Mystery of the Nile (2005) User Reviews

Mystery of the Nile - Giant-screen film

[mailinator711 · 8/10 · 26 March 2005]

Embark on a daring adventure as explorers attempt the world's first full descent of the Nile-a 3,250-mile journey packed with challenges and discoveries.

For centuries, navigating the Nile from beginning to end has remained one of the last great unfinished journeys of exploration. On April 28, 2004, renowned adventurer and geophysicist Pasquale Scaturro, together with filmmaker Gordon Brown, made history when they completed the first full descent of the Nile. In "Mystery of the Nile" showing on the giant screen of the Mugar Omni Theaer, audiences witness the expedition team's journey over 114 days, more than 3,000 miles by kayak and raft, facing nearly every imaginable danger, from deadly rapids and violent bandits to blinding sandstorms and tropical diseases.

looks beautiful

[SnoopyStyle · 6/10 · 12 October 2020]

A ragtag group of modern day explorers set off to be the 'first' to navigate the Blue Nile from Lake Tana in Ethiopia to the Mediterranean Sea.

Let's be clear. Any claim of firsts rings hollow. It's silly to say it out loud in the first place. It does not detract from how beautiful these places look. I can even accept the narration as long as I ignore the ridiculous claims of hardship and being great explorers. It's not true. At best, this is a simple travel show. If they treated it as such, this would be more satisfying. Also at 48 minutes, it feels like a highlight reel. The individual members get an introduction but non of them get much screen time. I do wish to have seen it on the big screen. It simply looks beautifully epic.

Excluding the self-promotion....

[peter-coghlan-595-520088 · 7/10 · 13 October 2014]

Excluding the brief self-promotion of dodgy 'actors', I loved this movie because of its cinematography, still photos and music.

I agree that the "danger" posed did seem to be exaggerated.

And that studio sequence of the guys in Lake Tana did take from the up- until-then live footage.

The music is well-mixed, adding percussion to the best of indigenous voices and sounds (which can be sparse in those regions), giving the documentary an exciting tone.

All in all, well worth getting out on DVD to hear the soundtrack, and see some of the still photos.

Amazing and Inspiring

[dphelan-1 · 26 August 2005]

This IMAX short film tells the story of following the Blue Nile from Ethiopia to Egypt. It is also the story of past civilizations and how they prospered or suffered because of nature and their own short-sightedness or desperation. Along the way the members of the expedition see kindness and joy in places of conflict like The Sudan. Fear , danger and menace are everywhere from crocodiles to murderous bandits. The team consisting of several men and two women are geologists, archaeologists, reporters and adventurers. A cancer survivor and a "city guy" are part of the group. They face grueling challenges and flirt with danger, disease and death. Through it all they maintain a positive attitude and a real empathy for the people of the Nile and the past civilizations that both cared for and exploited the resources of this river. This is a fantastic, exciting and visually stunning film. It is full of hope and foreboding. It is amazing and inspiring.

My Favorite Adventure Documentary of all time!!

[menloe-39513 · 10/10 · 30 April 2023]

This was one of the last great adventures left on the planet! The scenery is absolutely beautiful, and I imagine would be even more beautiful watching the film in Imax. Pasquale Scaturro is a modern day Henry Morton Stanley, and is a wonderful all around person. There doesn't seem like there are a whole lot of river expeditions like this film follows left any more, as our planet is constantly being explored,

The only thing that could make this film better would be if it was remastered in 4K UHD. I have also purchased the soundtrack to this documentary as well - it is phenomenal! There is also a Spanish import of the soundtrack available on Apple Music for subscribers.

Sadly, the ACTUAL story & events are WAY better than the Movie.

[tymkarmstrong · 10/10 · 21 November 2021]

Unknown to pretty much the rest of the world, had the movie been done the way that they wish they could've done, it would probably been made into a feature film!

For various political reasons and promises made, they had to omit some of the best stories of their true adventure, and release this vastly watered down PC correct version.

We had the incredible opportunity to watch a private screening before officially released, WITH Pasquale actually presenting it to a group at IMax in Sacramento, CA.

He would pause the film at points and talk about events that happened, that for various reasons they could not include in the movie, show personal photos and private video.

But to give you guys a couple of examples; They couldn't talk about trying to sneak through a section of River going through a heavily civil war torn area at night, leaving film crew behind for their safety and being captured by a local Warlord, whom eventually befriended them and even showed them previously unknown "Black Pyramids" in his area, that he fiercely protected from the world. Pasquale showed a couple photos taken in secret to our group.

They had to leave out being arrested in Egypt while crossing the lake, being jailed for several days until the government could verify their reason for crossing the "protected" waters. Government eventually released them but would not allow them to continue across the lake, so they had to put their raft/kayak back in after the dam.

There were so many great little stories left out of the movie, that had the whole true story been made...wow...

I just rewatched it and realize how boring it is, knowing what the real adventure was like...but we can just say for now, there is VERY good reasons why it took them over 3mths to get through it...someday hope that Pasquale will tell those stories to everyone...

Not a real expedition

[ERuis · 5/10 · 27 July 2010]

Mystery of the Nile is a great movie, great scenery and beautiful photography. Almost to good to be true...

They claim to be a documentary about a real expedition down the Nile. This is not the case. It is a fake, fictional documentary made by actors and mostly shot in a studio. Saskia Lange for instance is no Spanish journalist, but a minor German actress. That's why you only see 5 or so out of 114 expedition days: there has not been an actual expedition! The 'storm on Lake Nasser' scene is a give-away, made in a studio swimming pool. All local scenes are shot in safe, easy to reach tourist spots.

I really dislike the fact that they pretend to be real. It borders a swindle. 5 points for the pretty pictures.

Terrible marketing video with false facts

[peder-762-520458 · 1/10 · 11 June 2010]

This movie is a marketing video for the expedition leader and a few others, who is immensely self-centered and on top factually wrong on several occasions. The expedition leader claims to be one of "few outsiders" to have ever visited the pyramids in Sudan (yes, not the ones in Egypt), but those pyramids are available for any tourist to visit – and besides "outsider" sounds quite imperialistic for a movie made in 2005. There are researchers, geologists and historians born, living and working in Sudan as well.

The only reason to watch this would be to see some of the footage, which is at times quite good. Especially the flyovers. Be sure to turn off the volume first though so you don't have to hear the narrative (marketing).

Don't waste your time - don't watch this.

Self advertising

[sergepesic · 2/10 · 26 February 2006]

I was really looking forward to this movie.On paper it had absolutely everything I like. Exotic location, brave explorers, exciting and dangerous expedition...What's not to like? Well a lot actually... Movie is only 47 minutes long, but authors generously treated us to 10 minute long introduction to themselves. The rest of the movie was filled with stories of an immense danger they were in , even if camera and the helicopter were following them all the time. Self advertising was the main motive of this whole enterprise. So little about the Nile, so much about the crew.The only venue for this nonsense would be a private party and bragging to friends.

Not enough about the Nile

[Benflix · 4/10 · 29 December 2017]

The movie tells us very little about the Nile, the focus is aimed towards the expedition crew and their experience. Not really what the title suggested. Imagery is still somewhat pleasant.

Worth Viewing for the Scenery

[Michael_Elliott · 6 June 2011]

Mystery of the Nile (2005)

*** (out of 4)

Adventurer Pasquale Scaturro and kayaker Gordon Brown decided to go down the Nile River to its source in a journey that would end up lasting 114 days with over three-thousand miles being covered. The documentary shows us their journey down the river, which includes stops to see some of the people who live around the river. After viewing the film I started to read around and it seemed like there was quite a bit of anger thrown at this movie. I read that a lot of the footage was actually shot in a sound stage and I read that a few of the people in the film weren't who we're told they are but instead were just actors. I'm not sure what is true or false so I'm just going to judge the film itself and I must admit that for the most part I was entertained. I should add that I did find the narration to be rather bland and I'll admit that I really didn't care about what these people were doing or trying to do. I really didn't care about any of the mysteries that the Nile had to offer so why did I enjoy the film? Because the scenery was rather amazing. Going down the Nile gave us several great moments with some dealing with the wildlife and others dealing with the amazing body of water. There's some rather violent white water rafting and some great shots of the Nile crocodiles. It's scenes like these that make the film worth sitting through and at just 47-minutes the thing moves at a good pace.

What a disappointing "documentary"

[WildBullWriter · 3/10 · 19 November 2022]

I expected a serious, informative documentary. What I got is a superficial, poorly written, self-hyped, overly dramatic (staged?) video that left me feeling not better informed but rather stupid for having watched it. This is simply another reminder (and example) that there are way too many crummy and disappointing "adventure" documentaries being made and promoted to gullible viewers who swallow the hype. What's going on? Maybe the video technology is so easy to use these days that rank amateurs can present themselves as professionals? But the artistic ability is poor, the educational angle is lacking, the result is very disappointing. Ugh.