Product Details

• Actors: David Janssen
• Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: A&E Home Video
• VHS Release Date: August 29, 2000
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0767017633
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #226,158 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A&E's Biography takes a close look at the life and career of the legendary American writer whose name evokes dust bowl-era images of Salinas, Monterey, and migrant farm workers. John Steinbeck's life story is revealed in personal photos and interviews with friends, family, and contemporaries, along with footage of the locations that inspired him. Also surveyed are the writer's foray into filmmaking and his Hollywood experiences. Discover why he was motivated to write about the land and the people who belonged to it. Learn of the trials and persecution he endured for his unwillingness to compromise the truth and the rocky personal life that accompanied his artistic struggles. A&E provides a truly comprehensive and sensitive depiction of this Nobel and Pulitzer prize-winning author. --Amy Levine

From the Back Cover

One of America's greatest writers, John Steinbeck paradoxically remains one of our country's least understood artists.

Now, discover the fascinating story of the literary giant who, when asked if he deserved the 1962 Nobel Prize for his work, politely replied "Frankly, no." Witness the extraordinary life work of this celebrated author, illustrated through excerpts from such masterpieces as The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men, East of Eden and Cannery Row. See how Steinbeck's concern for the underdog made him a hero with America's masses -- and a feared enemy of the Establishment. And get a deeply intimate glimpse of the man behind the books through conversations with Steinbeck's widow, son and close friends including playwrights Edward Albee and Terence McNally.

This deeply moving BIOGRAPHY reveals the tortured soul beneath the acclaimed American legend whose compassionate, visionary writing challenged the status quo and touched the soul of a nation.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good bio, January 18, 2009

By 

A. DeClercq (Anaheim, California) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biography - John Steinbeck: An American Writer (A&E DVD Archives) (DVD)

This video is a good, thorough biography of John Steinbeck. I used it in my English class and it engaged my students.

2 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Mice and Grapes Author, June 8, 2006

By 

Jeffery Mingo (Homewood, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biography - John Steinbeck: An American Writer (A&E DVD Archives) (DVD)

I've never read any of the author's work. Still, I found this informative. Honestly, his life wasn't as interesting as the ones lead by Hemingway or Faulkner. I imagine that this documentary would be great viewing for a high school English course or introductory English course at the college level.
Like Robert Redford, Steinbeck grew up around many Mexican Americans and included them in his work. Southern gothics and imminent Bostonians to the side, Steinbeck was a West Coaster, like Gertrude Stein. Instead of having cheesy reenactments, this documentary often used Californian landscapes as a backdrop. Like most of the Biography series, the interviewees consisted of men and women, biographers and descendants.
This work said that his detractors called him a Communist. Many artists in the mid-20th Century faced this accusation. They either were falsely accused or were punished for past membership in the Party. Here, this work never answers whether Steinbeck was a Communist. Yes, maybe he wasn't fazed by such an allegation. However, the Biography series often waters down its subject's leftism and I wonder if they purposely omitted this information in order to make apolitical or conservative viewers comfortable.

1 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Limited Insight on the Subject, March 27, 2008

By 

Dr. W. G. Covington, Jr. (Edinboro, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Biography - John Steinbeck: An American Writer [VHS] (VHS Tape)

While the editing and filler video are aesthetically suitable, the content remains superficial. As one of the other reviewers pointed out, the narrator tells us Steinbeck was accused of being a Communist, but fails to answer whether he was or not. Did he think society's problems could be adddressed by more government? Where has that EVER worked successfully? The answer is nowhere. So if that was Steinbeck's solution to the problem of unfairness and poverty, it was an unworkable one and consequently he wasn't as perceptive as the elite assume.

It's rather fascinating that the power structure fawns over bleeding hearts who are looking out for the underdog, while they're the very ones in the power positions. I was just left with too many unanswered questions from this superficial treatment of this writer.