Ken Burns' Roosevelt's

Pretty amazing hearing Geoffrey C. Ward describe polio - which he was struck with in India when he was 10. As much credit as Burns gets for the craft of these docs, it's Ward who brings the passion. Fun fact: Ward's father came up with the idea of the MacArthur "Genius" grants.

All I really knew about FDR was the WWII stuff. The Warm Springs segment was pretty powerful.

 

Oh, Ward's endless verbal fawning over Mr.-Look-Down-My-Nose more than makes up for that.

Love the stills, and the extensive and best-of-taste raiding of the historical film archives, as well. Makes all of these well worth viewing, even if you don't agree with certain house POVs.

 

Thought last night's episode "The Storm" was incredibly boring.

 

I don't know how Burns make 70+ year old pictures look so crystal clear, almost HD like. It's visually amazing, again

 

There are some cool photo programs that can, for the lack of a better term, 3D'ize photos. I've noticed "movement" in some of the photos. A lot of work has been put into the photos. I watched the first 3 nights. Crashed last night. Burns is a mesmerizing artist of the highest order.

 

That was also the era of large-format photography.

 

I love the editorial cartoonist's various depictions of TR. What a subject to work with!

 

Is it ironic that Hemingway needled Teddy for creating his own mythology?

 

Bumping this thread because this documentary (in part) got me thinking a lot lately about how much things have changed in our society.

When FDR was running for office, he wouldn't let anyone see him in his wheelchair or struggling just to walk or stand up because it would have made him look weak and/or sick and people wouldn't have voted for him. He had to hide the fact that he was mostly confined to a wheelchair because it would destroy the strong image he had to have to get elected.

Cut to the 2014 Texas governor's race, in which Greg Abbott's ads play up the fact he's in a wheelchair in order to make him appear strong. His first spot features video of him rolling up the ramps in a parking garage, with a voiceover talking about how he pushed himself to be able get to the top by telling himself, "Just one more."

BTW, his opponent's slogan is "Stand with Wendy": https://www.facebook.com/StandWithWendy

Now, that slogan came from her filibuster in the state Senate last year, before she was running against Abbott, but as Boom and the president would say, it's not the best optics.

 

Been plowing through this lately.
Very well done, as usual from Burns.
A few points- the big guy hated being called Teddy.
He was a sickly kid who willed himself to health, heroicism and greatness and would have accepted no descriptor that would have diminished it.

 

Today I discovered that Rick Hackett, former assistant director of the CFPB and now an attorney with an auto industry law firm, is a freaking dead ringer for Theodore Roosevelt.