Customer Reviews

The American Experience - The Duel [VHS]

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"The Duel" is another excellent entry from the splendid PBS series, "The American Experience." This documentary focuses on the infamous rivalry between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr which led to Hamilton's death and Burr's ruin. Although standard American history courses briefly touch on this duel, it doesn't really put it into its proper context. Both Hamilton and Burr were brilliant and able men, fated to lead America into the future. However, both had contrasting viewpoints on which direction America should go, and both held a deep hatred for the other. This film explores the sources of that hatred, and the impact the duel had on the fledgling Republic.

By using contemporary newspaper accounts and entries from personal journals, Car Byker makes this episode and these two influential Americans live again. To help us better understand the context of early American politics, Byker also examines the tradition of challenging an opponent to a duel and explains how the ritual, and not the duel itself, helped a person save face.

"The Duel" also reminds us that the issue of public and personal character was as prevalent in 18th century politics as it is today. This is a well-done documentary of an incident that has become legendary. Thanks to this insightful film, the legend is more accessable to us.

The duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr is one of the most well-known stories in American History. In PBS' "The American Experience" series, "The Duel" takes on a new dimension with allusions to our present political scene. The video provides an wonderful examination of the lives of Burr and Hamilton -- one grew up with privilege, the other illegitimate; one intelligent and politically savvy, the other one, in the words of the video, "a genius"; both were worldly men with numerous female 'friends'; and both loved their families. Although seeming to have a lot in common, Burr and Hamilton became bitter enemies over the issues of character and political principle (Hamilton felt Burr had neither). In situations comparable to our political scene today, character assassination, charges of impropriety, and of course, challenges to various duels (physical in this era) abound. I think that the video makes clear that although these two men ended up opposing each other, both were brilliant in their own right. Perhaps the greatest tragedy comes from the fact that although both had the potential to shape the country in their own image, petty squabbles and ambition hurt not only them, but maybe the early nation as well. At just under 60 minutes, this video is an excellent introduction to American History at its most interesting: how personality and the individual can change the course of a country. It's also not afraid to highlight the contribution icon Thomas Jefferson made to the situation...apparently, politics does make for strange alliances...

No less an authority than George Washington considered Alexander Hamilton a genius, more intelligent than Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin or anyone else that helped found the United States. There is no question that the person most responsible for the success of the young United States was George Washington. When conducting debates about who to place in the second position, a convincing argument can be made that it was Hamilton's incredible financial genius that allowed the new nation to financially survive. He put in place financial structures that still largely exist today, and he was one of the strongest proponents of our governmental system of checks and balances.
All that ended on July 11, 1804, when he fought a duel with a man, Aaron Burr, whose ambition was equal to his own, but whose aim was much better, as Hamilton took a fatal bullet. It is fascinating to watch the events that led to their facing off with pistols. They were bitter political rivals who willingly engaged in political mudslinging of the worst kind and few in these modern times realize that Aaron Burr tied Thomas Jefferson in the presidential election of 1800. They were also products of completely different childhood environments. Hamilton was born in Jamaica, child of a woman who was most likely a prostitute, a boy genius who rose to a position of privilege solely on his ability. Burr was born to privilege, having all he needed there for him from birth. These differences in the two men are covered in the tape, providing the background for the "main event."
Two centuries later, we find it difficult to comprehend the role that the duel had in the life of the privileged man. It was all very stylistic, rigidly choreographed, with codes of conduct that allowed it to be settled in many fixed ways short of the pointing of pistols. Watching the final events, where one man who is making a request for an opportunity to kill the other signs his letter, "Your most obedient servant", is a lesson in traditional society.
This duel also changed the political landscape of the country. With Hamilton gone, there was no powerful financial figure and Burr was charged with murder and forced to flee the country. Had Burr not killed Hamilton, it is very likely that he would have become President. If Hamilton had lived, his steadying hand on the financial system would have most likely prevented many of the problems that were to arise after his death.
There is still some dispute as to whether Hamilton, who fired first, shot at Burr and deliberately missed or simply missed. In any case, Burr clearly shot to kill and did so, destroying Hamilton's life quickly and his more slowly. A chronicle of the highest of American society at the turn of the nineteenth century, this tape demonstrates one of the more unusual ways in which our current political system was constructed from nothing. It is a first-rate piece of work.

This documentary is great! It builds up the tension between these two founding fathers, in which they end up in their legendary duel. It appears, though, that the documentary is biased towards Hamilton, and reflects Burr in a negative light. I say this because of Hamilton shooting first into the air, in order not to kill Burr, and then Burr taking the fatal shot to kill Hamilton. Then, it talks about Burr's subsequent exile to a foreign country as a result of killing Hamilton. It does not discuss Burr's contribution to forming our great nation. Well, as they say, "history is written by the victor". But this is very informative and entertaining. It discusses the "code of honor" among gentlemen, and the actors, what I find interesting, do not talk. Less is definately more! Also, it shows an old fashioned printing press and printing room, sealing a letter with wax, followed by a stamp, and gives you a glimpse of life in those days. Thouroughly educational. I only wish they showed stuff like this in school when I was a kid, instead of stuying the Roman empire, which I still have no interest in.