Ken Burns Presents: The West - A Film by Stephen Ives: I think that it is no stretch to say that when Ken Burns first released The Civil War in 1990 it revolutionized and changed the documentary forever. It stands today as one of the most celebrated and imitated documentaries ever. After The Civil War, the name Ken Burns became synonymous with the documentary. Here he lends his name and is the executive producer of this film by Steven Ives.

The documentary tells the great story of the West from the Indians to the Spaniards to the Americans. It tells of how the land changed but was not so politically correct to rewrite history portraying the Americans as bad and the Indians as saints which is the modern way school textbooks like to tell it.

Ives apparently must be a pupil of Burns in that this documentary is styled very much like The Civil War. In some ways, parts of it act as a companion to The Civil War in that some of the same actors reprise their previous roles which is certainly much appreciated as the original actors were perfect.

In short, this documentary is excellent. I expected it to be great and it was.

Labels: Documentary, History

American Civil War: From Gettysburg to Reconstruction: Mandi bought me this little DVD and since she is such a wonderful girlfriend, I decided to go ahead and watch it.

This is another documentary that is somewhat thrown together. Most of the visuals are from The General, Birth of a Nation and Abraham Lincoln. It's about average and could pass as a student film but nothing that could ever appear on the History Channel.

The prize of the DVD are two early silent shorts related to the Civil War. One is an Edison short on the life of Lincoln and the other is Railroad Raiders of '62 which is a nine minute short on the story of what would later be made as The General and also The Great Locomotive Chase. Both of these make the disc worthwhile. So if you like classic silent films, check this disc out, but skip the documentary.

Labels: Civil War, Documentary

Steam Trains: Now here is a collection that I have watched off and on for a while without writing anything. I won't talk it up much as it is exactly what you expect, a cheap pre-BCI Brentwood DVD set that I bought for around $10. In this case the content is mostly old videos made by railfan magazine transferred to DVD. If you expect lots of camcorder and amateur footage then you are be right. The production values are nil but I suppose

Of note to us in the Northeast United States, one disc side is devoted to programs on the now defunct tourist trap Edaville Railroad which I visited as a child. My dad enjoyed that a lot so for the Edaville footage, I suppose it wasn't bad.

Labels: Cheap DVDs, Documentary

The American Civil War: Just when you thought it was safe to buy documentaries on DVD comes this piece of refuse from the trash heap. I have seen a lot of Civil War documentaries in my day but this one takes the Dan Dalton award for being the most boring one ever, which was a tall order after the Blood and Honor tin I reviewed some time back. What we have here is something that might get a B+ for a student documentary from a guy who has a bunch re-enactors for buddies.

While I can forgive the shoddy production based on the notion that I could probably do no better, what I can't forgive on this release are the apparent copyright violations in the soundtrack. While the songs of the Civil War are long passed their copyright expiration various recordings are not. This release featured tracks straight from the soundtrack of the Ken Burns Civil War. I'm surprised they didn't use Ashokan Farewell.

To top it all off, this two hour film is completely boring. Avoid this at all costs and don't confuse it with the much superior American Civil War: A Union Divided.

Labels: Civil War, Documentary, History

The American Civil War - A Union Divided: In my most recent order from Deep Discount, I ordered for myself a bunch of low priced documentaries, mostly on the Civil War, for review and for something to put on to fall asleep to (nothing soothes me to sleep like the sound of talking heads.) In reviewing them I am watching them pretty much all at the same time as you will see in upcoming reviews. Some are crap but this one I have to say is worth looking at.

After Ken Burns released his epic documentary, The Civil War to PBS all those years ago, everyone from The History Channel to fly by night companies have attempted to make
something that serves as somewhat of a replacement or companion to the 11 hour documentary. Clocking in at just over three hours is this release from British based Eagle Media.

A Union Divided is done more in the style of the History Channel documentaries than the Ken Burns style. There are plenty of photos and talking heads mixed in with the usual re-enactment footage and live action scenery filming. The re-enactment footage tries to keep brief but I for one am no real lover of using it as documentary padding. CGI animation is used on the maps to illustrate battles. If I have any real complaints on the cinematography it would be that some shots show modern day cities like New York and Washington when plenty of vintage photographs would work just fine.

The extras are quite nice with dramatic readings of letters home and songs of the Civil War being the best features. All in all I would say this is a good documentary and definitely worth picking up when you can get it under $10 like I did.

Labels: Civil War, Documentary, History

The Last Days of the Civil War: Here is a collection of Civil War documentaries in a package supposedly about, well, the last days of the Civil War. Strangely enough, that is not entirely the case. While it does include the magnificent documentary April 1865, it also includes some episodes of Civil War Journal, Biography and Civil War Combat. While I normally would not complain, I had already bought the Robert E. Lee documentary as well as the episode of Civil War Combat on other previously released (and still in print) History Channel collections.

I was also disappointed to find the Civil War Journal episodes were the redubbed versions without the narration and host segments with Danny Glover. I am no fan of Danny Glover and this narrator is much easier on the ears than Glover, I do like to keep things original.

What this set does have going for it is April 1865. It is a fantastic day by day approach to, as the documentary rightfully put it, "the month that changed America."

I suppose it's not bad for the reduced price of $9 I paid but I wouldn't pay much more.

Labels: Civil War, Documentary, History

The Railroads that Tamed the West: Back when the History Channel was new, all sorts of programs were produced. Some started out good and then fizzled or had strong episodes and ran out of material, like the Civil War Journal and The Real West series. One series that continues today is Modern Marvels, of which this particular documentary is a part of. The show is a 50 minute format dealing with technology that changed the world.

This episode, as the title suggests, is all about the westward expansion of our country and how the railroad played a big part. Technology such as refrigerated cars, standardized time, air brakes and the knuckle coupler are mentioned. It's quite informative although it's not as brisk paced as the more recent episodes. I would recommend this DVD if not for the fact that I got it at Deep Discount DVD for $14.98 and most likely is still shown in the rotation on the History Channel.

Labels: Documentary

The Great Indian Wars 1540-1890: After assembling my new DVD shelf (which I may post pictures of once the room is funny cleaned out) I settled in and finished this documentary box set I received.

While BCI has moved towards releasing licensed programs, I still was not expecting much with this set. My expectation was that it would be a cheap documentary, much like that of Dan Dalton's boring films. To my surprise this was a new documentary produced by and for BCI and the quality was really quite good. What I did like was how the documentary was not a white wash of political correctness which plagues high school history classes. Never once were the Indians portrayed as a Utopian peaceful society. It also explained that the life following the buffalo was a relatively new way of life to the Indians when the Americans moved west.

I recommend this set to anyone who enjoys History Channel style documentaries or the topic of the Indian wars.

Labels: Documentary