|
|
 |
Presidents Collection (The)
R1 - America - Paramount Home Entertainment Review written by and copyright: James Teitelbaum (15th September 2008). |
|
The Show
 This is a fifteen-disc set containing exhaustive documentaries on the key presidents of the United States. During the 20th century, seventeen men held the office of president, and ten of those men are profiled on this set (five of them as two-disc sets, and the other five in single disc offerings). The documentaries were produced for PBS's American Experience series, and include the following (two-disc documentaries have a separate time listed for each disc): - Theodore Roosevelt (3:35:54) - Woodrow Wilson (1:20:27/1:24:37) - Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1:47:11/2:19:04) - Harry S. Truman (2:20:51/1:53:34) - The Kennedys (1:50:58/1:51:31) - Lyndon B. Johnson (3:44:02) - Richard M. Nixon (2:49:38) - Jimmy Carter (2:43:15) - Ronald Reagan (1:52:34/2:22:35) - George H. W. Bush (3:12:48) On the whole, these productions are of high quality. All of them are narrated (by a variety of personalities), with archival photos, news footage, and modern interviews rounding out the narrative. The running times of these shows are rather long on the whole, and often the running time is necessary to tell these important stories of American history. Just as often, the camera will linger over an unimportant photo while the narration slows to a crawl; there is clearly some filler here. This is a relatively minor quibble, however. These discs are huge in scope, telling the story of ten men who shaped the twentieth century on one level, and telling the story of the twentieth century as a whole on another level. This story is told from many perspectives. As each man's tale unspools, we discover that they were all in different places, doing different things, during all of the great events of the century. World War II, for example is mentioned in nearly all of the documentaries (save for a few of the earliest ones), and each man had a different role to play in that conflict, from soldiers who served in the war, to retired old men who observed it from afar, to the men who guided America and its allies to victory over the Axis. All of the important events of the century are covered in this manner, and as one watches these programs in order, a multifaceted perspective of the American century emerges. One hopes that PBS will see fit to release a further series spotlighting the greatest events of the 19th (and late 18th) century, and the American men who shaped these events.
Video
The aspect ratio is 4:3, except for the Jimmy Carter episode, which is in 1.85:1 anamorphic. The material on this set spans the entire century. The modern interviews look fine. Most of the vintage news footage is rough of course, and the 1970's and 1980's material is on rather soft video tape. This is all to be expected. The quality of the images is probably less important than the way they are edited together. For the most part the pace on the shows is languid, but this slower tempo gives the images room to breathe, which is sometimes good, but on the other hand, as mentioned above, this can also sometimes make the documentaries drag a bit.
Audio
"The Presidents" are presented in English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo with no subtitles. Audio quality of the narration and modern interviews is fine; sound effects are minimal at best, and the small amount of music is generic and perfunctory. The information being presented is presented adequately, but this is no audio whiz-bang disc.
Extras
Paramount has released this series as a box set and three of the documentaries have extras, although they are fairly minimal, they include an interactive feature, an interview, bios and two featurettes. On the Woodrow Wilson disc there's "The Legacy of Woodrow Wilson", an interactive feature in which interview subjects give short answers to questions about Wilson. Jacob Riis photo gallery with audio comments on selected photos. World War I poster image gallery. Enhancement Catalog is a matrix of topics (selected along the bottom of the screen) that open up access to further quotes and video clips dealing with further related topics. There are at least thirty-one video clips in the matrix on a variety of topics. On The Kennedys disc there's an interview entitled "JFK's Hidden Life" which features historian Robert Dallek that runs for 5 minutes 50 seconds. There's also the "Kennedy Family Tree" is an interactive text feature with bios of the Kennedys. Finally on the George H. W. Bush disc there are two featurettes, "Going Negative" runs for 12 minutes 44 seconds, this short clip is about Bush insiders and the 1988 campaign. "Parachute Jump" is the second featurette and runs for 2 minutes 47 seconds, here Bush jumps out of a plane with some Marines.
Packaging
Each disc is packaged in a slim case all housed in a cardboard box.
Overall
|
|||||
|