Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2085 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-06-02
• Rating: Exempt
• Format: PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 3
• Running time: 8.5 minutes

DVD Description
This is the 10 episode 3 disc special edition of Long Way Down with additional episode and extras material. Following the phenomenal success of Long Way Round, Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman are back with a brand new adventure - this time riding the Long Way Down.

From the northern most point of Scotland at John O'Groats to the Southern Most tip of Africa at Cape Agulhas the intrepid pain undergo exhausting conditions, treacherous terrain and many emotional, moving and awe-inspiring moments on this incredible 15,000 mile journey. Taking in Western Europe and riding down through Africa Ewan & Charley will mix their love of motorbikes with a passion for meeting people and visiting places of natural beauty and cultural importance. This special edition includes an extra 2 hours episode material and 1 hour extras including "The Missing Face Documentary" - the story of Ewan and Charley's first trip to Africa.

Disc 1. Long Way Down Special Edition (Episodes 1 - 4)

Disc 2 Long Way Down Special Edition (Episodes 5 - 7 Plus extras including The Missing Face documentary -The story of Ewan and Charley's first trip to Africa)

Disc 3 Long Way Down Special Edition (Episodes 8 - 10 Plus extras including unseen and extended footage, trip gallery and interactive route map)

Special Features
This special edition includes an extra 2 hours episode material and 1 hour of additional extras including "The Missing Face Documentary" - the story of Ewan and Charley's first trip to Africa.

Synopsis
Following on from the sensational LONG WAY ROUND, travelling compadres Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman set off an all new adventure, journeying 15,000 miles from Scotland's most northern point in John O'Groats to Cape Town, the most southern tip of the African continent.

Customer Reviews

Just like a follow-up movie
Long Way Down - Special Edition (3 Discs, 10 Episodes)

The trouble is to have expectations. After seeing the first trip of McGregor/Boorman (Long Way Round) I expected the same enthousiasmm, the same excitement of doing something unique. But, and perhaps inevitably so, I sensed somewhat of routine in this trip through Africa. Perhaps it was because of Boorman having crossed Africa before that I had this sense of 'been there done that' from time to time. Second thing I didn't like was the fact that McGregor's wife joined the two friends for a while. Even in the beginning I thought: 'oh no, why does she have to interfere?'
I mean, this was, just like the first time, a friends-thing, a men-between-each-other event, and so, to my taste, it should have stayed. Nevertheless, the trip was interesting enough to see and I didn't regret buying this 3 disc edition. So, motorfans and roadmovie-lovers like me, shouldn't hesitate to watch this Africa-trip: it's worthwile enough!

More poignant then LWR
I felt the need to write a review, for the first time, as this DVD in its original form got so badly panned by a lot of people. I have watched Long Way Round, the Dakar DVD and now this extended edition and this is the most gratifying one yet, in my opinion.

If LWR was like a show about chefs putting everything into preparing a big meal and then not being able to appreciate what they had created, then LWD was about throwing a big meal together quickly, leaving time to taste everything and finding some of it bad and a lot of it good.

In Long Way Round the whole experience was new for everyone and it was more a document about Charley, Ewan and the team vs. the World and the trip itself. The Dakar video got more interesting for me AFTER Charley's 'wee-off' and so with Long Way Down the interest for me was that they got the 'old-gang' back together (and we sort of know what Claudio, Russ and Dave are like by now) and started off with maybe some complacency but were soon and repeatedly brought up short by their own lack of planning, assumed but insufficient communication, and Africa itself. It became a good reality show because we know these guys now and were interested to see them up against the unexpected. So it came across to me as a more poignant journey because what unstuck the members of the team were just what might unstick any of us at any time - unrealistic planning, a mate bringing his wife to your bachelor party, discrimination (against the Americans), really ambiguous encounters(President of Rwanda ~ saviour or murderer?), bad weather and big animals.
I must also add my voice in support of Charley, as he does get slagged off a bit in some reviews. I salute the directors and the guys for having the bravery to let their warts show and in that sense Charley must be the bravest of the lot! I can't wait for 'By Any Means' this autumn.

Better than the Standard 2 Disc Edition
I wrote a review on the first DVD set of this documentary in which I gave it 3 stars because of how little footage there seemed to be. Thankfully having the extra 3 episodes and the extra footage in the other episodes have helped the programme greatly.

There have been complaints about how much the support team, which consisted of Russ & David (producers), Dai (medic), Claudio (who rode with Ewan & Charley), Jimmy & Jim (cameramen + Jim dealt with security), featured in this sequel to Long Way Round. However what seems to have been forgotten is that for the majority of the trip they weren't traveling through the relative safety of Europe, Russia and America, like LWR, instead they traveled through areas which are notoriously unsafe for foreigners - Southern Egypt, Sudan, Northern Kenya are a couple of examples. (For reference this year's (2008) Dakar Rally was cancelled due to security fears). Due to this potential risk it meant that they had to ride/drive as a group for a fair amount of the North African leg plus it was a requirement from the Tourism Offices of several of the countries visited, the Libyan stage is a perfect example. Personally I found it provided a different dynamic which added to the whole programme. Plus they were making a documentary film about the trip as well so equipment was needed for that and there were the spare parts for the bikes as well. It's all very well for us to go to our local garage when something goes wrong but when your in the middle of the African bush it is slightly harder to find someone with a spare shock or chain.

Overall I found it to be a good series, not as good as LWR, but still gave a taste of what's out there and for those who have a thirst for knowledge and travel this is definately worth a watch.