[.ca] History Channel: Statue Of Liberty

From Amazon.com:
Ken Burns's fourth short film gives us a clear taste for the style that he made famous with The Civil War and Baseball. The first half of this hour-long program examines the design and construction of the Statue of Liberty using drawings, photographs, and readings (Jeremy Irons gives voice to French sculptor Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, who designed the statue). As narrator David McCullough states, no one at the dedication ceremony mentioned immigration, but the statue became a towering symbol of America's open-door policy. The second half examines the meaning of the statue and of liberty itself. Comments by author James Baldwin, director Milos Forman, and politicians Barbara Jordan and Mario Cuomo reverberate, as does Paul Simon's song "American Tune," which bookends the picture. --Doug Thomas

What is liberty?:
Ken Burns's "Statute of Liberty" is about one of the greatest icon of America. In usual Burns' style, he presents the subject through well-shot video, interesting and informative interviews with historians, interviews with immigrants. More important than the Statue of Liberty, the movie addresses the question "What is liberty?" and "What does liberty mean to me?" I love documentaries and history...and thoroughly enjoy history as presented by Ken Burns. If you like history too, this movie will not disappoint.

What else do you expect?:
It's a spendid Ken Burns. It's actually the biography of a nice lady, the Statue of Liberty. It's everything about her "pregnacy", her birth, her youth and her life. But there is more, and you will see a nice slice of NY history too! Good job!

Ken Burns and PBS = Great Television.:
PBS makes very good DVDs. Here Ken Burn's Statue of Liberty film has been restored and remastered and the movie has never looked and sounded better. Using newspaper accounts, photographs, and the personal accounts of those who helped create this symbol of freedom and hope of America. The movie is both great film making and good documentry, the kind only found on Public Television.

Excellent film by Ken Burns, DVD a little disappointing:
I am a big fan of the films by Ken Burns, and this one is very good. It is very short compared to other multi-episode films like the Civil War, but is still inspiring, enjoyable, and educational. The quality of the DVD is good, but the amount of content is rather low considering the price. The extras include two short features on Ken Burns, making this entire DVD about 1.5 hours of viewing. Should be priced at 9.99 or 12.99, or maybe combined with another Burns film, such as Brooklyn Bridge.

Celebrating Freedom and the American Experiment:
What does liberty and freedom mean - to 20th century Americans, 19th century Frenchmen, and our 18th century founding fathers? Statue of Liberty, Ken Burns' award-winning documentary originally broadcast in 1985, asks that simple question in a refreshingly poignant manner. 21st century audiences will recognize the universal spirit and appreciate the classical questions raised in this moving film. Conceived, directed, and broadcast long before Burns' became an American television legend for his insightful The Civil War and Jazz series, this inspiring documentary features illuminating interviews with Mario Cuomo, Barbara Jordan, James Baldwin, and Jerzy Kosinski reflecting on the unique aspirations of the American experiment in personal liberty. Burns, like in his more famous documentaries, combines a vast array of primary source material (diary entries, letters, newspaper articles) along with photographs, paintings, and drawings to tell the riveting story behind the making, exporting, and celebrating of the Statue of Liberty in New York's Harbor. Historian David McCullough provides, as he so often does on PBS documentaries, a calm narration sensitive to both the text and context of historical figures and events. One can only hope that this outstanding work will be shown to schoolchildren, taught in citizenship classes, and kept in libraries across the United States and France. The enlightenment ideals of personal liberty still need to be remembered, celebrated, and protected.