Earthquakes! Volcanoes! Tidal waves! Who doesn’t love a good natural disaster? (You know, aside from the victims.)  Few things are more awesome and awe-inspiring and just plain cool than seeing smoke and fire belch from the Earth, the ground shaking, buildings toppling, and the waters of the ocean rising up and washing away all in their path. I love that stuff.

Yes, yes, people die in such disasters. They can be horrific. On the sleeve for Savage Earth, a four-disc set exploring the fire and death beneath our feet, we’re reminded that “in the last 500 years, nearly 300 million people have perished in Earthquakes.”

That’s pretty bad, I guess. Being dead and all. No one likes to get killed. And hey, I’m not cheerleading the idea of people being sent to the great beyond. But look, let’s be honest with ourselves for a moment: You put a spouting volcano on the television and we’re all going to watch. Who wouldn’t? They make movies about volcanoes under Los Angeles for a reason. Because seeing the Earth bust shit up is great. And that’s why I was eager to watch this.

Over the course of four hours, Savage Earth shows us plenty of tumultuous destruction. Sure, it tries to educate us – when you hear the ominous tones of narrator Stacy Keach you know class is in session – but I’ll be honest, I was here for the natural disaster footage. And thank the God of Fire and Brimstone, there was plenty of it. Stuff done goes and gets blown up real good, y’all!

On disc one, Hell’s Crust, we get plenty of lava and mudslides and volcanic dust and other means of utter destruction. We start off with some tasty Mt. St. Helens footage and listen as people tell their story of being caught in the chaos. The mudslides triggered by the eruption were amazing to behold, sweeping away entire forests and creating rivers of logs. Great stuff. Lots of other good stories are told as we hop around the world visiting other sites of modern volcano eruptions. The Restless Planet, the second in the set, deals largely in earthquakes. The copious footage of the 1989 San Francisco earthquake will be familiar to all over the age of 30, as will most of the stories told. Reams and reams of news footage and later interviews go over that famous disaster (arguably best known for interrupting a World Series). Oh yeah, and we learn about how and why earthquakes do what they do, and how to help minimize the risk in quake-prone areas. You know, if you’re into that learnin’ thing.

The third disc has a nice title – Out of the Inferno – and even nicer footage. A village being destroyed! Yay! Well, no … I’m sorry. Not yay. See, the eruption of Nevada del Ruiz, which anchors this disc, killed some 25,000 people. For all the amazing footage on display here, it’s hard to ignore the tragic tales of lives shattered by the hundreds of active volcanoes in the world.

Still – volcanoes! Cool!

Waves of Destruction rounds out the set. I bet you can guess what it’s about. It’s about big freakin’ waves crashing into the coastline and totally screwing some shit up. Oh yeah. Daddy likes. Yeah, yeah, there is more death and more education here (including some very informative and surprising stuff about the Hawaiian coastline), but if I haven’t been clear, let me be now: I’m in it for the destruction! And this disc delivered, with some jaw-dropping footage of water making things go bye bye.

Savage Earth comes at the viewer with lots of file footage, follow-up interviews, and plenty of gravitas. The informational punch each disc packs is quite strong, mixing spectacular video with enlightening insights to an admirable degree. If you’re a frequent watcher of the Discovery Channel, some of this won’t be new to you (I had seen a lot of this footage before, though I might be remembering the 1998 broadcast of this miniseries), but there are enough unique interviews and nifty footage here to make most natural disaster aficionados happy.

And isn’t that why we watch this stuff? Stuff goes boom. Eric smile.

Disc Presentation
Luscious hi-definition footage courtesy of the BBC this is not. This was originally broadcast on TV, and it shows. What also shows is that even during its 1998 broadcast, much of the material here was older television footage taken from news broadcasts and the like. There is even home video shown here (and plenty of it). So no, Savage Earth does not look amazing. In fact, outside of the incredible displays of Mother Nature at work we see, it looks rather dull. The footage is impressive because of what it depicts, not because of how it looks.

Same goes for the audio. The 2.0 stereo mix is fine, the narration is clear (and excellent; Keach was a fantastic choice), and all is easy to hear. It’s just … well, ordinary. That’s no great flaw and certainly not a knock, but when you pop the disc in, you won’t know the difference between DVD and broadcast TV.

Disc Extras
Nada. Nothing. Zilch. This four-disc set is entirely bare bones. We don’t even get numbered discs or a printed table of contents on the sleeves.

The Bottom Line
I am an unabashed fan of having my jaw dropped by Mother Nature. Despite the death and carnage natural disasters cause, I can’t help but feel compelled to watch earthquake, volcano, hurricane and tsunami footage whenever it’s on. It’s amazing. Savage Earth delivers in that respect, while also offering a robust four hours of education that will help you understand the Earth just a little better. And hey, isn’t that what it’s all about?