Search - Biography - Henry Ford: Tin Lizzy Tycoon on DVD

Successful, but problematic

Jeffery Mingo | Homewood, IL USA | 10/11/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Like many installments of the "Biography" series, this interviews biographers and descendants of H. Ford. Because Ford lived in the era of picture and sound recording, one gets to see and hear him. There are no cheesy reenactments.

Ford's wife orders him to allow a union's formation. Ford's daughter-in-law insists that she will sell her stock if her son isn't allowed to head the company. One biographer wrote about "Ford Men," but someone really needs to write something about these Ford women who seemed to wield power in their own right. This documentary lists one interviewee as Ford's great-granddaughter, yet she called Ford her "grandfather."

The documentary quickly glosses over Ford's anti-Semitism. To be fair, they do say few believed him when he apologized for his bigoted publications. Still, like President Wilson's racism or Nietzsche's misogyny, Ford was a powerful man who was prejudiced and should be taken to task for it. One interviewee is an African-American man who worked several decades at Ford. Given that the Great Migration happened during Ford's rise and that many African Americans live in Detroit and Flint, Michigan, I wonder what Ford's attitude toward Blacks was. Did he appreciate their work or minimize it? One must remember that he hired people decades for the 1964 Civil Rights Act banned racial employment discrimination. I wish this installment had taken up this issue.

Ford knew Firestone personally. The person who started General Motors was his competition. In this post-Enron era, it is easy to assume that companies die quickly. But this installment listed several companies that still thrive in this new millennium."