The Tragic Beauty of Ken Burns's The Dust Bowl (2012)
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2012
Publication Title
Critical Studies in Television Online
Additional Publication URL
http://cstonline.tv/the-dust-bowl
Abstract
any critics have misperceived Ken Burns as a romantic. I’ve never seen him that way. My take has always been that he’s more a documentary poet attuned to America’s idealistic aspirations. As a point of contrast, consider the above poem by the romantic poet William Wordsworth, which came to mind after watching a DVD screener of Ken Burns’s latest Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) documentary, The Dust Bowl. Wordsworth expresses an adult’s guileless and childlike reconnection with nature at the sight of a rainbow. The two-dozen elderly witnesses who Burns employs also speak from the heart as they describe in compelling detail how the once-in-a-century natural tragedy now known as the Dust Bowl has marked them for the rest of their lives.
Rights
Link leads to full text provided by Critical Studies in Television.
Recommended Citation
Edgerton, Gary, "The Tragic Beauty of Ken Burns's The Dust Bowl (2012)" (2012). Scholarship and Professional Work - Communication. 64.
https://digitalcommons.butler.edu/ccom_papers/64
