Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (1991): Jason Robards narrates this journey to pre-television days where viewers meet the titans of the airwaves: David Sarnoff, Lee de Forest and Edwin Howard Armstrong. See how radio served as the medium that informed and entertained Americans during much of the 20th century. (7.4)
Director: Ken Burns
Writers: Ken Burns (additional), Tom Lewis (book)
Stars: Jason Robards, Red Barber, Erik Barnouw
It is quite interesting to learn about the radio pioneers in the Americas and their ideological and personal feuds. As his style, Ken Burns has done quite a lot of research, has talked to many people who know the subject and then relies on historians on camera to tell the story. At the same time, he seems to forget the fact that he is talking about a technical matter and not just history. Where is the engineering background? Where is Tesla? Also, a problem Ken Burns has with most of his documentaries is that he seems to forget that there is a world outside of the United States. He only makes passing references to non-Americans who did major work in the radio world. Still, a good documentary for those who like that sort of stuff (myself included). My Rating: 7.0
No comments:
Post a Comment