Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long

Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long
by Ken Burns

Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long
List Price: $19.99
Our Price: $17.99
You Save: $2.00 (10%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $11.90 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases


(Click here)
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada

DVD Cover Information

Actor: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., David McCullough, Huey Long, I.F. Stone, Russell Long
Director: Ken Burns
Brand: Paramount
Cinematographer: Buddy Squires
Cinematographer: Ken Burns
Producer: Ken Burns
Editor: Amy Stechler
Producer: Richard Kilberg
Writer: Geoffrey C. Ward
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS Paramount

Movie Reviews of Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long

Movie Review: EXCITING, THOUGHTFUL, IMPARTIAL HISTORY
Summary: 4 Stars

America's memory of Huey Long owes a lot to two films: this 1985 documentary by Ken Burns, and Robert Rossen's 1949 movie, "All The King's Men." Both the documentary and the movie portray a hero of the common people, who rises to be dictator of his state, then falls to an assassin's bullet. Yet there are large differences.

The movie was inspired by Robert Penn Warren's novel of the same title, which in turn was inspired by Long's career (a fact that Warren famously and unconvincingly denied). The movie's hero (named Willie Stark) is very bright, but a hick - a redneck - by birth and childhood circumstances. His political career only catches fire when he learns to hammer his audiences with the tough sternness of a hick pounding fellow-hicks.

In contrast, Huey Long, in the documentary, is born to a hardworking, middle-class family, which sent most of its offspring to college, at a time when only one in twenty American children had that privilege. Huey was an accomplished debater in high school, and a persuasive salesman in his first full-time job. After just a year in Law School, he passed the bar, and soon was elected, at age 24, to the Louisiana Railroad Commission.

The movie confines Stark's political career to governor and boss of his state, and his policies primarily to state-sponsored public works, e.g., highways, public education, hospital care. The documentary adds Long's years as United States Senator, crusader for the redistribution of Americans' wealth, and probable candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1936.

The documentary includes colorful excerpts from Long's speeches, crusading against economic inequality: "4% of the American people own 85% of the wealth of America," while "70% of the people of America don't own enough to pay the debts they owe." "The Lord has answered the prayer, he has called the barbecue. Come to my feast, he says to 125 million American people. He has invited Americans to his feast, but Morgan, Rockefeller, and Mellon and Baruch have walked up and took 85% of the victuals off the table. Now, how ya gonna feed the balance of the people? What are Morgan, Rockefeller, Mellon and Baruch gonna do with all that grub? They cain't eat it, they cain't wear the clothes, they cain't live in the houses. Give `em a yacht! Give `em a palace! Send `em to Reno & give `em a new wife if they want, if that's what they want. But when they've got everything on God's living earth that they can eat, and they can wear and they can live in, and all their children can wear, and live in, and eat, and all their children's children can use, we gotta call Mr. Morgan and Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Mellon back, and say: Come back heah, put back on this table heah what you took away from heah, the stuff you don't need; leave something for the American people to consume."

The documentary notes the tremendous public response to Long's crusade, but fails to take seriously his plan for redistributing American wealth. The plan is not described; its merits, pro and con, are not weighed. This failure is my reason for giving Burns' work four, rather than five stars. I won't try here to discuss the merits of the plan, but its main provisions -- very large taxes and subsidies -- are stated below. I found them in a slim book of Long's speeches, entitled "Kingfish to America: Share Our Wealth," edited by Henry Christman,1985, and available on Amazon.

By taxing savings and property, the wealth of the very rich would be reduced, so that "no one would own more than 3 or 4 million dollars." Income would also be taxed, to "limit the total anyone could earn or inherit in one year to $1 million." [These 1934 limits were actually less severe than they sound in 2009. Due to inflation, one million 1934 dollars would equal over 15.4 million 2009 dollars, and four million 1934 dollars would equal over 61 million 2009 dollars.]

The money thus gained was estimated to provide every needy family in America with "a home and the comforts of home, including such common conveniences as a radio and an automobile, free of debt." The government would "guarantee food and clothing and employment for everyone who should work, by shortening the hours of labor to thirty hours per week, and to eleven months per year." Education would be free for every child, not just through high school, but on through college and vocational education. Everyone over 60 years old, whose income was less than $1,000 per year, or whose net worth was less than $10,000, would receive a pension sufficient to support them in comfortable circumstances.

Summary of Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/23/2005 Director: Ken Burns
The story of Huey Long is the quintessential drama of power and ethics. To his constituents, he was a populist hero. To his critics, he was the unscrupulous "dictator of Louisiana" who didn't break the law, but used the law to achieve his own ends. A towering figure on the political landscape, Louisiana's infamous governor and United States senator may well have wound up in the White House, had he not been felled by an assassin's bullet in 1935. Long was the inspiration for Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King's Men (a film version of which earned Broderick Crawford an Academy Award). As this fascinating documentary by Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz) vividly illustrates, truth is even more compelling than fiction. Originally broadcast on the award-winning PBS series The American Experience, Huey Long painstakingly charts Long's inexorable rise to power. Archival footage and interviews with Louisiana natives, politicians, family members, historians, and political colleagues bring Long to thundering and bombastic life. --Donald Liebenson

Documentary DVD Video

DVD Video
Movies most talked about in Favorite Movies, Music, and Books - (under-construction).
The Godfather ImageThe Godfather
by Mario Puzo
G.P. putnam's Sons; Published: 1969; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $58.00
The World at War (30th Anniversary Edition) ImageThe World at War (30th Anniversary Edition)
A&E; Release date: 2004-08-24; DVD
Best price: $52.91
Price in other shops: $99.95
The War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick ImageThe War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
Paramount; Release date: 2007-10-02; DVD
Best price: $34.16
Price in other shops: $129.99
One-Eyed Jacks ImageOne-Eyed Jacks
WESTLAKE ENTERTAINMENT INC; Release date: 2003-09-01; DVD
Best price: $2.48
Price in other shops: $14.95
Heartland ImageHeartland
Release date: 2000-11-07; DVD
Best price: $21.87
Price in other shops: $29.95
The Bedford Incident ImageThe Bedford Incident
Sony; Release date: 2003-09-23; DVD
Best price: $12.29
Price in other shops: $19.94
Chicago 10 ImageChicago 10
Paramount; Release date: 2008-08-26; DVD
Best price: $18.97
Price in other shops: $29.98
Eyes on the Prize Official PBS DVD Release ImageEyes on the Prize Official PBS DVD Release
DVD
Best price: $549.00
Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long ImageKen Burns America Collection - Huey Long
Paramount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $13.08
Price in other shops: $19.99
Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio ImageEmpire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio
Paramount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $11.84
Price in other shops: $19.99
Similar DVD Movies
Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns ImageThomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns
Paramount; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $15.29
Price in other shops: $24.99
American Experience: LBJ ImageAmerican Experience: LBJ
Paramount; Release date: 2006-02-14; DVD
Best price: $13.45
Price in other shops: $24.99
Empires - Napoleon ImageEmpires - Napoleon
Paramount; Release date: 2006-10-10; DVD
Best price: $10.70
Price in other shops: $19.99
American Experience: Truman ImageAmerican Experience: Truman
Paramount; Release date: 2006-02-14; DVD
Best price: $12.75
Price in other shops: $24.99
All the King's Men (Special Edition) ImageAll the King's Men (Special Edition)
Sony; Release date: 2006-12-19; DVD
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops: $14.94
The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns ImageThe Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
BURNS,KEN; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $71.03
Price in other shops: $129.99
Kingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long ImageKingfish: The Reign of Huey P. Long
by Jr. Richard D. White
Random House; Published: 2006-04-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $10.26
Price in other shops: $26.95
Every Man A King: The Autobiography Of Huey P. Long ImageEvery Man A King: The Autobiography Of Huey P. Long
by Huey P. Long
Da Capo Press; Published: 1996-03-21; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.91
Price in other shops: $15.95
All the King's Men ImageAll the King's Men
Sony; Release date: 2006-09-05; DVD
Best price: $3.29
Price in other shops: $19.94
Huey Long ImageHuey Long
by T. Harry Williams
Vintage; Published: 1981-08-12; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.19
Price in other shops: $25.00
Compare prices and read customer reviews for more than one million DVD titles.
Oscar 2005 Winners