If there is such a thing as brilliant, flawless TV, then we must certainly be in the midst of it this week with the 6-night, 12-hour documentary, "Ken Burns -- The National Parks: America's Best Idea."
Beautifully filmed and expertly told, the documentary series is as alluring as anything TV has done. It flows like a novel with heroic protagonists (John Muir, Teddy Roosevelt) and a comependium of black-hatted villains (James Mason Hutchings; Gifford Pinchot; poachers; and the marauding, murderous white man brutally forcing Native Americans from their homes). The heroes are people you cheer for in this documentary; the bad guys those you feel like roundly booing.
The series' first two episodes Sunday and Monday focused heavily on Yosemite and Yellowstone, the cornerstones of the National Park system. Repeated exposure to either will compel even casual viewers to want to drop everything and head west.
Burns' storytelling is so masterful that he effortlessly weaves intriguing side anecdotes into the bigger timeline. Together, the companion narratives mix with the greater historical pieces to form an intriguing tapestry of America's greatest natural wonderlands. Sidebars on Yellowstone and Mesa Verde are engrossing, but most of all, it is the time spent on and with John Muir, the self-described "unknown nobody" from Scotland by way of Wisconsin, that is most engaging. The naturalist we are told was made to memorize the Bible by the time he was 11 by a demanding Presbyterian minister father, but it was not until Muir laid eyes on Yosemite that he truly experienced God. Clearly and thoroughly moved by God's creations, he fought tirelessly against the development of a dam in Yosemite, and shortly after he lost the political fight to keep the reservoir away from his beloved Hetch Hetche Mountain, he died. His efforts were heroic, his story moving and heartwrenching.
Like the best of Burns' PBS films, "The National Parks" is most watchable when it brings in experts to supplement Peter Coyote's narration. The prose of park rangers Shelton Johnson and Gerard Baker is elegant and enthralling. Historians William Cronon and Dayton Duncan are simply a pleasure to listen to and Muir devotee Lee Stetson with his beard and Scottish brogue could easily be the reincarnation of the walking man who loved Yosemite. Coyote's work cannot be left out: he could chronicle the history of dirt and I could easily find myself hanging on his every word.
It would be easy to say the scenery is what carries this documentary, but the words that accompany those images are equally gripping. As with his film on baseball several years ago, Burns has the ability to tell the story of America through the microcosm of his individual topic and skillfully, Burns tells us America's story through the development of the National Park System.
It is interesting to note, too, that in this time of upheaval, when all we can do is argue about government intervention in our lives, it is precisely that same intervention that has kept us from destroying these natural treasures and being able to enjoy them for almost 150 years. That the National Parks system's biggest champion was the Republican Teddy Roosevelt is also worth footnoting.
Like probably many others who appreciate the parks, my love for these extraordinary works of nature was handed down to me by my father, who in turn received his love for them from his father. Anyone fortunate enough to have been handed down that same love should devote time to watching "Ken Burns -- The National Parks: America's Best Idea," one of the most exquisitely beautiful and historically fascinating programs the medium of television has ever given us.
("Ken Burns -- The National Parks: America's Best Idea" continues nightly through Friday on KPBT-PBS Ch. 13, with original airings from 7-9 p.m., and encore presentations from 9-11 p.m.)
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