Ice Road Truckers - The Complete Season 1 (History Channel)

This page features a wealth of information related to

ice road truckers - the complete season 1 (history channel)

Product Image

Pricing

Editorial Review

Customer Reviews

Ice Road Truckers - The Complete Season 1 (History Channel)

List Price: $34.95
Lowest Price: $17.67

Product Description:

The mines of northern Canada contain billions of dollars worth of gold and diamonds but the only way to get supplies to those mines is a treacherous 350-mile-long road across frozen lakes--which don't always stay frozen. This electrifying documentary series dives into the dangerous sometimes glorious potentially fatal world of Ice Road Truckers--the men who each season drive their trucks across the temporary and tenuous ice roads that are constructed anew each year.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS UPC: 733961776102 Manufacturer No: AAAE77610

Amazon.com:

Wages of Fear has nothing on Ice Road Truckers. Transporting unstable nitroglycerine is Driving Miss Daisy compared to the sanity and death-defying challenges facing these drivers who face great rewards but even greater dangers. Where these guys are going, there are no roads, except for about two months when the lakes freeze solid enough to allow the transport of literally tons of essential supplies to Canada's remote diamond mines as far as 350 miles away near the Arctic Circle. The goal is to deliver 10,000 loads in 60 days. The truckers call it the "dash for the cash." Fasten your seatbelts; it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Ice Road Truckers is one of the most harrowing of the "dirty jobs" sub-genre of reality TV. This History Channel series mines a little extra drama by playing up the competition between the drivers to see who can make the most runs. The series' most compelling personality is Hugh, a 21-season veteran known as "the Polar Bear," who suffers what another driver calls "a bad luck year." Hugh is the kind of guy who will blow poisonous methyl hydrate into his own suspect transmission. Among those trucking for him are Alex, the 25-year "marathon man" with 11 kids), 21-year-old TJ, and Drew, a 35-year-old "newbie." But the conditions under which these "titans of the ice" operate is all the drama this series needs. Suffice to say, there are up to 800 drivers when the season begins. By the spring thaw, there are only about 125 remaining. Consider: Truck breakdowns and equipment failures can leave truckers stranded in the middle of nowhere in 40-below temperatures. Blinding snowstorms can reduce visibility to zero. Speeding can cause waves that blow out the ice. A shout-out to the camera crew who faced these dangers with the truckers and captured nerve-wracking footage of the trucks making their treacherous way over heaving, cracking ice, and behemoth 18-wheel rigs plummeting through the broken ice to the lake's bottom. --Donald Liebenson

Customer Reviews:

Rating:
Date: 2008-08-16
Decent Reality TV
I actually purchased this DVD after viewing a couple of episodes of the second season. The first season was entertaining and gave an accurate portrayal of life in the artic circle. I can see this series only running for maybe two or three seasons before it is discontinued though due to the repeatative theme of the show (hauling loads of cargo across the ice). If I could offer one suggestion, that would be for an uncensored version of the DVD without the profanity bleeps.

Rating:
Date: 2008-07-15
ice truckers complete first season
The dvd arrived in good order and on time. Not watched yet, but the content is great as we have watched one episode on tv.The most amazing story of courage and ingenuity ever seen.

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-29
Ice Road Truckers
I returned this product, unopened, and my credit card has not yet been credited for the return.

Rating:
Date: 2008-05-06
What a Job!
"Ice Road Truckers" tells the story of drivers crossing treacherous lakes in the dead of winter - risking freezing to death or icy drowning, all the while fighting the extreme cold and its effect on equipment. It also tells the story of a determined driver and abusive truck-owner (Hugh) who continually outsmarts himself by failing to provide well-maintained equipment for his drivers, blaming them instead for breakdowns, and losing lots of money as a result.

Rating:
Date: 2008-04-10
Inexplicably fascinating
I happened to see a tiny bit of the first episode while waiting for the barber, and I was hooked. This is a great series.

I hardly would have imagined the degree to which I would be interested in a profession and geographical location about which I know nothing and would hardly be concerned with, generally. This material is a study in human endurance, sheer force of will, struggle against unbelievably harsh and cruel natural forces, and lots of human interaction through all the mess.

For someone who is totally unfamiliar with this series, it focuses on roughly a half dozen truckers (out of about 800) who move extremely heavy, valuable, and hazardous loads across hundreds of miles of ice lakes during the roughly two month winter season when the temperatures reach -40 degrees, F. A breakdown or a "fender bender" can become a life-threatening situation. The pressure is increased because of the very short time period in which the ice is stable for supporting the trucks, and mechanical breakdowns, common enough at any temperature, become freakishly ever-present at these extreme temperatures, fueling friction between the truckers, their families, and producing lots of material for the series.

At times the series borders on overdoing the drama with excessive narration and the occasional "looping" of crucial events, but it hardly detracts from the real drama.

Overall, it's a riveting slice of life that is exceptionally well produced and packaged. I think you'll be glad you invested your time in this, whether or not a "trucking series" sounds interesting to you.

If you'd rather see information unrelated to ice road truckers - the complete season 1 (history channel), try a Search.

Other Products: