about evolution, it is a subtext throughout the 10 part series. Not that I didn't believe in evolution before I watched this, but after watching this the mechanics of evolution are so clear that I would be amazed anybody watches this series and is still skeptical enough to consider evolution a 'theory.'

It is a great piece of documentary film-making. I hope that all homo sapiens get a chance to see this film.

David Attenborough is nothing short of a national treasure. He may apparently dislike the term, but it is hard to not say that about such a great presenter who has contributed significantly to some of the best programmes (of the documentary genre and overall) the BBC has ever aired/produced.

It is really hard picking favourites, let alone a definite favourite, among what Attenborough has done because he has done so many gems, it is the equivalent of trying to choose your favourite ice cream flavour or your favourite operatic role (for examples) and finding you can't pick. To me though, 'The Life of Mammals' is up there with his crowning achievements and one of the best documentaries ever viewed, and as has been said already there are a lot of great ones. It has everything that makes so much of his work so wonderful, hence some of the reiteration of my recent reviews for some of his work (being on a nature documentary binge in my spare time), and deserves everything great that has been said about it.

First and foremost, 'The Life of Mammals' looks amazing. It is gorgeously filmed, done in a completely fluid and natural, sometimes intimate (a great way of connecting even more with the animals), way and never looking static. In fact much of it is remarkably cinematic with some of the shots being unique for a documentary series, making one forget that it is a series. The editing is always succinct and smooth and the scenery is pure magic, similarly really admired the wide-ranging diversity of the different landscapes rather than restricting it to just one habitat. The music score fits very well, never overly grandiose while never being inappropriate.

Again, like so many Attenborough nature/wildlife documentaries, 'The Life of Mammals' fascinates, teaches, moves, entertains and transfixes. In terms of the facts there was a very good mix of the known ones and the unknown, some facts being familiar to us while going into detail about the different animals, how they evolved, their behaviours and how they adapt.

Narration by Attenborough helps significantly. He clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them riveted and wanting to know more. The "behind the scenes/making of" scenes too gave some humanity to the series and allowed us to get to know those behind the camera as well as in front.

The animals are big in personality and very diverse. The conflict has genuine tension and suspense, there is some fun and a lot of emotionally powerful moments done with a lot of tear-jerking pathos. Found myself really caring for what we're told. Like much of Attenborough/BBC's other work, each episode doesn't feel like an episodic stringing of scenes, but instead like the best nature documentaries each feels like their own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters developed in a way a human character would in a film but does it better than several.

In conclusion, truly wonderful and a crowning achievement. 10/10 Bethany Cox