Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2322 in DVD
• Released on: 2007-12-03
• Rating: Exempt
• Formats: PAL, Dolby, Subtitled, Colour, Digital Sound
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 340 minutes

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.

Synopsis
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.

Customer Reviews

Very Disappointing
After seeing "Long Way Round" (which I loved) and "The Race To Dakar" I was excited to learn that the old team came together once more to do another motorcycle adventure. Man, was I disappointed after watching the 6 episodes. LWD just feels so different from LWR. Long Way Round came across as a sincere adventure of 2 friends taking of in the unknown to find out if you can drive your motorcycle from London to New York. Long Way Down just can't deliver this. Why you ask ? Well, here are my reasons:

1. The level of support: This time around the level of support they organized is insane. Not only do they have 2 fully equipped 4x4 with 5 support crew follow them around, they also hired local guides which brought their own support vehicles and additional personnel. Other then in LWR the support crew was never further away then 2 hours. On top of this, they stayed in luxury hotels about half of the time, hired helicopters, private jets and private guides to do their "adventure" trips. Big deal - if you just throw enough money on it everybody can do these "adventures".
2. The whole trip feels rushed: Especially in the first 3 episodes the guys are under more scheduling pressure then a Wall Street Stock Broker. They have almost no time to stop anywhere just because of artificially induced scheduling constraints. What's the point on going on a 20k adventure-roadtrip if your are scheduled to arrive at certain points to the HOUR ? This actually created quite some friction between Ewan and Charley and it shows.
3. Ewan McGregors Family trip: The trip really degrades at times into a McGregor family outing. This was already annoying in the LWR, but here it's much worse. His father, his brother and his wife (which _never_ drove a motorcycle before - let alone offroad) all have to join Ewan at some stage or another. This is not in the spirit of LWR and again creates some friction between the two friends. And again - this shows in the series.
4. Biased Editing: For whatever reason the editing in LWD is very biased towards Ewan McGregor. Not only does he get much more screen time then Charley in general, but he also gets portrayed as the "sophisticated, caring celebrity and family man", which Charley is shown as the village idiot lighting his farts. All of Ewan's mood-swings and desperate moments of LWR have been edited out in LWD. And then there is almost NO mentioning of the 3rd rider and cameraman Claudio which deserves probably the most credit for his achievement.
5. Ewan McGregor calling the shots: It seems that this time around Ewan McGregor was calling all the shots. From route planing to equipment to scheduling to editing he was in charge and it seems like that Charley and rest of the team had very little influence on what happened. Towards the middle of the trip there must have been a major clash between Ewan and the rest of the team - which again - has been careful edited out. From there on out it seems like Charley is just saying the right things and just goes along for the ride instead of being a part of it. Maybe this is a indication of who is initially financing the whole thing ?
6. Way over commercialized: It would have been o.k. to make some more advertising for BMW motorcycles in LWD. They did provide the bikes and at the end of the day BMW touring bikes are very reliable and suitable for a trip like this. But what's with all the rest ? This stupid mobile-phone product placement. As if somebody in his right mind would rely on a mobile-phone based GPS system on a trip like this ? And then all the merchandizing! LWD logo's _everywhere_ . Did you check the website ? They actually want you to sign up for a PAID membership to download exclusive content and participate in their online discussion forums ? I guess that's one way of shutting up the critics.

So bottom line: Not even close to Long Way Round. As other reviewers said before: They got it all wrong. Don't buy it !

S Moffatt
Having watched Long Way Round, I was looking forward to viewing Long Way Down. The first series (for those who are yet to view it) follows Ewan and Charlie (accompanied by Claudio- a motorcycle-bound cameraman) as they attempt to travel from London through Europe, Russia and then America towards New York.

The first series follows the actors as they encounter the varying cultures, landscapes (and the impact the landscapes have on their ambition to cross on their bikes) and confront their own emotions about the trip. The series seemed adventurous, interesting and enjoyable to watch due to the bonding between the three bikers and the challenge they had set themselves.

The second series (Long Way Down) has the brief of Ewan and Charlie (again accompanied by Claudio on a third bike) travelling from John O'Groats in Scotland to Cape Town in South Africa. This journey appeals mainly due to the riders travelling through Africa- a continent which will be unfamiliar to the majority of viewers.

Of the six episodes which make up the DVD, the first episode basically shows the riders preparing for the trip (interesting from a logistical point of view, however it appears a slight waste of time if this series is viewed as a travel documentary). The second episode takes quite some time with the riders travelling through the UK. Whilst this is interesting for viewers not from the UK, this again wastes valuable viewing time showing the riders (and the all-too-prominent support team) apparently having a relaxed journey through Scotland and England (stopping overnight at Silverstone race-track- random and not compelling viewing as little is mentioned about the track for motorsport enthusiasts and too much about the team setting up tents).

Similar to Long Way Round, there is very little screen time showing mainland Europe. The time which is covered tends to feature voice-overs of the riders continually complaining about their time-scale (perhaps this would not have been so noticeable if they hadn't taken 5 days to travel through the UK). The support team are also becoming more and more noticeable- instead of the support team being seen briefly at border crossing check-points, we now have the producers being shot within their support vehicles commenting about their concerns/issues about the trip. This pretty much sets the tone for the majority of the series. The riders complain frequently about the distances they are attempting to cover and stating that time constraints are affecting their enjoyment of the trip. The support team have quite a lot of screen time, including a developing issue relating to two personnel (both American) stressing about whether they will get a visa to enter Libya. This issue runs throughout the first three episodes. Whilst this must be of great personal interest to those concerned, this takes valuable time away from what should be the focus of the series- Ewan and Charlie- after all the support team are supposed to be just that.

For the remainder of the series, it appears that the riders have limited experiences (such as the riders meeting local people and commenting about the cultural changes as they proceed on their trip) to comment on. Instead, the series has too much footage featuring on-board videos of the riders driving along highways (albeit with changing scenery) with voice-overs about how tired they are/ too much distance expected to be covered in their timescale, etc. Claudio (the cameraman), a prominent character to the adventure on the last series, is hardly seen during the entire trip. There also appears to be tension between Ewan and Charlie, especially with Ewan bringing along various family members throughout the trip- brother and dad at the start, followed by the decision to let Eve (Ewan's wife) ride with them for a week or so in Africa despite Eve not having any experience riding prior to the start of filming for the series. This leads to Charlie ride off over more testing terrain whilst Ewan and Eve go along easier routes (complete with Eve crashing her bike apparently every 5 minutes). Whilst it is apparent that Eve seems enthusiastic to ride with her husband, allowing a novice to ride in Africa means that the route appears to have been altered to accomodate Eve's presence, and the bond between Ewan and Charlie is broken during this time, causing Charlie to look uncomfortable and redundant during this sequence. I would have thought that Ewan should have suggested that he accompanies his wife on a private biking holiday, rather than impacting on this series (which is supposed to be following Ewan AND Charlie, not Ewan, family and a friend). The bond between Ewan and Charlie appears to be damaged throughout the series causing the viewer to sense tension between the two riders, making this series less enjoyable to watch.

In summary I found LWD to be an exercise in self-indulgency for both the producers, Ewan (especially) and Charlie. The series was generally unpleasant to watch (due to tensions between the riders, mainly caused by timescale issues). This is in marked contrast with LWR where you wanted to feel involved with both Ewan and Charlie, as if you have been invited to share their adventure with them. There was very little focus on actual locations/ people they meet/ cultures they experience, etc and too much focus on on-board cameras watching landscape (and opportunities to develop the journey through meeting others) slip by.

Whilst I would certainly recomend LWR, I could not recommend LWD in its current format. The series would have made far more sense if it was called "Africa" and started with the riders starting their journey IN Africa- this would give them more time on the "interesting" part of their journey- and hopefully removed some of the pressure of 'pressing on down the road'. Another issue with the LWD series is poor editing and an apparent lack of focus in the series- the riders are not given enough screen time whilst there is too much emphasis on following the support crew. If the support crew believe that their story is worth telling, they should release their own accompanying series "Supporting LWD" to highlight their adventures and illustrate the logistics behind the series- however I believe the general public would be uninterested in following their story.

The DVD should have been offered on release as an extended edition (say 8 rather than 6 episodes) to expand on scenes and themes covered in the series to hopefully bring more insight into the journey. Currently the DVD is essentially the same as the TV series, meaning that certain African countries appear to have been edited into a montage. I'm sure that an extended edition will be launched in the near future, however with the majority of the reviews for this DVD being so poor, I believe that the LW team might have lost the interest of many fans of LWR with this mediocre offering.

A Big Let Down
After 86 days and 15000 miles, the boys are able to give us approximately 4 hours of well, nothing really. This trip may have been adventure for them, but certainly not for the viewers. I still can't believe that they travelled the length of Africa with so little to show for it. The final espisode follows their final leg of the ride from Malawi through Zambia, Botswana, Namibia and on to their final destination in South Africa - completed in a little over 45 minutes on film - what a bore! The cameras were turned on the two 4 wheel drive support cars for much of the time, with the odd shot of one of the bikes up ahead with either Ewan and Charley screaming the odd few words into their helmets to give the viewer a sense of excitement that otherwise wouldn't be there. A few stops at UNICEF sponsored projects along the way helped fill in the gaps a bit, but that didn't really work either. Charley was so unfullfilled, it seems by the whole thing, that he even manages to squeeze a bungy jump in at the very end. I suppose I can't blame him for that.

My personal message to Charley and Ewan is - next time guys, do it alone, just the two of you and maybe the Swiss guy too to take the photos, but leave the two SUVs behind along with the doctor, the fixers, the telephones and the vacuum packed ready meals. You might then get a sense of a real adventure and perhaps even discover something great about yourselves.