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The War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

ASIN : B000R7NBMK
Sales Rank : 219
Director : Ken Burns, Lynn Novick
Brand : Paramount
Studio : PBS
Region Code : 1
Format : Anamorphic, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0841887052122
UPC : 841887052122
Release Date : December 02, 2007
Publisher : PBS
Manufacturer : PBS
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : PBS
Running Time : 900

Description

The War will be a seven - episode series, produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, that will examine the myriad ways in which the Second World War touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America. By telling the stories of ordinary people in four quintessentially American towns – Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and the tiny farming town of Luverne, Minnesota – the series will portray this enormous worldwide catastrophe on an intimate, human scale. The War will intertwine vivid eyewitness accounts of the harrowing realities of life on the front lines with reminiscences of Americans who never left their home towns, and who tried their best to carry on with the business of daily life while their fathers and brothers and sons were overseas. The film will honor and celebrate the bravery, endurance, and sacrifice, of the generation of Americans who lived through what will always be known simply as The War.

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Creating epic documentaries about war is nothing new for Ken Burns, nor is the subject of the Second World War, which never ceases to be a popular subject of films and TV shows. Yet with The War, Burns has definitely succeeded in breaking new ground, exploring in depth the effect of the war on common Americans, and not just the soldiers of The Greatest Generation that fought it. As the narration says at the beginning, "The war affected people in every house, on every street in every town in America." This is nothing less than an attempt to show how the war altered the lives of an entire nation through the portrayal of four individuals from four communities--Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alambama; Luverne, Minnesota; and Sacramento, California--that could represent any town in the country that went through the war. The result is another stunning achievement for Burns and co-director Lynn Novick. Together the filmmaking team succeeds in bringing the war home through the testimonies, letters, and footage of the people from these towns. The storytelling is compelling--Burns and Novick manage to find the most vivid, intimate, and personal dimensions of a global catastrophe--and brought to life with exceptional voice work from marquee stars like Tom Hanks, Alan Arkin, and Samuel L. Jackson. Much of the footage is brilliantly restored; even the most die-hard History Channel buff will see clips here that they've never viewed before. Many old grainy family films look almost as clean and bright as if they were just shot using a modern camera with black-and-white film (keeping in mind that most of the footage was shot without sound, the audio effects work on The War is particularly impressive and should bring attention to the underappreciated work of the foley artist). It took Burns and Novick six years to make this seven-part, 15-hour film--not surprising, really, considering the miles of footage they must have accumulated in the course of their research--and the time and effort shows in the results. The DVD also includes a making-of featurette, deleted scenes, extensive commentaries, and more, in addition to a companion book, The War: An Intimate History. --Daniel Vancini

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The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

ASIN : B0001L3LUE
Sales Rank : 2850
Director : Errol Morris
Brand : Sony
Studio : Sony Pictures
Region Code : 99
Format : Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 9781404941663
ISBN : 1404941665
UPC : 043396019164
Release Date : December 11, 2004
Publisher : Sony Pictures
Manufacturer : Sony Pictures
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Sony Pictures
Running Time : 107
Actor: Robert McNamara

Product Description

The story of america as seen through the eyes of former secretary of defense robert mcnamara. One of the most controversial & influential figures in world politics he takes us on an insiders journey through many of the seminal events of the 20th century. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 05/13/2008 Starring: Robert Mcnamara Run time: 107 minutes Rating: Pg13

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The Fog of War, the movie that finally won Errol Morris the best documentary Oscar, is a spellbinder. Morris interviews Robert McNamara, Secretary of Defense in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations, and finds a uniquely unsettling viewpoint on much of 20th-century American history. Employing a ton of archival material, including LBJ's fascinating taped conversations from the Oval Office, Morris probes the reasons behind the U.S. commitment to the Vietnam War--and finds a depressingly inconsistent policy. McNamara himself emerges as--well, not exactly apologetic, but clearly haunted by the what-ifs of Vietnam. He also mulls the bombing of Japan in World War II and the Cuban Missile Crisis, raising more questions than he answers. The Fog of War has the usual inexorable Morris momentum, aided by an uneasy Philip Glass score. This movie provides a glimpse inside government. It also encourages skepticism about same. --Robert Horton

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Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

ASIN : B000BITUHU
Sales Rank : 3032
Director : Ken Burns
Studio : Pbs Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0841887051385
UPC : 841887051385
Release Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : Pbs Paramount
Manufacturer : Pbs Paramount
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Pbs Paramount
Running Time : 240
Actors: Hal Holbrook, Adam Arkin, Murphy Guyer, Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick

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Another 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

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Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns

ASIN : B000BITUJS
Sales Rank : 5443
Director : Ken Burns
Brand : Paramount
Studio : PBS Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0841887051392
UPC : 841887051392
Release Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : PBS Paramount
Manufacturer : PBS Paramount
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : PBS Paramount
Running Time : 180
Actors: Hal Holbrook, Adam Arkin, Murphy Guyer, Sam Waterston, Matthew Broderick

Product Description

Patriot & drafter of the declaration of independence president inventor & diplomat - all this & more was thomas jefferson americas foremost documentary historian offers a riveting portrait of this remarkable & controversial man. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/30/2005 Run time: 180 minutes Rating: Nr Director: Ken Burns

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The 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

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Wordplay

ASIN : B000HLDFR2
Sales Rank : 9670
Director : Patrick Creadon
Brand : GENIUS
Studio : Ifc
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0796019796156
UPC : 796019796156
Release Date : December 07, 2006
Publisher : Ifc
Manufacturer : Ifc
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Label : Ifc
Running Time : 85
Actors: Will Shortz, Merl Reagle, Tyler Hinman, Norman Payne, Al Sanders

Description

Witness the inner workings of Will Shortz, NY Times Editor and NPR Puzzle Master, and his brilliant, entertaining and often hilarious contributors as well as surprising celebrity fans. Wordplay takes us through the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament where almost five hundred competitors battled it out for the title "Crossword Champ" and showed their true colors along the way.

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The linguistic ballet of the crossword puzzle and the obsessive minds that wrestle with them are a source of delight in the charming documentary Wordplay. Though there's no story, the movie has a definite hero: Will Shortz, the editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle, universally acknowledged as the pinnacle of crosswords. Shortz comes across as clever but modest; though he's at the top of his particular world, he retains a bemused perspective on that world's limitations. Though speckled with celebrities from former President Bill Clinton to the Indigo Girls, the most engaging interviews are with puzzle creator Merl Reagle (who gives a fascinating on-screen demonstration of how he starts making a puzzle) and the witty and garrulous commentary by the former public editor for the Times, Daniel Okrent. Like many recent documentaries, Wordplay is built around a competition: The American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, an annual event started by Shortz and embraced by people who have devoted an alarming amount of their brain space to filling squares with letters. Though the movie is not as emotionally involving as Spellbound--still the ne plus ultra of nerdy documentaries--Wordplay's window into its particular subculture will be enjoyable to non-crossword fans as well as committed puzzleheads.--Bret Fetzer

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Triumph of the Will

ASIN : B000E41MRC
Sales Rank : 8942
Director : Leni Riefenstahl
Brand : Ryko Distribution
Studio : Synapse Video
Region Code : 1
Format : Black & White, DVD-Video, Original recording remastered, Special Edition, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0654930305294
UPC : 654930305294
Release Date : December 28, 2006
Publisher : Synapse Video
Manufacturer : Synapse Video
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Synapse Video
Running Time : 120
Actors: Adolf Hitler, Hermann Göring, Max Amann, Martin Bormann, Walter Buch

Product Description

This documentary of the Sixth Nazi Party Congress at ironically enough Nuremberg is a frightening example of powerful film propaganda. It helped launch Hitler into power and its sweeping style was later used by American director Frank Capra for his war documentaries.System Requirements:Running Time 120 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DOCUMENTARIES/MISC. Rating: NR UPC: 654930305294 Manufacturer No: SFD0052

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Riefenstahl was hired by the Reich to create an eternal record of the 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and that's exactly what she does. You might not become a Nazi after watching her film, but you will understand too clearly how Germany fell under Hitler's spell. The early crowd scenes remind one of nothing so much as Beatles concert footage (if only their fans were so well behaved!).

Like the fascists it monumentalizes, Triumph of the Will overlooks its own weaknesses--at nearly two hours, the speeches tend to drone on, and the repeated visual motifs are a little over-hypnotic, especially for modern viewers. But the occasional iconic vista (banners lining the streets of Nuremberg, Hitler parting a sea of 200,000 party members standing at attention) will electrify anyone into wakefulness. --Grant Balfour

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Triumph of the Will is one of the most important films ever made. Not because it documents evil--more watchable examples are being made today. And not as a historical example of blind propaganda--those (much shorter) movies are merely laughable now. No, Riefenstahl's masterpiece--and it is a masterpiece, politics aside--combines the strengths of documentary and propaganda into a single, overwhelmingly powerful visual force. Riefenstahl was hired by the Reich to create an eternal record of the 1934 rally at Nuremberg, and that's exactly what she does. You might not become a Nazi after watching her film, but you will understand too clearly how Germany fell under Hitler's spell. The early crowd scenes remind one of nothing so much as Beatles concert footage (if only their fans were so well behaved!). Like the fascists it monumentalizes, Triumph of the Will overlooks its own weaknesses--at nearly two hours, the speeches tend to drone on, and the repeated visual motifs are a little over-hypnotic, especially for modern viewers. But the occasional iconic vista (banners lining the streets of Nuremberg, Hitler parting a sea of 200,000 party members standing at attention) will electrify anyone into wakefulness. --Grant Balfour

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The Thin Blue Line

ASIN : B00094AS72
Sales Rank : 10709
Director : Errol Morris
Brand : TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT
Studio : MGM (Video & DVD)
Region Code : 1
Format : Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0027616902320
UPC : 027616902320
Release Date : December 26, 2005
Publisher : MGM (Video & DVD)
Manufacturer : MGM (Video & DVD)
Label : MGM (Video & DVD)
Running Time : 102
Actors: Randall Adams, David Harris (III), Gus Rose, Jackie Johnson, Marshall Touchton

Description

Academy AwardÂ(r)-winner* Errol Morris broke new ground with the "riveting" (LA Weekly) film that dramatically reenacts the crime scene and investigation of a police officer's murder in Dallas. So powerful and convincing that it helped free an innocent man from prison, The Thin Blue Line is "one of the finest documentary features ever made" (Boxoffice). On November 28, 1976, when drifter Randall Dale Adams was picked up by teenage runaway David Harris, his fate was sealed. That night, a police officer was shot in cold blood. And though all the facts pointed to Harris, a sociopath with a lengthy rap sheet, Adams was convicted of capital murder. Was Adamsguilty? And if not, can Morris unlock the secrets of this baffling case? *2003: Documentary Feature, The Fog of War (with Michael Williams)

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This landmark award-winning documentary, which revolutionized the form and helped acquit an innocent man of murder, came about almost by accident. Errol Morris had already directed such offbeat documentaries as Gates of Heaven (concerning pet cemeteries; a favorite of Roger Ebert's) and Vernon, Florida, which touchingly portrays the small town's eccentric inhabitants. He'd intended to travel to Texas to make a film about the criminal-psychiatry expert James Grigson, or "Dr. Death" as he came to be known for his frequent testimony against defendants, who were often then sent to death row. When Morris discovered that the doctor was involved in the trial of Randall Dale Adams, a man who, it seemed, had been falsely accused of the highway murder of a police officer, he decided that Adams's story was the real one to tell. Morris's innovative use of repeated dramatization, multiple points of view, talking-head and phone interviews, and symbolism--in concert with Philip Glass's haunting music--establishes that a combination of communitarian zeal and overly eager testimony persuaded the jury to find Adams, a "drifter" from the Midwest, guilty of the crime, instead of his underage (and, for the death penalty, ineligible) acquaintance, David Harris, who had a criminal record. The "thin blue line" of police officers separating the public from chaos--as the judge, quoting the D.A. in the case, has it--destabilizes in Morris's world and puts people at risk of injustice as often as it protects them. After serving time for a sentence commuted to life imprisonment, Adams was freed, making Errol Morris his most talented advocate. --Robert Burns Neveldine

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Mark Twain - A Film Directed by Ken Burns

ASIN : B000BITUI4
Sales Rank : 17380
Director : Ken Burns
Brand : Paramount
Studio : Pbs Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0841887051354
UPC : 841887051354
Release Date : December 28, 2004
Publisher : Pbs Paramount
Manufacturer : Pbs Paramount
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : Pbs Paramount
Running Time : 212
Actors: Keith David, Kevin Conway, Philip Bosco, Blythe Danner, Tim Clark

Product Description

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 10/20/2005 Director: Ken Burns

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Given 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

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Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

ASIN : B000GEIREQ
Sales Rank : 14885
Director : Ric Burns
Brand : Paramount
Studio : PBS Paramount
Region Code : 1
Format : Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Binding : DVD
EAN : 0841887007894
UPC : 841887051828
Release Date : December 21, 2006
Publisher : PBS Paramount
Manufacturer : PBS Paramount
Availability : Usually ships in 24 hours
Label : PBS Paramount
Running Time : 240
Actors: Paul Morrissey, Pat Hackett, Irving Blum, Donna De Salvo (II), Salvador Dalí

Description

"He was the most American of artists and the most artistic of Americans," one man later said – "so American in fact that he is almost invisible to us." ANDY WARHOL – a riveting and often deeply moving film portrait of the most famous and famously controversial artist of the second half of the twentieth century – is the first to explore the complete spectrum of Warhol's astonishing artistic output, stretching across five decades from the late 1940's to his untimely death in 1987. Combining powerful on-camera interviews and rare still and motion picture footage, it is also the first to put Warhol himself – his humble family background and formative experiences in Pittsburgh, and his crucial apprenticeship as a commercial artist in New York – back into the presentation of his life.

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Ric Burns' Andy Warhol is a four-hour pop-culture extravaganza that will retool what you think you know about the famed and oft-parodied soup-can painter. Delving deep into Andy's impoverished upbringing in Pittsburgh, the greatest success of Burns' film is its ability to delve deep behind the façade of Andy Warhol, Pop Celebrity. Featuring interviews with an array of confidants from art dealers to artists (but, alas, no Lou Reed), Burns' film portrays an extremely insecure man who lived with his mother through much of the Factory years and constantly seeked a measure of fame akin to the Hollywood starlets whose photographs he tore out of the pages of Depression-era movie mags. Andy Warhol succeeded in achieving that fame, and along the way redefined how we think of art and culture. This film may very well redefine what you think of the man. -- Kristian St. Clair

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The War - A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

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The Fog of War - Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara

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Lewis & Clark - The Journey of the Corps of Discovery

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Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns

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Wordplay

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Frank Lloyd Wright: A Film By Ken Burns and Lynn Novick

Triumph of the Will

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The Thin Blue Line

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Mark Twain - A Film Directed by Ken Burns

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Andy Warhol: A Documentary Film

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