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Rating: 
Summary: A Great Exploration of the Life, Trials, and Accomplishments
Review: I only got to see the last hour of the movie, but overall, it was well written. I especially like the aspect of the movie that deals with Frank Lloyd Wrights flaws in his buildings. It shows that no matter how much genius a person has, they still make mistakes. It gives a very factual account of his visions and buildings, including the acclaimed "Fallingwater." The movie intertwines his architectural accomplishments as well as his personal life, making this a very interesting combination. Anybody who watches this film will get a good idea of how Frank Lloyd Wright operated throughtout his more than 9 decade lifetime. I would strongly recommend that anyone interested in art or architecture watch this movie!
Rating:
Summary: A great documentary of an architectual genius (and odd guy)
Review: Ken Burns (the primary contributor to this film) did a awesome job capturing the beauty and magnificence of Wright's various creations. The first half of the film talks about Wright's early creations -- the second half focuses on the most productive time of Wright's career (after his 60s ). The Waterfall house, the Johnson Wax building, the Gugenheim...wonderful footage of wonderful places. The most illuminating part of the video, however, is the look into Wright's personal life...an aspect of Wright that is often glossed over.
Rating: 
Summary: Good overview but missing that *something* special
Review: Ken Burns managed not to annoy me with this documentary as he has done in the past with other documentaries. It serves as a good overview of FLLW's life and career. But one is left thinking there could have been something a little extra that could have made this the definitive documentary on this icon of the 20th Century. My initial reaction is that the footage of Wright's building was superbly done, but the documentary would have been served with more of this footage...and especially, more footage of different buildings and not just the famous ones. Also, there is not a lot of effort to show exactly *why* Wright was a great architect. His main philosophy of design is covered, but not those small details that propel his buildings from the above average to the extraordinary. Instead, more attention is paid to his life, which admittedly also makes for a great story. This documentary is worth owning, but only to suppliment your collection of Wright books and videos (if you're so inclined as to have a "collection" like I do!). One other note: I expected the picture quality on this DVD to be of higher quality than it was. The rich colors of the footage are sometimes compromised by a coarse sampling rate (blocks of pixels becoming visible...especially in darker scenes). A higher rate of sampling would've served the DVD much better, even if it would have required two discs.
Rating: 
Summary: Did Jerry Springer make this film?
Review: This was very disappointing. There was way too much information on the personal failings of Frank Lloyd Wright and way too little on the architectural themes. Yes, you will see all the obvious structures: Fallingwater, the Guggenheim, the Johnson Wax building and the Japanese hotel. But Usonian structures receive about 2 minutes out of 2-plus hours. Yes, Frank Lloyd Wright was a jerk. We get it, Ken. I didn't need dozens of examples on why this was true. My feeling is that if Jerry Springer had done 2-plus hours on Frank Lloyd Wright, it would have looked a lot like this. Two stars for the little architecture we did get a chance to see. You will learn much more about this subject with the A&E tape called "The Homes of Frank Lloyd Wright".
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