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New Price: $30.25American Experience - The Way West: How the West Was Lost & Won, 1845-1893
Actors: John Trudell, Mardell Plainfeather, Sheila Tousey, Stephen Ambrose, David McCullough (II)
ASIN : B000CNESNK
Sales Rank : 76783
Director : Ric Burns
Studio : PBS Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0097367050571
UPC : 097367050571
Release Date : December 21, 2006
Publisher : PBS Paramount
Manufacturer : PBS Paramount
Label : PBS Paramount
Running Time : 360
Product DescriptionBetween 1845 and 1893, the American West was lost and won – wound with ribbons of iron and wire and brought within the dominion of the United States – while, along the way, the lives of hundreds of thousands of Native Americans were violently disrupted and all but destroyed. This mesmerizing six-hour documentary series from acclaimed filmmaker Ric Burns (The Civil War, Coney Island, New York), chronicles the final astonishing decades of the American frontier from the time of the Gold Rush until after the last gasp of the Indian wars at Wounded Knee.
Reviews for the American Experience - The Way West: How the West Was Lost & Won, 1845-1893
New Price: $39.50Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
Actors: Keith David, Tom Hanks, Adam Arkin, Tom Bodett, Philip Bosco
ASIN : B0000A02Y3
Sales Rank : 70975
Director : Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780780641440
ISBN : 0780641442
UPC : 794054881721
Release Date : December 30, 2003
Publisher : Pbs Home Video
Manufacturer : Pbs Home Video
Label : Pbs Home Video
Running Time : 146
DescriptionHoratio's Drive recounts the simultaneously inspirational and hilarious saga of Horatio Nelson Jackson, an eccentric Vermont doctor, who in 1903 - on a visionary whim and a 50-dollar bet - became the first person to drive an automobile across the continent, heralding the future of the "horseless carriage" as a vehicle destined for more than inner-city travel and as a machine that would transform American life. Amazon.comSubtitled "America's First Road Trip," Horatio's Drive captures the remarkable odyssey of Horatio Nelson Jackson, a doctor from Vermont who--accompanied by a former professional bicyclist and a bulldog named Bud--helmed the first trip from coast to coast in a car. In 1903, after making a $50 bet he could drive to New York City in 90 days, Nelson set off from San Francisco in a used Winton two-seater than he bought for $3000 and proceeded to cross a country where most roads, if they existed at all, were still made of dirt. Pulling together newspaper articles, period movies, and Jackson's own photographs and passionate love letters to his wife, famed documentarian Ken Burns crafts a love letter of his own to the automobile and the ways it has shaped American life. Horatio's Drive is both educational and completely entertaining. --Bret Fetzer
Reviews for the Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip
Price not listed for this item.Empire of the Air
Actors: Jason Robards, Guglielmo Marconi, Ken Bilby, Garrison Keillor, Norman Corwin
ASIN : B0002JP4PA
Sales Rank : 81071
Director : Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781415702390
ISBN : 141570239X
UPC : 097368857445
Release Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : Pbs Paramount
Manufacturer : Pbs Paramount
Label : Pbs Paramount
Running Time : 120
Amazon.comLike a juicy page-turner, Ken Burns's two-hour documentary on the history of radio is packed with tantalizing ingredients: power, greed, broken friendships, narcissistic heroes, and tragic players. Adapted from Tom Lewis's absorbing book, Empire follows three Americans who crafted Guglielmo Marconi's discovery of radio waves into a powerful component of the 20th century: foppish inventor Lee de Forest; Edwin Howard Armstrong, the engineer's engineer; and Russian immigrant David Sarnoff, who became head of RCA. This project came between Burns's mammoth Civil War and Baseball documentaries, and he departs from him usual structure. Instead of having actors read the letters of the participants, Burns relies on narrator Jason Robards. Because the subject matter is relatively new, there's abundant information on the three men, including on-air interviews with those who knew them. Burns's ability to marry image and sound (often old broadcasts) is a wonder, making this film as poetic as it is deft. --Doug Thomas
Reviews for the Empire of the Air
New Price: $28.00Thomas Jefferson
Actors: Sam Waterston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Ossie Davis, Blythe Danner, Michael Potts
ASIN : B00005MEPP
Sales Rank : 79231
Director : Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780780634169
ISBN : 0780634160
UPC : 794054559422
Release Date : December 28, 2001
Publisher : Pbs Home Video
Manufacturer : Pbs Home Video
Label : Pbs Home Video
Running Time : 180
DescriptionRevered as the author of the Declaration of Independence, the most sacred document in American history, yet condemned as a lifelong owner of slaves, Thomas Jefferson remains the enigma that is America. Part One: A young Thomas Jefferson from the Virginia wilderness is transformed by the fire of the Enlightenment into his country's most articulate voice for human liberty. Torn between serene family life at Monticello and his passion for politics, Jefferson suffers heartrending personal loss, even as he gives voice to a new era of democratic government. He then journeys to Paris as U.S. Minister to France for George Washington and supports the rising French Revolution. Part Two: Returning from France, Jefferson strives to preserve the new, fragile American government and helps create the first political party through his bitter struggles with the Federalists. As third President of the United States, he doubles the size of the county with the Louisiana Purchase, but faces controversy and scandal, finally retiring to his beloved Monticello. His last years are spent founding the University of Virginia and re-establishing his friendship with John Adams. By the end of his remarkable life, he had advanced the cause of religious, political, and intellectual freedom everywhere and had changed the course of human events. Amazon.comThe complicated life of Thomas Jefferson is the subject of this excellent documentary by noted filmmaker Ken Burns. Using techniques that will seem comfortably familiar to viewers of other films by Burns, historians and writers (including Joseph Ellis, Daniel Boorstin, Garry Wills, and Gore Vidal) appear on camera to speak about Jefferson, a cast of actors read the words of Jefferson and others. The visuals include beautifully photographed shots of Jefferson's famed estate, Monticello, other locations where Jefferson lived and worked, and a vast number of period drawings and paintings. Jefferson, who was born into a prosperous Virginia family but lost his father when he was young, became a skilled lawyer despite his natural shyness. And the story of how he became a public figure and rose to prominence during the American Revolution is told intelligently. Commentators, including the noted African American historian John Hope Franklin, grapple with the peculiar inconsistencies of Jefferson's life. The man who wrote the Declaration of Independence owned slaves, and some of what he wrote about race is both troubling and puzzling. This film (which covers Jefferson's entire life, including his two terms as the young country's president and his later years in Virginia) doesn't sidestep controversy but provides a balanced account of one of the most fascinating of all Americans. --Robert J. McNamara
Reviews for the Thomas Jefferson
New Price: $29.78Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Actors: Hal Holbrook, Adam Arkin, Murphy Guyer, Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick
ASIN : B00005MEPN
Sales Rank : 71025
Director : Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780780632356
ISBN : 0780632354
UPC : 794054349924
Release Date : December 28, 2001
Publisher : Pbs Home Video
Manufacturer : Pbs Home Video
Label : Pbs Home Video
Running Time : 240
DescriptionSent by President Thomas Jefferson to find the fabled Northwest Passage, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the most important expedition in American history a voyage of danger and discovery from St. Louis to the headwaters of the Missouri River, over the Continental Divide to the Pacific. It was the United States' first exploration of the West and one of the nation's most enduring adventures. This extraordinary film tells the remarkable story of the entire Corps of Discovery not just the two famous Captains, but the young army men, French-Canadian boatmen, Clark's African-American slave, and the Shoshone woman named Sacagawea, who brought along her infant son. Journey with them all, across a breath-taking landscape in an unforgettable experience that explores both the history and promise of America. Amazon.com essential videoAnother reliably well-crafted, generally engrossing documentary from Ken Burns, Lewis & Clark employs the director's now-familiar approach to his subjects, from its elegant juxtaposition of period illustrations and portraits against newly filmed footage of historic sites to Burns's repertory of accomplished actors to provide gravitas for quotes from the key figures. Granted the formula has become familiar enough to allow parody, but Burns knows how to invest his historical investigations with movement and drama, making this four-hour journey a worthwhile trip. As narrated by Hal Holbrook, Dayton Duncan's script explicates the agenda presented by Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, placing it in the context of the young country's gamble in Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase, and the expedition's goals for opening the West. While preserving the heroic scale of the undertaking, Burns also finds time to delve into the politics of the venture and the disparate personalities of the two explorers; in particular, Duncan and Burns look at the career of Lewis, the presidential protégé, his moody demeanor, and his untimely death. The film also looks beyond its titular leaders to examine the personalities of their corps of soldiers, their boatmen, and the Indians they met and depended on, most notably their female Shosone guide, Sacagawea. --Sam Sutherland
Reviews for the Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
New Price: $49.97Mark Twain - A Film Directed by Ken Burns
Actors: Keith David, Kevin Conway, Blythe Danner, Philip Bosco, Tim Clark
ASIN : B0002JP50Y
Sales Rank : 73288
Director : Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781415702536
ISBN : 1415702535
UPC : 097368858848
Release Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : Pbs Paramount
Manufacturer : Pbs Paramount
Label : Pbs Paramount
Running Time : 225
Amazon.comGiven the legendary life of its subject, it's not surprising that Mark Twain is perhaps the most entertaining documentary Ken Burns has made. The creator of The Civil War and Jazz achieves reverent harmony with the magnificent story of Missouri-born author Samuel Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain), encompassing legend and fact with an exhilarating sense of adventure. Hailed by Hemingway as the originator of American literature, Twain (a nom de plume taken from a riverboat pilot's term for "safe waters") viewed himself as the American. Burns's film backs that claim as it follows Clemens's literary odyssey around the globe, from unrivaled acclaim as a writer to near destitution and the devastating deaths of his wife and three children. As usual, eloquent writers and scholars (including longtime Twain performer Hal Holbrook) provide a wondrous flow of anecdotes and observations, recounting Twain's remarkable humor while acknowledging a darker side that felt anger toward an indifferent god. Like all of Burns's films, Mark Twain is must-see viewing. --Jeff Shannon
Reviews for the Mark Twain - A Film Directed by Ken Burns
New Price: $20.00Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
Actors: Hal Holbrook, Adam Arkin, Murphy Guyer, Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick
ASIN : B0002JP4YG
Sales Rank : 53466
Director : Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781415702529
ISBN : 1415702527
UPC : 097368858749
Release Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : Pbs Paramount
Manufacturer : Pbs Paramount
Label : Pbs Paramount
Running Time : 240
Amazon.com essential videoAnother reliably well-crafted, generally engrossing documentary from Ken Burns, Lewis & Clark employs the director's now-familiar approach to his subjects, from its elegant juxtaposition of period illustrations and portraits against newly filmed footage of historic sites to Burns's repertory of accomplished actors to provide gravitas for quotes from the key figures. Granted the formula has become familiar enough to allow parody, but Burns knows how to invest his historical investigations with movement and drama, making this four-hour journey a worthwhile trip. As narrated by Hal Holbrook, Dayton Duncan's script explicates the agenda presented by Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, placing it in the context of the young country's gamble in Jefferson's Louisiana Purchase, and the expedition's goals for opening the West. While preserving the heroic scale of the undertaking, Burns also finds time to delve into the politics of the venture and the disparate personalities of the two explorers; in particular, Duncan and Burns look at the career of Lewis, the presidential protégé, his moody demeanor, and his untimely death. The film also looks beyond its titular leaders to examine the personalities of their corps of soldiers, their boatmen, and the Indians they met and depended on, most notably their female Shosone guide, Sacagawea. --Sam Sutherland
Reviews for the Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery
New Price: $59.99Frank Lloyd Wright - A film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
Actors: Edward Herrmann, Philip Bosco, Julie Harris, Sab Shimono
ASIN : B00005MEPO
Sales Rank : 80518
Director : Lynn Novick, Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780780632349
ISBN : 0780632346
UPC : 794054367522
Release Date : December 28, 2001
Publisher : Pbs Home Video
Manufacturer : Pbs Home Video
Label : Pbs Home Video
Running Time : 153
DescriptionFrank Lloyd Wright was the greatest of all American architects. He was an authentic American genius, a man who believed he was destined to redesign the world, creating everything anew. Over the course of his long career, Wright designed over eight hundred buildings, including such revolutionary structures as the Guggenheim Museum, the Johnson Wax Building, Fallingwater, Unity Temple and Taliesin. Wright's buildings and his ideas changed the way we live, work and see the world around us. Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural achievements were often overshadowed by the turbulence of his melodramatic life. In ninety-two years, he fathered seven children, married three times, and almost constantly embroiled scandal. Some hated him, some loved him, but in the end, few could deny that he was the most important architect in America and perhaps the world. With exquisite live cinematography, fascinating interviews, and rare archival footage, this riveting film brings Wright's unforgettable story to life. Amazon.comThe beauty of Frank Lloyd Wright is that aside from telling a long and often melodramatic story lucidly, it deals with issues of art and architecture in ways that are approachable but not simplistic. (It's also surprisingly scandalous, although this is seen as part of his art.) Wright was first and foremost a rebel who took his cues from nature, though, as one commentator points out, this is not to say his approach was natural. What he was rebelling against was the clutter and claustrophobia of Victorian architecture. The rooms he designed opened up on each other, and his exteriors seemed to grow laterally out of the landscape. All of these ideas are neatly illustrated--although it perhaps could have been explained how Wright's later, whimsical designs related to his earlier, earthbound ones--with some marvelous footage of a Wright lily pad column supporting a load of sandbags and quiet Steadicam shots of Wright interiors that give the viewer a feeling for his sense of light and harmony. The filmmakers have wisely kept the technical talk to a minimum, but they are also not afraid to step back and let the experts ruminate on the nature of his genius, even when these experts are at a loss for words. Burns has made stars of some of his commentators in previous films, and in this one the late critic Brendan Gill shines. Wright himself comes across as a man who never doubted himself, a lousy father, and self-consciously Byronic. His vitality and larger-than-life persona seemed to belong to the 19th century, making him--and this is perhaps a mixed blessing--the last of his kind. --John Clark
Reviews for the Frank Lloyd Wright - A film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick
New Price: $69.99The West
Actors: Peter Coyote, Ossie Davis, Tantoo Cardinal, Daniel von Bargen, Gary Sinise
ASIN : B0000A02Y5
Sales Rank : 75968
Director : Stephen Ives
Studio : PBS Home Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9780780643611
ISBN : 0780643615
UPC : 794054889123
Release Date : December 30, 2003
Publisher : PBS Home Video
Manufacturer : PBS Home Video
Label : PBS Home Video
Running Time : 711
DescriptionProduced by acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns, this sweeping documentary reveals the American West stripped of its Hollywood mythology, yet filled with intense drama and peopled with a mix of larger-than-life heroes and villains. Spanning the years from the first European advance into the wilderness to the dawn of the 20th century, the series portrays the profound, often devastating impact the onrushing white settlers, adventurers and exploiters had on Indian peoples and the land. In vivid imagery and in words spoken by many of today's best-known personalities, The West shows how the discovery of gold in California changed the country forever. Witness the torrent of violence triggered by the Civil War, the building of the transcontinental railroad, the tragedies at Little Big Horn and Wounded Knee -- all the key events and the people who created and shaped this great American story. Amazon.comSince its premiere on PBS in September 1996, The West has rightfully assumed its place as a milestone event in television history, and remains the single most ambitious and authoritative audio-visual history of the American West. Spanning centuries but focusing primarily on the period of 1800 to 1915, when America was virtually redefined by westward expansion, this outstanding 12.5-hour film is itself a triumphant effort to redefine Americans' collective understanding of the West and its impact on national identity. Directed by Stephen Ives and executive produced by Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz), the film follows the theory adopted by previous Ken Burns productions--namely, that "history is biography"--and unfolds through a wealth of personal anecdote and intimate documentation. The film's lasting achievement is its interweaving of the two distinct threads of western history--the triumph of westward expansion from the urban areas of the East, and the tragic dispossession of the Native Americans who had populated North America for thousands of years. Where previous historical perspectives tended to emphasize one direction or the other, The West (written by Geoffrey C. Ward and Dayton Duncan) achieves a delicate balance, illustrating how nearly every story of pioneering idealism was countered by incidents of tragic loss and suffering. Brilliantly narrated by Peter Coyote, the series gains further depth and authority through interviews with more than 75 historians and experts. Foremost among them is N. Scott Momaday, scholar, historian, and Kiowa Indian, whose contribution to the series is deeply affecting. Other experts include historians Richard White, Patricia Nelson Limerick, and Stephen Ambrose; writers Michael Dorris and Maxine Hong Kingston; Lakota descendant Charlotte Black Elk; former Texas governor Ann Richards; and many others. When viewed in its entirety, this outstanding, truly epic documentary combines all of its separate episodes to form an emotionally involving narrative of astonishing depth and unprecedented accuracy. To say that The West is essential viewing would be an understatement; this film should be considered mandatory to any balanced awareness of America's turbulent and glorious westward movement. --Jeff Shannon
Reviews for the The West
New Price: $11.98The Shakers
Actor: David McCullough (II)
ASIN : B0002JP52C
Sales Rank : 91618
Director : Ken Burns, Amy Stechler
Studio : Pbs Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781415702567
ISBN : 141570256X
UPC : 097368859142
Release Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : Pbs Paramount
Manufacturer : Pbs Paramount
Label : Pbs Paramount
Running Time : 58
Amazon.comFrom America's documentarian Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz) comes this intimate portrait of a "serene creed" whose members considered themselves America's "chosen people." They called themselves the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, but because of their ecstatic dancing, they are more popularly known as the Shakers. Its members put their "hands to work and their hearts to God," creating a legacy of fine and priceless furniture and magnificent architecture. A model for the world's utopians, the Shakers believed in social, economic, and spiritual equality, and in pacifism, feminism, and joyful personal worship. They also believed in celibacy, which is why, when Burns filmed this in 1989, there were but a dozen Shakers left in America. On-location footage, contemporary interviews with historians and present and former members, and dramatic voice-overs culled from diaries create a moving portrait of the Shakers and "[keep] the light shining bright." --Donald Liebenson
Reviews for the The Shakers
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