The Vietnam War

As told through the eyes of U.S. servicemen and Vietnamese who fought the war on both sides, Ken Burns documentary is an exhaustive look into the war in Vietnam, beginning with French colonization and continuing through the terrible conflict following U.S. intervention that needlessly took thousands of American lives, divided the country, and still ended with Saigon falling to the communists. I'm not sure much is added to the unfortunate, bloody, and muddled saga and its subjects aren't always as interesting you would expect. Further, it seems Burns struggles with more modern efforts, especially this and his World War II documentary, not knowing where to mount his focus. The last episode, which focuses on post-withdrawal, is very moving, and the series is obviously given the same trustworthy treatment as the director's other ventures. The music in the film is a mixed bag, sometimes used effectively other times cliched rock standards used in many a Vietnam War picture. However, there is an excellent score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.

*** out of ****

Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War

Prominent Massachusetts Methodists Waitstill and Martha Sharp risk their lives and ultimately sacrifice their marriage and much of their own savings in order to personally assist the exodus of hundreds of refugees as Hitler increases his territorial holdings in Greater Europe. Directed by Ken Burns and Artemis Joukowsky, Defying the Nazis: The Sharps' War is a cheaply made, limited telling of an intense story of selfless heroism, which opts mostly for testimonials and almost entirely forgoes any opportunities the story offers for intrigue.

** out of ****

The Address

A year in the life of severely learning disabled students at the specialized Greenwood School in Putney, Vermont who are required to recite The Gettysburg Address verbatim at the end of the term. I feel like a heel digging into this documentary, and yes the students and staff seem genuine, but this resembles the kind of amateurish pap meant to "inspire" first year college students in a teaching program. As for Ken Burns, while sneaking in Civil War photos and giving a haphazard summation of that campaign, this kind of project seems beneath him. To be fair, the final speeches and a field trip to the battleground were impressive.

** 1/2 out of ****

Jackie Robinson

The story of Jack Roosevelt Robinson, the sharecropper's son from Cairo, Georgia who became a standout athlete at UCLA and a Negro League star before being chosen to integrate the Major Leagues as a second baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. Ken Burns covered Robinson's story at length in his sweeping 1994 Baseball docuseries and thus revisits many of his same tracks in this recent four hour update while still bringing much to the table in the film's second half, which depicts the ballplayer's politically minded lesser known life after retirement. Again Burns provides a wealth of great footage and Keith David serves nicely doing narration duties, but a flood of lackluster commentators and a storytelling approach that resembles a civics lesson are major strikes on this count.

** 1/2 out of ****

Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies

Directed by Barak Goodman, drawn from the book by Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee (who appears throughout the film), but billed prominently under the 'Ken Burns production' banner, Cancer: The Emperor of All Maladies hits its mark when succinctly and fascinatingly documenting the history of the great scourge but, and it pains me to say it, the human interest stories, though heartfelt and occasionally harrowing, belong in a different kind of docu-series. Also, extraneous commentary from medical experts tends to be redundant.

*** out of ****

The War

Due to the sheer magnitude of the greatest and bloodiest conflict in history, Ken Burns decided to focus his series documenting World War II on four disparate American cities (Mobile, Alabama; Luverne, Minnesota; Sacremento, California; Waterbury Connecticut) and the impact the War to End All Wars had on the men who served and on those who contributed on the homefront. Fascinating footage and harrowing stories meshed with a less than desirable approach to the material sadly result in a mixed bag, with Burns being more concerned about the home effort and the war's effect on loved ones and focusing less on causes, battles, maneuverings, etc.

** 1/2 out of ****

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson

Based on a book by Geoffrey C. Ward, an account of the life of Jack Johnson, the brazen pugilist who, while always living life on his own terms, became the first black Heavyweight Champion inspiring ire and a slew of great white hope contenders. It has always been true of Ken Burns' films that they are well researched, impeccably presented with great writing, narration, cinematography, and footage although with his later films it has also become a standard for them to incorporate boring drones who compound belabored, obvious points with little wit and style, often to the film's detriment. With Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson, all of this applies with Burns presenting a fascinating subject who is so bombastic, impressive, and impossible to peg down.

*** out of ****

Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip

In 1903, after accepting a $50 bet, Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson set off from San Francisco with associate Sewell Crocker and his pit bull to traverse the continent all the way to New York in a minor episode which would quickly evolve into an all-out publicity war waged by the major car companies in what would eventually come to be known as the country's first cross country commute by way of the newly invented automobile. Horatio's Drive is a nice, brief change of pace for Ken Burns in which he and cowriter Dayton Duncan effectively reveal an impressive and amusing little known story.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Mark Twain

Using his upbringing in Hannibal, Missouri and experiences as both a riverboat captain and gold miner as resources for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and many of his other beloved works, Samuel Clemens would assume the moniker of Mark Twain and be hailed as one of the most recognized and respected authors of his time. Ken Burns' documentary on The Father of American Literature never really soars like it should and is perhaps a tad overlong, but benefits from Twain's spoken words (voiced by Kevin Conway) and appearances from Hal Holbrook (who has performed his Mark Twain Tonight! stage show for over 60 years) and Arthur Miller, though other Twain "experts" add very little.

*** out of ****

Jazz

A sweeping look at Jazz, a true American art form, detailing a sequential history of the medium and focusing on, among many others talents, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Charlie Parker, Dizzie Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Bennie Goodman, and Billie Holliday. With Ken Burn's Jazz, the composition is on par per usual but suffers again from the lack of engaging commentators, here pack of pompous snobs, and what's drawn out over the course of 19 redundant, pretentious hours could have been told more effectively in less than half.

** out of ****

The Roosevelts: An Intimate History

The lives, exploits, heartaches, and achievements of Theodore Roosevelt, his fifth cousin Franklin, and his wife Eleanor (also Teddy’s niece) as the unprecedented political first family traverses early 20^th Century politics in such ranging affairs as the building of the Panama Canal, the battle against corporate greed, the creation of the National Park System, the entry into World War I, The Great Depression, The New Deal, Civil Rights, and World War II among others told in this expansive documentary. The Roosevelts: An Intimate History is undoubtedly a passion project of Ken Burns and while certain aspects of the telling are less intriguing than others, there are no changes in the esteemed documentarian’s style, voice actors Paul Giamatti (as Teddy) and Meryl Streep (Eleanor Roosevelt) are wrong for their roles, and the series is long by perhaps an episode, it is still exemplary and even exciting filmmaking.

*** 1/2 out of ****

Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony

The story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony, their friendship, and tireless, decades long struggle for women's suffrage, an objective neither would see come to fruition in their lifetimes. Ken Burns' Not for Ourselves Alone is expectedly informative and well researched, but is somewhat plodding and slightly marred by the documentarian's signature, unchanging style, although some beautiful live action photography helps. The high points of the film are the assumedly unabridged speeches, especially a charged debate between Anthony and Frederick Douglass.

*** out of ****

Frank Lloyd Wright

Ken Burns profiles the celebrated and world renowned architect who revolutionized the form with designs ranging from Fallingwater, his home studio Taliesin, and the Guggenheim Museum and left in his wake no shortness of controversy, tragedy, eccentricity, and unmatched genius. Frank Lloyd Wright stands amongst Burns' best work, featuring great footage, commentary, and narrative in his presentation of a brilliant, irascible, and contentious personage.

**** out of ****

The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Glacier National Park, Montana

Beginning with John Muir's dream of seeing his beloved Yosemite protected, continuing with Theodore Roosevelt's follow through using presidential action to preserve pristine natural monuments around the country, and concluding with controversial decisions to protect vast amounts of Alaskan wilderness in the 1970s, while covering a multitudinous number of stories from many of our 59 federally protected parks in the years in between, The National Parks is another ambitious, informative, and patriotic work from documentarian Ken Burns. As most of Burns' films on extensive topics have a habit of doing, The National Parks produces a "star" here in the form of Shelton Johnson, an eloquent Yosemite Park Ranger from humble beginnings on the urban landscape of Detroit. Aside from Shelton, however, the talking heads are surprisingly lackluster, perhaps because there's only so much to be said about the majesty of these wonders that already speak for themselves, especially when you've had the privilege to have seen some of them in person.  Nonetheless the historical aspects and footage are excellent, which is par for the course in a Burns' film, and despite a few plodding middle episodes, the opening and concluding segments are astounding.

*** out of ****

Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

Ken Burns documentary on U.S. Army Officers Meriwether Lewis, William Clark, and the Corps of Discovery's grueling, prolonged, and monumental explorative 1804 journey, which was initiated by Thomas Jefferson, began at St. Louis, and traversed the Pacific Northwest, does an excellent job of visualizing the participant's journey and capturing their ranging thoughts and emotions, but has a tendency to feel as lengthy and redundant as the journey itself. Uninspired guest commentator expousings don't add to the proceedings but fine photography does help to smoothen the ride.

Thomas Jefferson

The life of the famed statesman, inventor, writer, founder of the University of Virginia, and Third President of the United States is documented in all its brilliance, glory, and controversy by Ken Burns in this extensive two-part PBS feature. Thomas Jefferson features outstanding photography and primary sources, grows wearisome with some of its editorialization and guest commentary, but does its best to faithfully represent a truly adept, enigmatic, and not easily pigeonholed historical figure.

Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio

Ken Burns' Empire of the Air follows the lives of Lee de Forest, Edwin Armstrong, and David Sarnoff, three men who were responsible, respectively, for the invention, expansion, and industrialization of that mass form of communication known as radio. I was expecting something of a broader scope from this minor entry in Burns' canon, but even with the narrowed scope, the documentary is thoroughly researched, presented, and illuminating nonetheless. 

The Civil War

"The Civil War was fought in 10,000 places. From Valverde, New Mexico and Tullahaoma, Tennessee to St. Albans, Vermont and Fernandina on the Florida coast. More than three million Americans fought in it and over 600,000 men, two percent of the population, died in it." So begins David McCullough's indelible narration of The Civil War, Ken Burns' consummate and most famous documentary, which he claimed took longer to write, compile, and assemble than his actual subject itself took to fight. The nine part, nearly twelve hour long miniseries is the most complete example of his incredibly influential body of work as it combines a wealth of archival footage told in Burns' signature style, beautiful writing, the inimitable McCullough narration, and a stock of expert contribution (including the show stealing Shelby Foote), all of which detail what now seems a harrowing, unimaginable conflict.

Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton was an American painter whose personality was as large and robust as the many murals he created throughout his lifetime. Born in Missouri and studying at the Art Institute of Chicago, Hart went on to study in Paris and mentor Jackson Pollock before crafting many lifescape murals which depicted the American story. "Thomas Hart Benton" is Ken Burns' excellent presentation of the artist's life, offering his biography, work, family interviews, and also the viewpoints of proponents and detractors in this cumulative documentary.

The Congress

Ken Burns presents the history of our federal representative body, lauding its successes and exposes its weaknesses. Covering 200 years of history (the film was released in 1988) and over 12,000 representatives, the surface is barely scraped in a running time of 90 minutes. Focusing on lions such as Henry Clay and Daniel Webster, covering key eras such as Civil Rights and the Women's Suffrage movement, told by then members of Congress, and presented in the Burn's usual, exemplary style (with David McCullough's stalwart narration), "The Congress" is still an excellent though abbreviated history.