[Leica] Ken Burns misfired - so far

[lrzeitlin at gmail.com (Lawrence Zeitlin)]

We share your disappointment with the first episode of the National Park
series. My wife and I have spent considerable time in many of the parks and
even rafted through the Grand Canyon. I guess we were expecting a visual
tour through all the parks, both the ones we have seen and those we have
not. Instead we were treated to a dry, and fairly uninteresting history
lesson stressing the rapacity of some early land developers. It is apparent
that Burns is trying to recreate the success of his Civil War series by
using the same model. But the Civil War had a distinct time line. Events and
battles occurred in a sequence which structured the story. Not so with the
parks. Each is unique. It matters little which was created first or the
legal battles surrounding the creation of each. What they look like now is
all important.

Larry Z


<<I'm finished with the first episode of Ken Burns' documentary on the

national parks and I have to say I feel he made some really strange

choices. Sometimes the colors seem so hyped up as to be surreal. I'm

thinking of the Yellowstone Canyon images in partiular and some images

inside the Grand Canyon where there's a distinct green band between

the sky and the cliffs of the canyon.


Is this just me? These are places I visit relatively often and it's

like it's all been amped up so much that it no longer is the place I

know and remember.


Adam Bridge>>