Product Details

• Actors: Campbell Scott, Kenneth Anger, John Bancroft, Bob Bayer, Alice Binkley
• Directors: Barak Goodman, John Maggio
• Writers: Barak Goodman
• Producers: Barak Goodman, Caroline Harting, Catherine Allan, Glenn Fukushima, Gregory Shea
• Format: Color, DVD, Full Screen, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: PBS
• DVD Release Date: May 17, 2005
• Run Time: 90 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007Y08MO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #106,335 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "American Experience: Kinsey" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Alfred kisey was a little-known biologist at indiana university when in the 1940s he began compiling exhaustive data from thousands of interviews about sexual practices of men & women. This documentary assesses kinseys remarkable achievements while examining how his personal life shaped his career. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 05/17/2005 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: Nr

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unsparing and Informative, July 25, 2005

By 

John P Bernat (Kingsport, TN USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Experience: Kinsey (DVD)

If you've seen the recent movie ("the filme"), you'll want to check this out.

What I learned was that the film stayed fairly faithful to Kinsey's actual life experiences, with a few key omissions for dramatic purposes:

1. Kinsey's death is not treated in the film as it actually occurred. Actually, the movie pretty much avoids the issue entirely. The dang movie just had to have a happy ending.

2. Kinsey's ethical lapses are not treated objectively in the film. Gaps in his taxonomy and statistical technique are explained in the documentary, warts and all.

3. His wife's devotion to him is underplayed in the movie, as is Kinsey's more extensive personal experiments in sex.

Watch this documentary for a little balance...

17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars documentary imitates art, May 26, 2005

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Experience: Kinsey (DVD)

This is the first PBS documentary where I've seen them start by warning, "This may be unsuitable for some audiences." This documentary is so true to the film "Kinsey" that it almost just replaces biographers for actors. Laura Linney did Mrs. Kinsey a favor because in real life she was far less glamorous and a little more physically squat. Kinsey's real-life daughter are interviewed here and they are respectable old ladies now. The researcher's bisexuality and practice of masochism are not swept under the rug here. Unlike the film which just ends abruptly, this documentary rightfully suggests that Kinsey helped to pave the way for the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Also unlike the film, this documentary noted that Kinsey interviewed few African Americans in his work. Oddly enough, the anthropologist Margaret Mead, also bisexual, criticized his work when she herself said bisexuality is more common than Americans believe and her work has been condemned as racist and projectionist. This would be a nice work for all sex-positive activists and scientific researchers to see.

10 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Science is Sexy, March 16, 2006

By 

Harley Quinn "Broken Halo" (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: American Experience: Kinsey (DVD)

This was a great documentary. It was objective for the most part painting kinsey as neither a hero nor a villain. Too often I find that Kinsey is portrayed as one or the other. He played a large part in revolutionizing sexual research as we know it today but as the documentary showed this came at a price. His statistical methods were questionable as well as some of his methods of research. His level of authority and interactions with his employees were also questionable. He had his own agenda which clearly tampered with his objectivity as a scientist. But at a time when Americans were sexually repressed he was a voice of reason. He preached tolerance and acceptance and made it OK to talk about sex in the open and let it be known that it is normal to be sexual and nothing to be ashamed of. But the documentary also showed how Kinsey put science before everything. Even when it came to his family and making moral judgements at times.
But I felt like the documentary also glossed over a few subjects that could have been explored in deeper detail such as his marriage to Clara and his relationship with his children which was barely mentioned. Also, they never really said what specific masochistic tendencies he indulged in especially after he became depressed. The latter part of his life after the publication of his second volume of work was covered too briefly. I thought what his colleagues had to say on how he didn't include love in the "mechanics" of sex was also interesting and how he seemed to be detached. Ironic how the "father of sex" couldn't make love.....I would recommend the documentary and the movie with Liam Nieson as a complementary package. Whereas the movie portrayed him almost as the hero of sexual research, the documentary goes on to show that there were a few chinks in the knight's armor but without demonizing him.