Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9780780616783 Format: Box set, Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC ISBN: 0780616782 Label: Pbs Home Video Manufacturer: Pbs Home Video Number Of Items: 2 Publication Date: 1996 Publisher: Pbs Home Video Release Date: February 18, 1997 Running Time: 180 minutes Studio: Pbs Home Video Theatrical Release Date: 1996 Sales Rank: 2582
Description: Revered as the author of the Declaration of Independence yet condemned as a slave owner, Thomas Jefferson has entered a new era of controversy. This penetrating biography first portrays the young Jefferson from the Virginia wilderness, transformed by the philosophic fire of the American Revolution. Torn between his career and family life at Monticello, he suffers heartrending personal loss even as he pens a new concept in democratic government. Follow Jefferson's rising star as he becomes U.S. Minister to France, enters national politics, fulfills his destiny as President and begins his busy retirement years.
Amazon.com: 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
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Ken Burns Does History Well
The DVD was informative and engaging. Burns utilizes the most compelling narrators and resources to substatiate his effort. His history becomes dramatic, multi-faceted, and memorable.
Rating: - Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence. As president, he made the Louisiana Purchase from Napoleon and sent Lewis and Clark to open the west. They left St. Louis and headed up the Missouri River. ... Read More
Rating: - an inspiring film
As with most of Ken Burns' projects, I really enjoyed this film. I've noticed some reviewers faulting it as incomplete in some respects, and although I'm no expert on the subject, I don't doubt that this is ... Read More
Rating: - "Thomas Jefferson still lives."
"The principle of society with us is the equal rights of all. Nobody shall be above you nor you above anybody." Such words of Jefferson's are the reason why John Adams last words (on July 4, 1826), "Jefferson ... Read More
Rating: - Overreaching psychoanalysis with very little hisorical substance
I recently checked out this DVD from the library as I am currently reading the six volume biography of Jefferson by Dumas Malone (I am currently well into the fifth volume) and thought this would provide some additional ... Read More
- Ken Burns Does History Well
- "Thomas Jefferson still lives."
- Overreaching psychoanalysis with very little hisorical substance