‘Landmarks’ has yet to make its mark

Press, 25 August 1981, Page 15

‘Landmarks’ has yet to make its mark

[Review!

Douglas McKenzie

\ The long-prepared New Zealand documentary series, "Landmarks” (One), led by Kenneth Cumberland, opened on Sunday night. It is undoubtedly a landmark in New Zealand TV; and. judging from the first offering inthe series, the mark is likely to be more educational than crudely entertaining. It is’ not much good being speechless with admiration if one is trying to make some admiring remarks. However, the constraint, did not ajaply in this case: it was a matter rather of ending up articulate with admiration.. The amount of effort and time that has gone into this production — not to mention the erudition and skill — is awe-inspiring. What exists here is clearly a set of video tapes which will be around for a very long time. A comparable’ work can be fairly expected only once in a generation.

Has every country now got one of these sets of its own? Or. to put it another way, if Kenneth Clark had not produced "Civilisation” and Alistair Cooke “America,” would Kenneth Cumberland have thought of “Landmarks"?

From the first episode alone the scope of Professor Cumberland’s production can hardly be more than glimpsed, but it already

seems certain that he is not going to leave anything out. To illustrate the opening theme of man’s influence on 'the land, the view.was taken, sometimes bewilderingly, from jet boats,, to Maori mythology,, to ski planes, to Auckland’s dormant- .volcanoes, ;to kauri forests,' to beach swimming, to .the theory of continental plates . — not. ; necessarily in’that order, not that it would necessarily have made much ■difference.

In discussing the country’s climate and physical diversity Professor Cumberland has instilled, from his first hour, a dominant impression of indigestion. Perhaps he has in mind for next Sunday — settling to a more coherent theme — a good burp.

For Canterbury people there were some’ ■ subjects touched on in the first episode which were unfortunate in terms of familiarity: some Canterbury people say that if they have just one more jet boat or ski plane thrust at them on the screen they will walk out the front door, go down to the gate, stand in the middle of the road, and scream.

Add to such well-known topics a fairly long sequence of rescue in the Ureweras, all seen on the news bulletins only some months ago, and

the viewer would begin to get the feeling that if he stayed with Kenneth Cumberland he might spend the late winter and early spring seeing nothing new at all.

New and exciting film in this series is obviously just around the comer — or will need to be if Sykes,, on Two, is not going to be startled with unexpected attention.

At the present time, therefore, while wishing “Landmarks" every success that its great industry in production deserves and, moreover, believing that this success is imminent, the viewer must, thus far. conclude that the series has positively been made as source material for secondary and tertiary education in the geography discipline, and also for use in New Zealand embassies around the world, and that his own interest in the matter has already been long enough delayed.