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Ken Burns’s The National Parks on PBS

By Rocky Thompson on September 30th, 2009

I’ve been watching The National Parks, America’s Best Idea for a few days. At first it seemed a bit boring, but maybe that’s because most of the outdoors videos I watch are Radical Reels or any ski movie made since 1992. Watching “America’s Best Idea” is a bit like going from a Lange poster to an Ansel Adams print; it takes a bit of time to see the beauty.

The old photos and the talking heads in the documentary are fantastic. If I could offer one small criticism (besides the name), it would be the music. This is nothing new for a Burns doc; the songs in his baseball documentary were all just different version of “Take Me Out to The Ballpark.” Also, what was with the Muir historian who had a beard exactly like Muir?

The story of the National Parks mirrors the story of every VH1 musician documentary. Someone finds the park/musician, tries to exploit it for financial gain, and then an advocate steps in and saves it. Regardless, I’m enjoying the program very much.

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 1:09 pm and is filed under Story. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “Ken Burns’s The National Parks on PBS”

  1. Adam September 30th, 2009 at 1:33 pm

    did you just say that with “Ansel Adams… it takes a bit of time to see the beauty.”
    ???

    I mean, seriously?

  2. Megan September 30th, 2009 at 2:05 pm

    I was thinking the SAME EXACT THING about the Muir historian!!!

  3. TC September 30th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

    Yeah the Muir historian I think might have been off the deep end w/ his “love” for Muir. He even had a fake Scottish accent.

  4. bobby September 30th, 2009 at 6:09 pm

    AH remember the days when the discovery channel would have had this on. What happened…….alas six episodes of cash cab in a row

  5. josh October 1st, 2009 at 7:50 am

    They drop religious quotes and symbolism every 5 minutes. Kind of annoying.

  6. Tyler October 1st, 2009 at 10:05 am

    The Muir historian was great. Ridiculous accent and look-alike beard. Guy definitely loved his job.

  7. TylerH October 4th, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    The Muir historian…insanity mixed with eccetnricity…he ended an episode with him speaking….classic.

    I really like the music, my 2 and 5 year old boys veg. out and watch this because iof the music.

  8. Tom T. October 5th, 2009 at 7:54 pm

    The Muir historian is Lee Stetson, who looks and talks like John Muir because he performs a one man Muir impersonation show during the summer in Yosemite National Park. He’s pretty good.

  9. TylerH October 6th, 2009 at 10:07 am

    That sealed it, I’m going to Yosemite next summer.

  10. Nicholas October 12th, 2009 at 11:10 am

    hey there,

    i think you might enjoy this exclusive web short the colbert report did with
    ken burns. here is the link:

    http://tinyurl.com/yz5zb5m

    you can also use this one:
    http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/252360/october-02-200
    9/exclusive—backstage-with-ken-burns

    hope you like!

    thanks,
    nick