"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."
September 16, 2014 6:21 AM Subscribe
Ken Burns’ new film The Roosevelts is 14 hours long. Which hours should you watch? [vox.com]
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns's latest PBS opus, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. If you'd rather stream, the entirety of the miniseries will be available on PBS.com, PBS member sites, and various PBS digital platforms. (It leaves streaming Friday, Sept. 26, so hurry.) It will also be rerun frequently on PBS and comes out on DVD/BLURAY Tuesday. So that's a whole host of ways to watch. But should you? This sucker, like many of Burns's most famous films, including The Civil War, Baseball, and The War, is really, really long. It's seven installments, of roughly two hours each, so you'll be devoting around 14 hours of your life to this thing. If you really, really like the Roosevelts, that's great, because this is a terrific screen biography of the famous family. But what if you're more Roosevelt-curious?
My favorite TR retort from last night's episode:
"The Constitution was made for the people and not the people for the Constitution."
Ken Burns could have devoted all 14 hours to Teddy alone and it still wouldn't have been enough for me.
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 6:59 AM on September 16, 2014 [10 favorites]
"The Constitution was made for the people and not the people for the Constitution."
Ken Burns could have devoted all 14 hours to Teddy alone and it still wouldn't have been enough for me.
posted by Esteemed Offendi at 6:59 AM on September 16, 2014 [10 favorites]
Nah, I'll probably watch the whole thing. Can't get enough Eleanor.
posted by emjaybee at 7:03 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by emjaybee at 7:03 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Roosevelt > Roosevelt.
posted by Fizz at 7:08 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by Fizz at 7:08 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
I watched the first installment Sunday, and was pretty captivated, as it covered the childhoods and early adult years of the three Roosevelts, a period I really had no clue about.
Last night's installment, though...well, I fell asleep. It's quickly become a monotonous "and then, and then, and then, and then" ordeal, at least for me. And, Peter Coyote's narration seems overly loud and emphatic this time, which I'm finding to be very, very annoying. There seems to be a very real "This is important! Pay attention!!!" feel to it all. Not sure if I'll keep watching.
One takeaway for me...Teddy was a fucking psycho when it comes to all things military and imperialistic. He makes John McCain look like a damned pacifist.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
Last night's installment, though...well, I fell asleep. It's quickly become a monotonous "and then, and then, and then, and then" ordeal, at least for me. And, Peter Coyote's narration seems overly loud and emphatic this time, which I'm finding to be very, very annoying. There seems to be a very real "This is important! Pay attention!!!" feel to it all. Not sure if I'll keep watching.
One takeaway for me...Teddy was a fucking psycho when it comes to all things military and imperialistic. He makes John McCain look like a damned pacifist.
posted by Thorzdad at 7:10 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
I liked what I saw last night, and I never realized how much the Roosevelt cousins interacted. Still, 14 hours is a lot.
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:17 AM on September 16, 2014
posted by ZeusHumms at 7:17 AM on September 16, 2014
Damon Root reviews it
Harvey J. Kaye lodges other criticisms
posted by robbyrobs at 7:26 AM on September 16, 2014
Harvey J. Kaye lodges other criticisms
posted by robbyrobs at 7:26 AM on September 16, 2014
I once rode in an elevator with Ken Burns (really). He got off two floors before me. Good thing, too, otherwise we all would have turned sepia.
posted by jonmc at 7:50 AM on September 16, 2014 [8 favorites]
posted by jonmc at 7:50 AM on September 16, 2014 [8 favorites]
I mean it's alright. It's a Ken Burns film. Mild moral ambiguity but mostly hagiography. If you believe in greatness and character it's a romp. If you're into social forces it's a whitewash. If you believe in reactionary nonsense it's a pile of lies.
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:51 AM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 7:51 AM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
The 3-volume Teddy Roosevelt biography by Edmund Morris is about 80hrs in audiobook form, and that's just one Roosevelt. 14hrs for all three is a severe abridgement.
posted by stbalbach at 8:04 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
posted by stbalbach at 8:04 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
Roosevelt roosevelt Roosevelt roosevelt roosevelt roosevelt Roosevelt roosevelt.
posted by Naberius at 8:38 AM on September 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 8:38 AM on September 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
Which hours do I need to watch to settle the "ROSE-eh-velt" / "ROO-seh-velt" question once and for all?
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 8:44 AM on September 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by rogerrogerwhatsyourrvectorvicto at 8:44 AM on September 16, 2014 [5 favorites]
Just hours 0-.0001
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:47 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Potomac Avenue at 8:47 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
I once rode in an elevator with Ken Burns (really). He got off two floors before me. Good thing, too, otherwise we all would have turned sepia.
Especially if there was a mournful fiddle playing and either/both Keith David or/and David McCullough were in there with you. At that point, prepare to weep.
posted by grubi at 8:58 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Especially if there was a mournful fiddle playing and either/both Keith David or/and David McCullough were in there with you. At that point, prepare to weep.
posted by grubi at 8:58 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
More about narrator Peter Coyote, who happens to be Jessamyn's uncle.
posted by ocherdraco at 9:08 AM on September 16, 2014 [7 favorites]
posted by ocherdraco at 9:08 AM on September 16, 2014 [7 favorites]
You know what would be awesome? A porno made as a Ken Burns parody. Somebody get on that please?
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:45 AM on September 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 9:45 AM on September 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
Roosevelt roosevelt Roosevelt roosevelt roosevelt roosevelt Roosevelt roosevelt.
Which hours do I need to watch to settle the "ROSE-eh-velt" / "ROO-seh-velt" question once and for all?
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt."
-- Archie Bunker to Maude Findlay in "Cousin Maude's Visit" (1971).
posted by Herodios at 9:55 AM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
Which hours do I need to watch to settle the "ROSE-eh-velt" / "ROO-seh-velt" question once and for all?
"Sticks and stones may break my bones, but Franklin Delano Roosevelt."
-- Archie Bunker to Maude Findlay in "Cousin Maude's Visit" (1971).
posted by Herodios at 9:55 AM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
My wife and I are loving it. We've watched Civil War countless times and Prohibition recently became a new favorite.
Mrs. Mosley read a huge bio on Eleanor a couple of months ago and has provided commentary. At one point, they mentioned a relative named "Rosey" and she turned to me and said "Yes, they actually had a cousin named Roosevelt Roosevelt."
And all I could think of was this.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:42 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Mrs. Mosley read a huge bio on Eleanor a couple of months ago and has provided commentary. At one point, they mentioned a relative named "Rosey" and she turned to me and said "Yes, they actually had a cousin named Roosevelt Roosevelt."
And all I could think of was this.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 10:42 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
At one point, they mentioned a relative named "Rosey" and she turned to me and said "Yes, they actually had a cousin named Roosevelt Roosevelt."
Cousins certainly figure strongly in the Roosevelt story; almost as strongly as the Hapsburgs.
And all I could think of was this.
And all I could think of was this.
posted by Herodios at 11:08 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Cousins certainly figure strongly in the Roosevelt story; almost as strongly as the Hapsburgs.
And all I could think of was this.
And all I could think of was this.
posted by Herodios at 11:08 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Wait: didn't Roosevelt Roosevelt shoot one of the Kennedys?
Martin X was mad when they outlawed bell-bottomsposted by Herodios at 11:20 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
And it wasn't too much later they came out with Johnson's Wax . . .
I-I-I-I-I remember the book suppository where they
Crowned the King of Cuba . . .
One thing that amuses me about the documentary was the casting of Paul Giamatti as Teddy Roosevelt. He was also in Prohibition and voiced bootlegger George Remus, whose story is so amazing that they should seriously do a film about his life (and should cast Giamatti again to star).
I mean, it goes without saying that Giamatti is awesome, but I have to imagine that his great performance as Remus helped him get Teddy.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:27 AM on September 16, 2014
I mean, it goes without saying that Giamatti is awesome, but I have to imagine that his great performance as Remus helped him get Teddy.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 11:27 AM on September 16, 2014
So struck watching last night about how much of our foreign policy is still based in Teddy Roosevelt's actions for better or worse. Despite the usual Burns' tendencies toward the soothing and soporific it's fascinating stuff.
Eleanor was amazing - she really made an enormous difference in social policy in an era where it was really challenging for a woman to have a significant impact outside the home. Am also struck by how much suffering was in all of their lives - insane relatives, losing children etc - their immense wealth only sheltered them from a little.
posted by leslies at 12:25 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
Eleanor was amazing - she really made an enormous difference in social policy in an era where it was really challenging for a woman to have a significant impact outside the home. Am also struck by how much suffering was in all of their lives - insane relatives, losing children etc - their immense wealth only sheltered them from a little.
posted by leslies at 12:25 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
It is fascinating so far. I'm a history buff and TR fan and I appreciate how much detail about family life and relationships Burns has packed into what is actually not a lot of time.
posted by bearwife at 12:47 PM on September 16, 2014
posted by bearwife at 12:47 PM on September 16, 2014
Dirt bag Teddy Roosevelt
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:07 PM on September 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by the man of twists and turns at 1:07 PM on September 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
Remembering George Remus from "Boardwalk Empire," I clicked the wiki link and found:
Remus held a similar party in June 1923, during his problems with the government, when he gave each female guest (of the fifty present) a brand new Pontiac.
And YOU get a brand new car! And YOU get a brand new car!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:19 PM on September 16, 2014
Remus held a similar party in June 1923, during his problems with the government, when he gave each female guest (of the fifty present) a brand new Pontiac.
And YOU get a brand new car! And YOU get a brand new car!
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 1:19 PM on September 16, 2014
As an amateur history buff, I find Burn's Roosevelts documentary pretty solid so far. As a professional musician, I can only hope that it doesn't turn out to be the intellectual massacre that his JAZZ series was.
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 1:23 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Seekerofsplendor at 1:23 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
No historical thingy about Roosevelt ever addresses this and mediocre Google results are making me start to think I'm taking crazy pills, but I'm pretty sure that at some point I read an actual memo of FDR's responding to desperate pleas to let Jewish refugees into the country just as reports were starting to emerge about the Nazi concentration camps wherein FDR is pretty much like, "Honestly who fucking cares"? And then when it becomes public knowledge he suddenly jumps in all like, "THE U.S. SHALL NEVER STAND FOR SUCH BEHAVIOR"? Am I crazy? Has anyone else seen this?
posted by Mooseli at 1:46 PM on September 16, 2014
posted by Mooseli at 1:46 PM on September 16, 2014
My parents are/were Depression kids and my dad was a WWII vet. So I feel a closer tie to FDR’s branch via parental osmosis. Yet it’s TR who remains a mystery.
I remain conflicted on him. Loved to to kill; helped create our idea of protected wilderness. Invited Booker T. Washington to the White House; was still a racist. Fought the corporate overlords; but did the life of coal miners really improve that much?
I had not known his mother and first wife died on the same day. Gad. And his oldest child, as well as Eleanor, had rather terrible childhoods.
Also, some wonderful historic images presented. (What a marvelously strange coincidence that a photo of A. Lincoln’s funeral procession captured young TR and his brother looking on.) But if you want a reminder of how late 20th-century media have changed life, I recall my mother saying she really wasn’t all that aware of FDR’s handicap. (Not shown in newsreels, etc.)
Ken Burns could have devoted all 14 hours to Teddy alone and it still wouldn't have been enough for me.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth deserves at least an hour. (Ugh, the children on twitter who are comparing her to Kardashians and Lohans rather missed the point.)
posted by NorthernLite at 1:49 PM on September 16, 2014
I remain conflicted on him. Loved to to kill; helped create our idea of protected wilderness. Invited Booker T. Washington to the White House; was still a racist. Fought the corporate overlords; but did the life of coal miners really improve that much?
I had not known his mother and first wife died on the same day. Gad. And his oldest child, as well as Eleanor, had rather terrible childhoods.
Also, some wonderful historic images presented. (What a marvelously strange coincidence that a photo of A. Lincoln’s funeral procession captured young TR and his brother looking on.) But if you want a reminder of how late 20th-century media have changed life, I recall my mother saying she really wasn’t all that aware of FDR’s handicap. (Not shown in newsreels, etc.)
Ken Burns could have devoted all 14 hours to Teddy alone and it still wouldn't have been enough for me.
Alice Roosevelt Longworth deserves at least an hour. (Ugh, the children on twitter who are comparing her to Kardashians and Lohans rather missed the point.)
posted by NorthernLite at 1:49 PM on September 16, 2014
I guess the other thing that America manufactures (besides diabetes) is short attention spans. Now I play sad Chinese violin while Ying does traditional sarcastic dance.
posted by spock at 1:53 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by spock at 1:53 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
The Daily Show: Documentarian Ken Burns recounts the personal struggles that Theodore, Franklin Delano and Eleanor Roosevelt overcame in his film "The Roosevelts."
posted by homunculus at 2:36 PM on September 16, 2014
posted by homunculus at 2:36 PM on September 16, 2014
No historical thingy about Roosevelt ever addresses this and mediocre Google results are making me start to think I'm taking crazy pills, but I'm pretty sure that at some point I read an actual memo of FDR's responding to desperate pleas to let Jewish refugees into the country just as reports were starting to emerge about the Nazi concentration camps wherein FDR is pretty much like, "Honestly who fucking cares"? And then when it becomes public knowledge he suddenly jumps in all like, "THE U.S. SHALL NEVER STAND FOR SUCH BEHAVIOR"? Am I crazy? Has anyone else seen this?
That's not what happened. When Jews were allowed to leave Germany, there was of course a mass exodus. Eleanor and a couple of other people with particular concerns about human rights petitioned FDR to move on relaxing immigration quotas for displaced Jews. He said that he couldn't waste political capital on the issue -- after all, Jews were not particularly popular to Americans in the 30s and 40s, particularly among FDR's political opponents. Please remember that this was in the period where the Germans were treating Jews very poorly, but before the actual Holocaust.
There was a particular issue with one shipload of refugees who had been turned away from safe ports all over the West and were living in abhorrent conditions, being at sea for at least many, many months. Mrs. Roosevelt pressed the president very hard for a particular exception for this ship, and his refusal caused a lot of tension. (Someone who's not pressed for time like me should Google this.)
You are probably confusing the issue with the military's specific inaction to cripple the infrastructure of the Holocaust. FDR, as Commander in Chief, was ultimately responsible for this decision. Roosevelt was of course disgusted and horrified, but ultimately sided with the school of thought that targeting Holocaust infrastructure (like train tracks to camps) was too risky given the targets' position deep in enemy territory, coupled with the fact that the war wasn't really going all that great.
Many modern people with the gift of hindsight insist that the President was very wrong not to try to slow down the Holocaust (he could not have stopped it entirely) with this maneuver. Personally, I think this is classical iconoclasm-- Roosevelt was absolutely a humanitarian while also being a pragmatist. We can assume that he thought hard about the decision and, based on the information that he had, decided that the best strategy was to focus all resources on ending the war ASAP. I'm not saying the gambit wouldn't have worked, because it may very well have. It also may have resulted in loads of precious bombers shot down over Axis territory with no discernible stunting of the mass murders it was designed to stop. If you think it's an easy decision, you're emoting and not actually thinking.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:06 PM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
That's not what happened. When Jews were allowed to leave Germany, there was of course a mass exodus. Eleanor and a couple of other people with particular concerns about human rights petitioned FDR to move on relaxing immigration quotas for displaced Jews. He said that he couldn't waste political capital on the issue -- after all, Jews were not particularly popular to Americans in the 30s and 40s, particularly among FDR's political opponents. Please remember that this was in the period where the Germans were treating Jews very poorly, but before the actual Holocaust.
There was a particular issue with one shipload of refugees who had been turned away from safe ports all over the West and were living in abhorrent conditions, being at sea for at least many, many months. Mrs. Roosevelt pressed the president very hard for a particular exception for this ship, and his refusal caused a lot of tension. (Someone who's not pressed for time like me should Google this.)
You are probably confusing the issue with the military's specific inaction to cripple the infrastructure of the Holocaust. FDR, as Commander in Chief, was ultimately responsible for this decision. Roosevelt was of course disgusted and horrified, but ultimately sided with the school of thought that targeting Holocaust infrastructure (like train tracks to camps) was too risky given the targets' position deep in enemy territory, coupled with the fact that the war wasn't really going all that great.
Many modern people with the gift of hindsight insist that the President was very wrong not to try to slow down the Holocaust (he could not have stopped it entirely) with this maneuver. Personally, I think this is classical iconoclasm-- Roosevelt was absolutely a humanitarian while also being a pragmatist. We can assume that he thought hard about the decision and, based on the information that he had, decided that the best strategy was to focus all resources on ending the war ASAP. I'm not saying the gambit wouldn't have worked, because it may very well have. It also may have resulted in loads of precious bombers shot down over Axis territory with no discernible stunting of the mass murders it was designed to stop. If you think it's an easy decision, you're emoting and not actually thinking.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:06 PM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
So far, I've learned to avoid imperialism, jungles, and overbearing mothers-in-law.
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:08 PM on September 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
posted by Dr. Zira at 6:08 PM on September 16, 2014 [4 favorites]
When my great-great grandfather was a youngish man in Georgia, he was courting a lovely young lady. One day, he went to pick her up for a carriage ride, and as he walked around the side of the house to the back porch, he heard Teddy Roosevelt suggesting she should come out with him for a carriage ride. Oh no, she demurred, she had a date with [my great-great grandfather], who would soon be there..
That rube?! Teddy is reported to have said upon hearing the name, and told her she was coming with him instead. She did. Thus ended a glorious romance and began a long period of TR disdain amongst my family. It did not help that said great-grandfather moved to Washington in 1899 with his family, only to have Teddy Roosevelt be elected in right afterwards!
That said, there's a lovely Teddy Roosevelt island/memorial for him in the Potomac, and I learned a lot from Island of Vice, which is about the 18 months he spent as a Police Commissioner in New York City.
posted by julen at 9:54 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
That rube?! Teddy is reported to have said upon hearing the name, and told her she was coming with him instead. She did. Thus ended a glorious romance and began a long period of TR disdain amongst my family. It did not help that said great-grandfather moved to Washington in 1899 with his family, only to have Teddy Roosevelt be elected in right afterwards!
That said, there's a lovely Teddy Roosevelt island/memorial for him in the Potomac, and I learned a lot from Island of Vice, which is about the 18 months he spent as a Police Commissioner in New York City.
posted by julen at 9:54 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
just as reports were starting to emerge about the Nazi concentration camps
Today the term concentration camp is closely associated with the death camps of the Final Solution. During the period we're talking about, however, the Final Solution was still in the future, and even if many people -- Jews and non-Jews, Germans and foreigners alike -- felt it was inevitable, as far as most of the world was concerned, this was a temporary measure that was perhaps regrettable, but not an emergency. Maybe Hitler would relent once the war was over, etc. The Jews would be allowed to reintegrate, or emigrate.
The thing is, TODAY we see "saving the Jews" as one of the most important things about WWII, at least from an American perspective, but in truth it's merely the moral justification for the war, the thing that makes it all noble. The considerations at the time were as complex as any right now over, say, Ukraine, or ISIL, in that you have a whole range of responses from "DO SOMETHING ANYTHING" to "This is something I would like to do something about but am not sure how it will turn out for us" to "Interfering would be dangerous, or possibly immoral" to "This is their fight, not ours, another martini please." (And that's not even counting "I hate Hitler with a passion, but he certainly is right about the Jews.") For the most part, what counted was the prospect of a Europe dominated by a fascist cartel hostile to US interests, and by extension, the plight of the occupied peoples who had been our friends.
There is some evidence that FDR knew about the mass murder taking place at an earlier point in the war (most of the public only found out in 1944-45), but most of it did not actually happen -- other than mass deaths through hard labor, camp illnesses, and other results of deprivation -- until after the Wannsee Conference, which took place in early 1942, after the US had entered the war. But the D-Day invasion was two years in the future at that point. We hadn't even taken back North Africa. And there's plenty of reason to suspect that any more aggressive intervention, even had it been logistically possible, would only have been met with a swifter execution of the genocide.
So it's sort of a modern-day parlor game rather than a real question that sat on FDR's desk. For him, preservation of American interests was paramount, and additionally, his constitutionally mandated job.
(Someone who's not pressed for time like me should Google this.)
Voyage of the Damned. The ship was the M/S St. Louis^.
posted by dhartung at 10:21 PM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
Today the term concentration camp is closely associated with the death camps of the Final Solution. During the period we're talking about, however, the Final Solution was still in the future, and even if many people -- Jews and non-Jews, Germans and foreigners alike -- felt it was inevitable, as far as most of the world was concerned, this was a temporary measure that was perhaps regrettable, but not an emergency. Maybe Hitler would relent once the war was over, etc. The Jews would be allowed to reintegrate, or emigrate.
The thing is, TODAY we see "saving the Jews" as one of the most important things about WWII, at least from an American perspective, but in truth it's merely the moral justification for the war, the thing that makes it all noble. The considerations at the time were as complex as any right now over, say, Ukraine, or ISIL, in that you have a whole range of responses from "DO SOMETHING ANYTHING" to "This is something I would like to do something about but am not sure how it will turn out for us" to "Interfering would be dangerous, or possibly immoral" to "This is their fight, not ours, another martini please." (And that's not even counting "I hate Hitler with a passion, but he certainly is right about the Jews.") For the most part, what counted was the prospect of a Europe dominated by a fascist cartel hostile to US interests, and by extension, the plight of the occupied peoples who had been our friends.
There is some evidence that FDR knew about the mass murder taking place at an earlier point in the war (most of the public only found out in 1944-45), but most of it did not actually happen -- other than mass deaths through hard labor, camp illnesses, and other results of deprivation -- until after the Wannsee Conference, which took place in early 1942, after the US had entered the war. But the D-Day invasion was two years in the future at that point. We hadn't even taken back North Africa. And there's plenty of reason to suspect that any more aggressive intervention, even had it been logistically possible, would only have been met with a swifter execution of the genocide.
So it's sort of a modern-day parlor game rather than a real question that sat on FDR's desk. For him, preservation of American interests was paramount, and additionally, his constitutionally mandated job.
(Someone who's not pressed for time like me should Google this.)
Voyage of the Damned. The ship was the M/S St. Louis^.
posted by dhartung at 10:21 PM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
Voyage of the Damned. The ship was the M/S St. Louis.
I keep conflating Voyage of the Damned (1976) and Ship of Fools (1965), which featured the fantastic Michael Dunn.
The earlier film is B&W and fictional, but covers similar territory: a bouillabaisse of old and new world characters, fate, and a ship plying the Atlantic between Cuba and Nazi Germany.
Futher confusing things is that Oskar Werner appeared in both films!
posted by Herodios at 8:59 AM on September 17, 2014
I keep conflating Voyage of the Damned (1976) and Ship of Fools (1965), which featured the fantastic Michael Dunn.
The earlier film is B&W and fictional, but covers similar territory: a bouillabaisse of old and new world characters, fate, and a ship plying the Atlantic between Cuba and Nazi Germany.
Futher confusing things is that Oskar Werner appeared in both films!
posted by Herodios at 8:59 AM on September 17, 2014
One thing I wish the series would spend a moment on is the differences at the time between the Democrats and the Republicans. We know what those parties mean today, but my understanding is that 100 years ago they were each philosophically rather different. For example, Teddy was a Republican, yet he signed the National Antiquities Act, which created National Monuments such as Devil's Tower. I can't think of a modern day Republican who'd do that - today they seem like they'd jump at a chance to dismantle the National Park Service.
posted by dnash at 10:52 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by dnash at 10:52 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
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I have also always had undying affection for the Roosevelts, which is why I am waiting to watch it until the production can be appreciated by my daughter, Eleanor.
posted by Mayor Curley at 6:50 AM on September 16, 2014 [20 favorites]