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‘The Roosevelts’: Once you finish all 14 hours, you’re sorry to see them go
The Washington Post ^ | 9-12-14 | Hank Stuever

Posted on 09/13/2014 8:10:16 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic

Let’s start with the end. When it’s over — when you make it through the marathon that is Ken Burns’s beautiful, seven-part documentary “The Roosevelts: An Intimate History,” which begins Sunday night on PBS — you may find yourself with a lingering, nebulous grief. You’re sorry it’s over. You’re sorry they’re over. You’re sorry a certain expression of American ideals is, or often appears to be, completely over.

My study habits haven’t improved since college; like an idiot, I put off watching all 14 hours of “The Roosevelts” until I absolutely had to watch them on a deadline binge this week. Yes, the entire series sat on my desk for most of the summer, while there was still plenty of time to savor it. When I emerged from my office for a break, midway through the amplified noise of World War I, a co-worker reminded me (spoiler alert) that all of the major players eventually die, so why bother watching the whole thing? Why not skip ahead or skim through most of it?

Because I was absorbed. Within the first hour, “The Roosevelts” will probably have you hooked in a way that Burns and his collaborators haven’t quite achieved since 2007’s “The War.” Unlike the intimidating climb offered by “National Parks” or “Prohibition,” you easily glide through “The Roosevelts’ ” sublimely constructed narrative arc. The series is among Burns’s best works.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: demagogicparty; family; history; kenburns; memebuilding; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; pbs; theroosevelts; washingtoncompost; washingtonpost
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To: afraidfortherepublic

I’ll be sorry to see Craig Ferguson go. The Roosevelts, not so much.


61 posted on 09/13/2014 10:13:22 AM PDT by Albion Wilde (Joan Rivers -- "giving 'em hell" in heaven.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I would like to go back and be a partner in J.P. Morgan & Co., the real power back then.


62 posted on 09/13/2014 10:15:03 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: cornelis
Winston Churchill had trouble convincing Roosevelt to go for total victory...

Oh, I agree. And I should have added in my original post how lucky the West was that Churchill was in power at just the right moment in history.

FDR and Churchill did not make the perfect team. But an isolationist president in 1940 would have been disastrous.

63 posted on 09/13/2014 11:07:53 AM PDT by Leaning Right (Why am I holding this lantern? I am looking for the next Reagan.)
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To: left that other site

I’m sure the be-banged Ken Burns was not allowed by his mommy to watch the mean, nasty 3 Stooges. I can’t bear that sanctimonious, psalm-singin’ old maid!


64 posted on 09/13/2014 11:08:31 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

Never liked them. Never will. Destroyed the constitution


65 posted on 09/13/2014 11:11:11 AM PDT by Viennacon (ILLEGALS ARE VIRAL WEAPONS!!)
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To: miss marmelstein
"sanctimonious, psalm-singin’ old maid"

Isn't that a line from "The African Queen"? LOL!



and YES! I agree with you! hahaha
66 posted on 09/13/2014 11:14:58 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: Captain Peter Blood

I love TR, but not for the things he did in the White House. His days in the army and his explorations of the Amazon Basin after his presidency are truly inspiring. Read The River of Doubt, a great read about the man and his trip.


67 posted on 09/13/2014 11:24:45 AM PDT by Benito Cereno
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To: left that other site

Indeed, it is!

Ken Burns is another closeted, married gay who trots around a Reggie Love-style guy from interview to interview.


68 posted on 09/13/2014 11:27:48 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me)
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To: miss marmelstein

Eyew.

Here I thought he was a Stooges fan! Modeled his hairstyle after Moe, after all! LOL!


69 posted on 09/13/2014 11:31:20 AM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: txrefugee

We visited FDR’s Library in Hyde Park. I was amazed to see how pretty Eleanor was as a young woman. Previously, I only remembered her photos as an elderly woman. Modern orthodontia would have done wonders for her.

The other thing we learned was how incapacitated our military was at the beginning of WWII. We had no combat vehicles and few planes. It was a miracle that we won. It brings the words “Grace of God” to mind.

I think this series will be worth some time, just for the historical context.


70 posted on 09/13/2014 11:34:42 AM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
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To: left that other site

Hah! You’re breaking me up. Maybe you’re right and I’m wrong! That theme song was snuck in there as a homage to his idols.

He also once compared Robert E. Lee to Tojo which completely turned me off to his boring movies. The only thing he does right is to get access to archive photos.


71 posted on 09/13/2014 11:35:08 AM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me)
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To: cripplecreek

Me too, but I don’t think it will ever be gone completely. It’s based on something for nothing, a real crowd pleaser with the dems most core constituency, the hand-out population.


72 posted on 09/13/2014 11:35:30 AM PDT by Thapsus_epiphany (Si vis pacem, parabellum.)
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To: ansel12

If FDR had not run in 1940, who do you think would have been the Democratic candidate?


73 posted on 09/13/2014 11:37:41 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: reg45

I know that he wouldn’t have won in 1940 if people had voted like Protestants did.

Why are you asking me the bizarre questions that you are?

I give up, who would have run as the democrat nominee in 1940 if FDR had not, and how many of the people who voted for Roosevelt in 1944 would have voted for him if they had realized that he would be dead within three months after starting his fourth term, and why do you care?


74 posted on 09/13/2014 11:45:36 AM PDT by ansel12 (LEGAL immigrants, 30 million 1980-2012, continues to remake the nation's electorate for democrats)
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To: afraidfortherepublic

It was no miracle we won. We had the man power, over 12 Million in uniform at the war’s end. We also had the industrial capacity and technology that we put to work to win.

A lot of things came together in a short period of time for us to win, hard work, innovation and a determination from a united country to do it. Today it probably would not happen.


75 posted on 09/13/2014 11:48:51 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
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To: reg45
VP John Garner and James Farley, DNC head and Postmaster General, both wanted it. Cordell Hull and Millard Tydings both got a smattering of votes at the convention.

Rumor was that old Joe Kennedy wanted it as well (but he and Farley were both Catholics and unlikely to be elected; James Byrnes had been a Catholic and become an Episcopalian, which probably disqualified him as well).

It's impossible to say what would have happened if FDR hadn't decided to run again. He really held the party together North and South. There would have been real inter-party strife if FDR wasn't in the picture.

76 posted on 09/13/2014 11:58:29 AM PDT by x
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To: miss marmelstein

He compared R.E.L. to Tojo? Yikes!

Lee had de Mojo!
He was nothing like Tojo!
Tojo got in late from the dojo,
Ended up sleeping at a Hojo.
Stalin was only in it fo’ Joe.

I’m meandering! LOL!


77 posted on 09/13/2014 12:13:00 PM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: left that other site

You’re happy today, LOL!


78 posted on 09/13/2014 12:22:28 PM PDT by miss marmelstein (Richard III: Loyalty Binds Me)
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To: miss marmelstein

LOL...I meticulously prepared one of my students for an audition, and i found out this morning that she got the role!

I am very happy about that!


79 posted on 09/13/2014 12:24:42 PM PDT by left that other site (You shall know the Truth, and The Truth Shall Set You Free.)
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To: BwanaNdege
Perhaps they might even do a “Documentary” on the Warren Commission Report...

I wonder who they would get to play Oliver Stone?
80 posted on 09/13/2014 12:33:24 PM PDT by Delta Dawn (Fluent in two languages: English and cursive.)
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