Ring Of Fire

Five minutes into the first part of Ring of Fire, my eyes widened. Ten minutes in, I stopped taking notes. After a quarter of an hour had passed, my wife turned to me and said: "We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." Aside from being called a canine, I had to agree. Ring of Fire is like nothing you've ever seen before. The Blair brothers, Lawrence and Lorne, are the hosts and intrepid adventurers on this ten-year trek across the Indonesian islands. Culled from eighty hours of footage, the four hours that comprise the series offer Western man a smorgasbord of sights that he is relatively unfamiliar with: like, watching a man set fire to a newspaper with nothing but his hands; or following a group of professional python hunters as they descend into a subterranean cave armed only with a flashlight and a cloth sack; or consulting the entrails of a chicken to see whether the time is propitious for a ritual fight between two villages that only ends when blood is drawn (and sometimes goes much further); and seeing a 116-year old man choose the day of his death-and then die. Pirates, transvestite priests, people in trances, headhunters, Komodo dragons, birds of paradise-the sights and sounds of Indonesia are unique in their natural beauty, and disturbing in their frequent venture into supernatural horror. The wry British wit and indomitable spirit of the Blair brothers, however, serves as a very welcome companion on this extraordinary trip that makes Conrad's Heart of Darkness seem like a countryside lark in comparison. Highly recommended. (The four parts in the series are: Spice Island Saga, Dance of the Warriors, East of Krakatoa, and Dream Wanderers.) (Available from: Mystic Fire Video, P.O. Box 9323, Dept. PR, South Burlington, VT 05403; 1-800-727-8433.)