“Disasters Deconstructed: A History of Architectural Disasters” is an interesting documentary by The History Channel discussing some of history’s most prolific engineering and architectural mishaps. In this DVD set, they covered everything from The Titanic to the Hindenburg to the fire at the old MGM Casino to the freeway and bridge collapses during the 1989 San Francisco earthquake. They covered pretty much anything and everything having to do with disasters across the 6 DVDs and 958 minutes included on this DVD set. They discussed the history of the structures, what happened, and why they happened. It was a simple and easy to follow, but effective, structure they followed each time they discussed a new topic.

I thought this was a very well done documentary and I would not expect anything less from The History Channel. There were lots of explosions and structures falling to please any action movie fan. However, the explanations and computer generated re-enactments were very educational and interesting to listen to. They also included a lot of actual footage of the disasters and I thought this was a good idea because it showed how realistic these disasters were and the people that were affected. The History Channel did an excellent job of making this documentary both fun and a learning experience.

The only major gripe I had was the bad picture quality. I know I am spoiled with everything being filmed in HD these days, but they should have at least digitally remastered the interview footage or parts of the documentary that were not actual footage of the disasters. Other than that, I enjoyed watching this documentary. If you love explosions, crashes, and things breaking, this is the perfect thing for you to watch. For those reasons, I am giving this DVD set a “B.”