"The Great Inca Rebellion" : A Critical Stream of Consciousness

The Great Inc Rebellion

Watch "The Great Inca Rebellion" on PBS

• Nova and NatGeo
• Opens up with archaeologists and Peru natives digging, recreations of the Inca and the Spanish, and beautiful nature backgrounds
• "The first gunshot wound of the New World" --> you've got me hooked
• Recreations, maps, modern city --> flashback to the formula of "Pyramids of Death"
• VIOLENCE
• Archaeological digging is more prominent than I have seen in other documentaries
• Cemetary: bodies buried in a crouched sitting position facing east, but burials are not traditional on the top layer of the graveyard --> WHY
• Guillermo Cock is an unfortunate name
• Bioarchaegologist sounds credible because she's using biological terms, but I'm not entirely sure what she's taking about, except for her conclusions of violent death (which I already knew)
• My brain is working too fast for this documentary in places --> I want the answer before they even formally ask the question (I guess I'm above the lowest common denominator)
• Portraying the Spanish as bad guys --> not typical Western supremacy view
• Portraying the Inca as victims --> typical Western supremacy view
• Bioarchaeologist is prominent (and female)
• This is like Incan CSI
• "Could this be a gunshot?" "It could be" followed by technical terms --> contrast between the smart and the not-so-smart
• Documentaries seem to like the theme of violence in the ancient world
• The written historical record of the Spanish was exaggerated and altered --> how much of any written history is true without bias?
• Comparing European documents with Inca physical evidence --> forensics in archaeology
• Technical forensic and biological explanations are hard to follow until their very predictable conclusions of violent deaths
• Evidence that women fought in battle? Fleeting question that is not answered
• Collaboration of the disciplines --> already brought in the forensic scientists, now let's call on the historians
• Voiceover translation for a 91 year old female Peruvian historian is an elderly sounding British-ish woman ... what is the point of that?
• Pizarro's concubine's mother sends an army --> role of women in a significant historical event is very strong
• Personalizing the man that the remains once were, but it's all conjecture
• Combination of story (recreation and history) and evidence (archaeology and science), where one does not severely overpower the other
• Focal question of why burials were different was finally explained and answered
• Concluded with answering questions, rather than strictly dramatics

What's Right?
Poses and answers questions, use of experts.
What's Wrong?
Conjecture, strange cinematographic effects to grab attention.
Grade: B-