The National Parks: America's Best Idea
by Ken Burns
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adam Arkin, Andy Garcia, Kevin Conway, Peter Coyote, Philip BoscoDirector: Ken Burns
Brand: PBS
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.35:1
Running Time: 720 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-10-06
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS
Product features:
- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- Box set; Color; DVD; NTSC; Widescreen
Movie Reviews of The National Parks: America's Best Idea
Movie Review: History, People and natural beauty all wrapped into one production
Summary: 5 Stars
This six-part set is a work of love and passion from both Ken Burns and David Duncan. Burns produced this, Duncan wrote this, so there's no wonder this project was a success. It keeps the viewer spell-bound.
I spent two months this past summer road-triping across the country and logging in over 13,000 miles. I got to see several national parks along the way, many for the first time. My complaint about many of the parks was that I saw so few minorities: that despite once being sacred lands to many Native American tribes, very few Native Americans were employed at any of the parks I visited except for the Little Big Horn National Battlefield in Montana. The only park that hired any African Americans was Yellowstone, so it was nice to listen to Shelton Johnson, an African-American park ranger at Yellowstone, tell visitors the history of Yellowstone and how many Buffalo Soldiers helped guard this park from poachers and collectors.
Ken Burns' and David Duncan's passion for this film radiates throughout the interviews in this production, a production that took two years longer to produce because the crew was in part captivated by the beauty of all the parks they visited.
This documentary is more than just breath-taking photography, it's the behind-the-scenes history of Native Americans losing many of their best lands, the pleading from wealthy socialites to preserve these lands, the blood and sweat of soldiers and poor people to help protect these wild places. The contributions of so many diverse Americans, from not just wealthy Anglos but also the before-mentioned African- and Native-Americans (many who were forced out of these new parks under Eminent Domain), Mexicans (San Antonio mission) new immigrants, talented writers like John Muir, outdoor photographers such as John Muir, determined women (many of them minorities, too) who fought the US government to preserve some of the lesser-known parks in our country, and of course wilderness lovers such as President Theodore Roosevelt are all fetured in this work. In fact, the second episode deals with mostly TR's tireless efforts to get national parks established and is perhaps my favorite episode of them all.
I have seen quite a few of our national parks over the years and had always been fascinated by the little-known histories of each location. A lot of these histories come alive in this documentary. "The other part of history" and "democracy" resonate across many of the interviewees in this production. American Heritage and American Patriotism for all Americans are what oozes from these episodes as the viewer gets enraptured in the documentary.
"Wow, I didn't know that!" is what I'm sure many viewers will say after watching this, especially after watching the Mount Rushmore episode. So much untold history comes alive, and not all of this history is in school text books, either.
There are over 50 national parks and over 300 national historical sites in our country and almost all of them are featured in this documentary. The good and bad of these many sites, from former Japanese internment sites (Manzanar) to former Indian battlefields (Little Big Horn) and other battlesites (San Antonio and the Spanish missions) get their fame in this well-produced project. Educational, emotional, awe-inspiring and beautiful, there is little wonder than anything less from the Burns-Duncan team was not expected. Although I'm not sure why the episode "City Kids in National Parks" was all that important for this set, overall this documentary is true American History in which all groups of Americans have played their part in making these parks what they are today.
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