Search - The Ken Burns' America: The Congress on DVD

Good Film with Great Insight

Bob Hope | USA | 01/13/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Good Film with great insight on such Congressmen as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Jeannette Rankin, Joe Cannon, and Sam Rayburn. I do wish the film was a little longer, but that may just be me.

It would be nice if Ken Burns makes and updated version in the next few years. I also wished Senators Strom Thurmond, Fritz Hollings and Edward M. Kennedy would have been quoted and/or interviewed. The film does include Senator John C. Stennis, which is nice. Even if Burns doesn't update the film, it stands up well over time. I think many people will like the quotes from James Madison given during the early part of the film.

I hope every Congressman owns a copy of this DVD.

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." --James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention, July 11, 1787

Some of Daniel Webster's speeches:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwebster/speeches/
"

The Most Pithy Documentary in the World

Heidi Ettinger | New York, NY | 02/22/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"If you know anythin about politics, and are interested in the INDIVIVUAL congresspeople that have served, than this is not the documentary for you. In by far the most shallow documentary I have seen, this movie glosses over entire eras (almost all of the 1920's, the 80's, the 90's, the late 40's), and speaks of only about 10 congressman in the 20th century. Not only that, but Ken Burns seems to want to prove that the congress is more insignificant than we think. He talks at length about Everett Dirksen, who was a senator, and spends four minutes on each decade, and RARELY goes into specific congressman. This is incredibly pithy, no Newt Gingrich, no John Nance Garner, barely any congressman. This documentary despises profiles of interesting people and love long, pedantic descriptions of buildings."