Land of Dragons

Land of Dragons

2000, Nature  -   40 Comments
8.40
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Ratings: 8.40/10 from 94 users.

An island enveloped in mist receives the new day... south of the continent of Asia. This is just one of the over 20,000 islands stretching from Asia to Australia but its interior holds mysteries which have astonished scientists for generations.

When the first European explorers came to the Indonesian archipelago, at the start of the 16th century, they could hardly believe their eyes. There before them lay new world of impenetrable jungles and erupting volcanoes - a world of darkness and mystery. Nature seemed to have lost her senses in this distant land. There they've found plants that fed on animals and fish able to remain out of water without perishing.

Each fresh discovery brought a new mystery. Three hundred years later, at the start of the 20th century, a pilot whose plane had crashed into the sea managed to swim ashore on one of these islands. When the rescue team managed to find him the man appeared to have lost his senses. Delirious, he claimed that the island was inhabited by gigantic lizards which devour the natives. Without realizing it those men had ventured into the "land of dragons."

During the glaciation of the Pleistocene era the polar ice caps increased in size and the level of the sea fell. Some islands remained isolated while others became joined to the continent. Java was one of these. Once the glaciation was over, the sea returned to its original level and Java once more became an island cut off from mainland Asia.

From that time on its fauna and flora took different evolutionary roads from those of the continent. Roads which would lead to the creation of legendary creatures. Its isolation and inaccessibility of its jungles shrouded the island in mystery. The rare visitors from the continent returned with strange stories telling of unfamiliar animals. The tales spread, were modified and exaggerated and by the time they reached distant Europe they had became fabulous legends of mythological creatures.

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Dattatreya
Dattatreya
6 years ago

Hey gorgeous !!!

happyMephisto
happyMephisto
10 years ago

The most tyrannical animal that has ever lived is the one that should know the difference between right and wrong,and the ability to choose its course of action.

Rodney Bresch
Rodney Bresch
10 years ago

Very interesting about leaving the remains as sacrifices in a sense. The theory that one of the main reasons we began to sacrifice people to the gods, was due to the recognition that when a person falls while being hunted...everyone else generally gets away. So, we began to feed the "beast" regularly. I think they were alluding at if not directly saying the larger komodos might have been fed virgins for this very reason.

Rodney Bresch
Rodney Bresch
10 years ago

I enjoyed the narration and music. But for all i care, they could cut any additional audio tracks all together and show me the rest of the raw footage that went to "waste", and that would be just fine by me. I def loved this doc.

junior347
junior347
10 years ago

Nice doc but I don't find these monsters "beautiful" like everyone else seems to. What a horrendous way to die - having a deadly bacteria invade every cell of your body as you writhe in horrible pain for several days until finally being devoured alive by these devils. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing when some animals go extinct. They are not all sacrosanct by their very existence. Most people would probably say it's a good thing that we don't have to worry about being snatched out of our beds by a hungry Tyrannosaurus Rex, for instance.

terencegalland
terencegalland
10 years ago

not a place for adventurous curious kids to live, imagine stumbling into one of those dragons awful!

Jack1952
Jack1952
10 years ago

Beautiful doc. Love this kind of stuff. Those Komodo dragons sure are nightmarish creatures. I love the underwater scenes, especially.

jackmax
jackmax
10 years ago

I could watch documentaries like this all day. This film shows us how beautiful our planet is and why we should do everything in our power to ensure our future generation can enjoy the beauty we are so lucky to be a part off.

dewflirt
dewflirt
10 years ago

Is it wrong that while watching this beautiful film on the glories of nature, my mind was pretty much filled with images of James Mason? I blame the narrator. I then found myself wondering how awkward it would be if men were to follow in the footsteps of the fiddler crabs, if they grew ridiculously large appendages and waved them hopefully at passing women . Maybe someone ought to tell those poor crabs about sports cars... ;)

bringmeredwine
bringmeredwine
10 years ago

What a beautiful doc. (I still want to call videos "films").
I really enjoyed just sitting back and watching the sea life and the other creatures do their thing.