<< 1 >>
Rating: 
Summary: BURNS BEST WORK
Review: His big series on the "Civil War" and "Baseball" get all the hype but,with Hal Holbrook narrarting and a "who's who" in history backing him up with the running color commentary, this is his most engrossing work. This documentary gives you a real sense of accomplishment when you have finished and if you can resist reading about the expedition after you've seen it, then check your pulse I think you need a doctor. The basis of the movie is the journals kept by Lewis and Clark during the trip. They were truly diverse men that could not only handle the hardships of the journey but, eloquently place the events in writing. Any fiction writer would be pressed to keep you as interested as the actual events recorded. This is fantastic stuff.
Rating:
Summary: Ken Burns does it again!
Review: I am a HUGE Ken Burns fan and absolutely love his other works that I've watched: Civil War and Thomas Jefferson. This one is top notch in bringing history alive and all its current signifigance in an enjoyable fashion.I had read about Lewis and Clark in grade school...everyone has...but it's not until I'm 40 years of age watching these Ken Burns movies do I finally understand the context and the signifigance of the events. Highlights in this movie for me include:
1) The portrayal of Sacagawea. I am going to have to biography of this strong and fascinating woman to learn more and satisfy my curiousity.
2) The comments by one of the historians named Duncan. At one point his lip is quivering and he is on the brink of tears as he describes Lewis' suicide several years after the journey. I am going to have to find a book or two by this historian on this topic.
3) The DVD extras. There are some interviews with Ken Burns and the making of this DVD that are excellent. After seeing several of his movies I had no idea what Ken Burns was like, his life, his motivation...and these shorts gave me some insight.
4) The beautiful scenery and music. I watch one of these movies and I invigorates my enjoyment of history and I end up adding 2 or 3 related books to my reading list. If this is your first Ken Burns movie, you'll love it and this is a good one to start with. If you're already a Ken Burns fan, you will not be disappointed. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: I had always thought that "Baseball" and "The Civil War" were very good films. However, as good as they are, they do not compare to "Lewis and Clark." The job which Burns did in blending images of the time period, the west, and the telling of a true American story through the words of historians such as Dayton Duncan and Stephen Ambrose, as well as the narration of a script which included journal entries of several members of the Corps, was marvelous. Before seeing this documentary, I had never appreciated the difficulties, hardships, and dangers which Captains Lewis and Clark and the rest of the Corps of Discovery had to meet and overcome, nor did I ever appreciate the fact that these men were, in every sense of the word, heroes. I would recommend this tape for anyone who has an even slight interest in American History. This documentary draws your emotions into it, and is perhaps as close as an average person can ever come to feeling the emotions of triumph, tragedy, excitment, fear, apprehension, and patriotism which the member of the members of the corps felt. A trueley wonderful film and well worth the cost.
Rating:
Summary: I am watching this for the 10th time. At least.
Review: Ken Burns has pulled me into this story like nothing else could have. This presentation combines stories told in a most compelling way, readings from the journals, pictures and paintings, and music in a way that makes the Lewis & Clark expedition come alive. It's an adventure story that transcends time. I was so blown away when I first saw it on PBS that I bought the book, the VHS video, and now the CD/book combo. I am watching it now for the 10th time, and I still cry when I get to Grinder's Stand. My son is now writing a report on Lewis and Clark for school, and he is using this DVD as his primary source. He chose the topic, and it's one of the few stories that has captured his attention other than Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. (Thank you, Ken Burns!) This is a real-life adventure story that is expertly told. (I would love to get the soundtrack that PBS used to sell, but they apparently no longer sell it.)
Rating:
Summary: Visually beautiful with fine narration of an important story
Review: The expedition of Lewis & Clark is one of the great events in American History and is all but unknown today. This wonderful program is a great way to become more familiar with this fascinating story and that great band of explorers (including the woman on our Golden Dollar: Sacagawea). Hal Holbrook is a great narrator and the writing is quite good. The visuals are even better. It is stunning to view and brings some real appreciation to what the Corps of Discovery accomplished. Just taking that boat upstream for so many miles is stunning, let alone all the cataloging they did in the face of a very real struggle for survival. It is also amazing to see how many vistas Burns and crew were able to find in such a seemingly pristine state. One of the real shocks to me was to understand how nearly deadly the Great Plains were to the Corps because of the lack of wood. Growing up in Michigan with trees everywhere, we take wood for granted. On that expedition, its lack was a real hardship. While not as dramatic as war and without and the lack of contemporary illustrations requires a different presentation style than Burns normally provides, this is still a visual feast and good solid food for the brain. Worth viewing many times for many reasons. Don't forget to read Stephen Ambrose's "Undaunted Courage" as well.
Rating:
Summary: An experience in its own right
Review: This film makes history live. The Core of Discovery expedition was more than a century and a half before my birth and yet, this film made me feel as if I were a member.
Like other Ken Burns films, it is long. However, like other Ken Burns films, it encouraged me to take my time. I watched the 4 hours one segment at a time in the evenings with dinner over the course of almost two weeks. And what a viewing!
I never knew that the Lewis and Clark expedition was a military expedition. I never knew that Lewis and Clark where military officers and that they took a platoon of soldiers with them. I never knew that they took plant and animal samples, including sending a live ground hog back to Thomas Jefferson.
I never knew that the expedition was called the Core of Discovery or that these two incredible military officers took so many soldiers such an incredible distance over the course of years and lost only one, who was lost to a disease that most likely no one could have cured at the time. I never knew that they drew the first map of most of the United States, using only dead reconning and were accurate to withing 40 miles of the actual distance despite their primative instruments and a distance of some 4,000 miles! I never knew these men were so incredible. And, I never knew that Merriweather Lewis was so incredibly depressed that he died, "I'm sorry to say," by suicide.
This film is so personal, I felt the tears that the historian on the film displayed when he told of Lewis' death. He died more than a century before my birth and yet, by the time I was finished with the film, I felt pain for his death, anger at York's difficulty gaing his freedom and sadness at the passing of the Shoshone Indian lady guide Sakajeya.
Films like this might actually make me like history, a topic I learned to hate in elementary school. I wish there were more historical films like this one. I wish I were on Ken Burns' staff. I'd love to do research like this. I'd love to bring life not only to history, but to the people who view it. What a great film!
Rating:
Summary: Relive one of the greatest journeys of all time
Review: With trips to the summit of Everest now quite routine, there are no more places on the surface of the Earth left to explore. The greatest feat of exploration of the past century was the manned landing on the moon. However, it was more a feat of technology than a voyage of discovery. In the nineteenth century, the greatest feat of exploration in North America was the journey of the corps of discovery, where Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led a small expedition up the Missouri river and over land to the Pacific ocean. Sent by President Jefferson shortly after the Louisiana Purchase, their mandate was to map, gather scientific data on the wildlife, search for a Northwest passage to the Pacific and to make contact with the native American inhabitants. Amazingly, they did all three, being more successful than even the greatest of optimists could have foreseen.
Retracing their journey and interspersed with dramatic reenactments, this tape is truly history in action. With no possibility of relief arriving for years, they were required to live on what they could carry as well as what they could find on the land or obtain from the natives. What was most interesting about the tape is the descriptions of their relationships with the various tribes they encountered. Truly, without the active assistance of several tribes, they would have starved to death or have been forced to turn back. In fact, a Shoshone woman named Sacagawea traveled with them for most of the journey, carrying her infant son every step of the way. It is a tribute to Lewis and Clark that they kept such accurate and honest journals. From them, we can learn what happened, and there is no hint of personal embellishment in their writings. In hearing these accounts, you cannot help but wonder if the native tribes understood that their world had changed forever, and of course not for the better.
I have traveled most of their route by vehicle, and when you move up the mountains, you cannot help but be impressed by how difficult it was for them to move over them by horseback. Keep in mind that they were also carrying extensive munitions, goods for trade and other miscellaneous necessities. Furthermore, there was only one fatality among the members of the corps, and that was most likely appendicitis, something that no medical person on the planet could have successfully treated.
The journey of Lewis & Clark irrevocably changed the social structure of half of what is now the continental United States. This tape is an accurate historical account of their adventure and should be a requirement for graduation from high school.
<< 1 >>
|
