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Whistle Stopper - Mark Twain - A Film Directed by Ken Burns
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List Price: $24.98
Our Price: $10.00
Your Save: $ 14.98 ( 60% )
Availability:
Manufacturer: Pbs Home Video
Starring: Keith David, Kevin Conway, Blythe Danner, Philip Bosco, Tim Clark
Directed By: Ken Burns
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780780636804
Format: Closed-captioned
ISBN: 0780636805
Label: Pbs Home Video
Manufacturer: Pbs Home Video
Number Of Items: 2
Publisher: Pbs Home Video
Release Date: 2002-01-08
Running Time: 220
Studio: Pbs Home Video
Theatrical Release Date: 2002-01-14
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Ken Burns does his bit for Mark Twain
Comment: If you've seen anything by Ken Burns, you know his formula, and you will not see anything different here. But the formula is good, and it works.
If you don't care about Mark Twain, this probably won't capture your attention, but if you have read Twain and are a fan of him, as I am, this bio will do a great job of putting Twain's works into the context of a life that was remarkable in so many ways. The thing I most learned from this that I didn't know before had to do with the extent to which Twain's life was marked by personal tragedy, and thinking through the extent to which the appeal of his material is because it is comedy that is not glibly funny, but is marked by the gravitas of someone who knows life is hard. That to say you will understand Twain better for having watched this, and I recommend that you do.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Mark Twain - A Film Directed by Ken Burns
Comment: Ken Burns is a great film maker. As a history buff I found this very interesting.
Customer Rating:
Summary: American Original
Comment: "I am not an American I am THE American." Ken Burns and Company go about demonstrating, through this brilliant piece of work, why those words of Samuel Clemens ring even truer than ever today. Buy this and be inspired and thought-provoked by Twain's multi-faceted, and facinating life.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Burns' Best
Comment: At least as good as Burns' other, more heralded works, the concision and love with which Twain's life is here presented make this a true masterpiece. If your local library doesn't have it, make them get it; every school and library in the land should have this at the front of their dvd collection.
If ever there was doubt as to Twain's status as one of the finest and most quintessentially American of American artists, it is laid to rest here. A stunningly tragic life filled with triumphant humor and wisdom is given gorgeous tribute; the deep and almost transcendant love of the interviewees for Twain is especially striking.
Burns' pet technique of panning over still photos is tailor-made for this story and era. I'm not sure if it was thinking of my deep childhood love of Twain's books or just how moving his life was, but I found myself crying more during these four hours than any other movie I can recall. By the tenth deluge I had to laugh and realize that this is the best biographical film I have ever seen.
If you love Twain's writing, you will be amazed at the sadness he lived through while writing some of the funniest words ever penned. Even if you've never read any Twain, you will marvel at the life he lived, and the strength he showed in the face of one tragedy after another.
This is the American Spirit writ large. Not the bs version sold on tv, but the truly intelligent, open-hearted, adventurous, pioneering spirit that has become so rare.
If only we could find a man of this depth today and make him president.
I can almost hear Sam Clemens laughing at the thought right now...
Customer Rating:
Summary: Superb biography, perhaps the best
Comment: To be sure, I am a student of literature and a fan of Mark Twain, but I had no idea, none whatsoever(!), of what a rich and inspiring life he lived. He was a comic genius as well as a man devastated by continual heartbreak.
I have always known PBS to do a wonderful job with their specials, and I have admired Ken Burns since the day I first discovered his work on the women's movement i.e. the Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton story (highly recommended as well!)...but in their retelling of Mark Twain's life, these two forces have outdone themselves.
From now on I will always think of Samuel Clemens as an intrinsic part of what we call Americana. Forget baseball and apple pie, Twain and his writings are (or should be) the true American pastime.
I have watched many biographies of American authors but none come close to this, NONE. My favorite author of all time is F. Scott Fitzgerald and not one of his many audio visual biographies can touch the completeness and depth that has been carefully devoted here to Twain. In the 3+ hours of this presentation I laughed outloud, and was moved to tears, outraged, entertained, and educated by this telling of Twain's life. There is no way it could be better or more complete and I defy any lover of Twain, or literature in general, to feel differently.
Go to your local library and borrow it first, once you see it, you will insist upon owning it...truly.
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Editorial Reviews:
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He was considered, in his time, to be the funniest man on Earth. Mark Twain is the fifth film in Ken Burns's popular American Lives series and features interviews with Hal Holbrook, Arthur Miller and leading Twain scholars. A popular humorist, philosopher and social satirist, Mark Twain was the well-known nom-de-plume of writer Samuel Clemens, the nation's first literary celebrity. One of the most quoted men of his time, he was born in 1835, the year Haley's Comet passed over, and vowed that he would not die until he saw the famous comet. He died in 1910 -- the day after the comet's return. Tracing Twain's rise from his humble birth in Missouri to his prosperous life in Connecticut as the nation's best-selling author, Mark Twain reveals a compelling portrait of the father of American literature. Nearly three years in the making and drawing from 63 hours of material, thousands of archival photographs and nearly 20 interviews with top writers and Twain scholars, Mark Twain is the story of an extraordinary life-one full of rollicking adventure, stupendous success and crushing defeat, hilarious comedy and unbearable tragedy. Told primarily through the words of Twain himself and narrated by Keith David (the voice of Jazz), viewers of all ages will be personally introduced to this compelling yet contradictory genius, who said with some justification, "I am not an American, I am the American."
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