So far, VERY entertaining. Learning a lot and I'm not some huge country fan although I grew up having to listen to it thanks to my pops. Great stories and love the old pics. Classic Ken Burns. You can also tell it took him a long, long time to finish this as Merl Hagard comments a lot and he's been dead for 3 years.
two episodes in and this is shaping up to be my favorite ken burns doc. the jimmie rodgers stuff was fascinating. didnt know too much about him and had no idea how many timeless hit songs he had written. tunes that all this time i thought someone else had written, but it was him. and the fact that producer had the idea for him and louis armstrong to do a tune together...and it worked! two styles that shouldnt go together, but they pull it off perfectly... the photos of the carter family are incredible. they look like cartoon characters, and i dont mean in a derogatory way. they just look so unreal and larger than life. bob wills too - i wish they would have spent more time on his story. and they only mentioned tommy duncan once...duncan was the main singer and many of the most popular bob wills tunes were ones he sang and even wrote...one of the greatest voices in country music, period.
Got them all set to record, haven't watched yet, but one of the things I've always loved about his docs is that no matter the subject, he gets into society at that time and place - Civil War, Baseball, Jazz, whatever - and that's what I'm looking forward to the most about this one. And the old music. Speaking of, as I pulled into the house this evening the radio station started playing this song, hadn't heard it in a long time: My question is: what exactly is a Tennessee Flat Top Box? My brother says it's just a guitar, but no guitar I've ever seen has a flat top or is shaped like a box....
I have seen all of his documentaries. Prohibition is the best IMO because it captures and explains a very complicated topic that really requires an understanding of the history leading up to Prohibition and the impact women played. Baseball is a must watch for anyone that is a fan of the game. As usual, Burns does a great job of tying everything together for everyone. My only complaint is that the content isn't very good post 1960's. Civil War is well worth watching...... so are some of his smaller budget works like Huey Long and Mark Twain. He is going to do a documentary on comedy which should be interesting. There are also rumors of Burns and his daughter working with Bill James and his daughter about a true crime documentary.
I liked "The Roosevelts". I'd read a lot of the source material that went into the documentary (Doris Kearns Goodwin, etc). "Fala" is classic. I like "Country Music" with the small complaint that Peter Coyote's narration, while excellent as always, is now too familiar. Maybe should have gone with one country artist narrating each episode? But it's a minor quibble.
Just watched "The Vietnam War" on Netflix. Very well done and very moving. Many notable things, but I'll just pick three: 1) This was the first time I had seen the entire (or lengthy) footage of what "Hanoi Jane" did in North Vietnam. It's easy to see now why so many people hate her. 2) The way it showed "The Pentagon Papers," and what they said about the war, was very innovative and moving (in a sad way) (of course pretty much everything about this conflict was sad) 3) It was the US veterans that in many ways began the process of restoring the relations between the two countries, by going back and starting up various programs to help local towns and cities with schools, etc. I did not know that; and it speaks very well of our veterans. This was one of the few positive things about the Vietnam war that the documentary showed; and that probably not many people know about. Also, some might remember my "Upcoming Civil War" thread in D&D -- it's easy to forget now that the 60s were in many ways a "second civil war," with fights, riots, shootouts over war protests and civil rights protests. This documentary showed this quite well.
Great post. I know a couple of vets who just cannot get through the series because they say it is really accurate and immersive as to what it was like. And agree on the 1960's. Have been studying that period a lot lately, and sometimes I hope that, if we got through that, we can get through our current disagreements somehow. Peace.
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is my favorite The story of Galveston's own Jack Johnson Its really good because of the backdrop of race relations
Predictably, I've been loving "Country Music." Quite a lot of people and songs I've never heard of before, along with plenty I have. I've liked about 40% of the music in the series and about 60% of it I can't believe anyone would listen to twice, but as a TV show soundtrack to an interesting story it's freaking great. If anyone's interested in hearing more "untold" country outlaw stories (untold to non-hardcore fans, anyway), check out Mike Judge's first season of Tales from the Tour Bus on Cinemax (or your pirating platform of choice): As far as other Ken Burns docs go, the Civil War is one I've watched a zillion times on DVD. Love it. That war is still being fought, and it's maddening. Also enjoyed the hell out of Jazz and Baseball. Wouldn't say I "enjoyed" Vietnam War, but I sure learned a ton. Loved how they interviewed all the Vietnamese people instead of just focusing on the U.S. experience. That was awesome and reminded me of the Civil War where you're kind of following both sides in the conflict and exploring their reasoning. On the flipside, I couldn't really get into The War. The West had its moments, but it was so damn sprawling. The National Parks was enjoyable but definitely a "lesser-than" Burns.
