Customer Reviews

The Congress

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Ken Burns' "The Congress" is a wonderful history of an essential but underrated American institution. In only ninety minutes, Burns captures the strengths and weaknesses of our legislative branch like few documentarians could. Congress, often accused of gridlock and pork barrelling, actually exemplifies the American ideal of self-rule. This film touches on key successes and failures of this body throughout its entire history. Burns examines the contributions of such pivotal congressmen as Joe Cannon, Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, George Norris and a host of others. Burns alters our current perspective of Congress to show us an organization of great power that has, at times, ruled the country in counterbalance to weak presidents.

Burns uses contemporary newspaper accounts, archival footage, personal interviews, and journals to transform Congress's history in a fascinating parade of men and women who represented the best and worst of America. A great film.

My students loved it! My classroom was a scene of heated debate and excitement. I couldn't have asked for a better tool to aid in the teaching of our Congress.

Good Film with great insight on such Congressmen as Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Jeannette Rankin, Joe Cannon, and Sam Rayburn. I do wish the film was a little longer, but that may just be me.

It would be nice if Ken Burns makes and updated version in the next few years. I also wished Senators Strom Thurmond, Fritz Hollings and Edward M. Kennedy would have been quoted and/or interviewed. The film does include Senator John C. Stennis, which is nice. Even if Burns doesn't update the film, it stands up well over time. I think many people will like the quotes from James Madison given during the early part of the film.

I hope every Congressman owns a copy of this DVD.

"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree." --James Madison, speech at the Constitutional Convention, July 11, 1787

Some of Daniel Webster's speeches:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dwebster/speeches/

Rewatching this documentary breaks my heart. Throughout our nation's history we've disagreed on many issues, none so intractable as slavery, but apart from that one we've managed to one way or another reach a compromise. Today, however, unlike any other point in our history, we have a substantial number of people who simply don't believe in government and therefore don't really believe in Congress. In fact, it is almost unheard of in the history of any country to find a substantial number of people who simply don't believe in government in any but the most minimal source. I actually believe that this newfound hatred of government -- something considered to be a conservative believe, but held by no conservatives in history, not by Edmund Burke, John Adams, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Benjamin Disraeli, Winston Churchill (who led the fight for national healthcare in Great Britain and was a passionate supporter of the United Nations and helped plan the European Union), Michael Oakeshott, Robert Taft, Peter Viereck, or, really, any conservatives until the past three decades in the United States -- as I said, I believe that this newfound hatred of government is actually a form of anarchism. These people simply hate government as such. This is such a bizarre situation. Until recently both conservatives and liberals were interested in government governing. There are simply no precedents for this in human history. Edmund Burke is, I'm sure, rolling in his grave.

Ken Burns, however, celebrates American government in this fine documentary, specifically our greatest political institution, the United States Congress. The documentary does an absolutely outstanding job for an hour and a half film of providing a brief history of the Senate and the House. The shortness is responsible for all its shortcomings. There is no detailing of the creation of a bicameral form of legislature in the constitutional convention. There is no mention of senators being appointed by state legislatures instead of elected by direct vote until over halfway through the film and no explanation of the difference between the two houses. There is no mention of the careful crafting of House policy by James Madison. But if viewed as an outline, the documentary is a success. I frankly wish that this had been the first of Ken Burns very long documentaries. This and a documentary on Thomas Hart Benton were the last films he created before his epochal THE CIVIL WAR, the work that established Burns as a cultural figure. In Burns earlier films you could see him honing his craft and polishing his techniques, and by the time this story of the Congress his abilities were completely in place. I would have loved to see what he could do in a 7 or 8 hour documentary. One of the marks of Burns's work has been the way he has turned up the neglected and unexpected. That wasn't possible here given the short amount of time he had with which to work. Considerable time is devoted to The Great Triumvirate -- Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, and John C. Calhoun -- as one would expect, and a bit of time is devoted to the Progressives. Likewise, there were far fewer archival photos than I would have liked. Still, given the limitations, Burns does an outstanding job. The film is completely nonpartisan, or would be, except that some recent partisans surreally don't don't believe in the efficacy of government at all. These new anarchists aside, Burns does not celebrate any political positions.


The interviewees were not up to the level of some of his other documentaries. I would have enjoyed more Alistair Cooke, who was always elegant and charming. I could have done without the spectacularly uninsightful Cokie Roberts (if she had not been reasonably attractive, she would not have had a career in journalism). I would have loved to see some professional historians, such as Robert Remini, who has written about many key antebellum figures and has for a number of years been working on the official history of the House of Representatives. They do interview very briefly a couple of historians, such as James McGregor Burns (author of perhaps the greatest biography of FDR and the splendid book on political leadership, entitled, not surprisingly, LEADERSHIP) and Barbara Fields, who I know from THE CIVIL WAR but whose writings I do not know at all. They also interview the perpetually overrated David Broder and David McCullough, who as in so many of Burns's earlier documentaries also served as the narrator and writer. The one person I really enjoyed was Charles McDowell, who I loved back in the days when he was active on the various TV political talk shows. He had long been one of my favorites and I was saddened when he retired. A number of years ago I was exiting the Borders in Lakeview in Chicago and as I was pushing the door open I saw Charles McDowell opening the one to my left. As is my practice, I don't go up to celebrities, but I would have liked to tell him how much I enjoyed him. He certainly brought a degree of charm and humanity that far too journalists display today.

Although this would have been a much better exploration of Congress had it been longer, it is nonetheless splendid just as it stands. As I've said elsewhere in reviews of Burns's films, when he has finished (hopefully not for at least another thirty years) his work, you could take all his films and put them into a time capsule, wait for a thousand years, and give them to future peoples to explain precisely who we as Americans are today. Like Congress, I consider Ken Burns a national treasure.

Awesome Ken Burns' film (from 1988) about the history of the U.S. Congress, with some of the great names and events profiled: Daniel Webster, Henry Clay, John C. Calhoun, Sam Irvin, Missouri Compromise, Compromise of 1850, Civil War, Gilded Age, Progressive Era, World War I, World War II, Watergate. It gave me hope that our Congress does indeed work, even when it seems that it does not!

This richly-narrated documentary chronicles the story of the U.S. Congress through the framework of the two major themes that have dominated its proceedings since the founding: growth and civil rights. Westward expansion, the addition of new states and territories, the rise of American industry with the labor barons' challenge to the federal government's power, and massive immigration were all factors with attendant political implications that Congress had to deal with through legislation and a reassertion of its power. Civil rights was a tension inherent in the beginning of the nation, with black slaves at first not even counted as full persons in the census--being 3/5 of a person according to the Constitution. The process of according blacks real and legal status as equal citizens was a tumultuous one, and women also had to fight for their rights. These themes continue in our national life, as racism and discrimination goes on, and the rise of Hispanic culture, among other things, impacts our political underpinnings.

The Founding Fathers wanted a weak Executive Branch and a strong legislature, and this documentary also shows how Henry Clay, with his brilliant oratory, led Congress to fulfill that design. Yet with the growth of the Federal Government and the bureaucracy, the Executive has probably become more powerful than the Founders intended.

In sum, this is an informative and entertaining production that helps us understand more about the Congress and the American people.

If you know anythin about politics, and are interested in the INDIVIVUAL congresspeople that have served, than this is not the documentary for you. In by far the most shallow documentary I have seen, this movie glosses over entire eras (almost all of the 1920's, the 80's, the 90's, the late 40's), and speaks of only about 10 congressman in the 20th century. Not only that, but Ken Burns seems to want to prove that the congress is more insignificant than we think. He talks at length about Everett Dirksen, who was a senator, and spends four minutes on each decade, and RARELY goes into specific congressman. This is incredibly pithy, no Newt Gingrich, no John Nance Garner, barely any congressman. This documentary despises profiles of interesting people and love long, pedantic descriptions of buildings.

This DVD is just an update of a VHS from 1988 with no new information. It is poorly made, shows nearly nothing about the history of the capital buildings, only stupid tidbits about congressional members over time. Fails to metion the other house buildings on capital hill, or even what a representative does as a member.

Horrid video, most boring and sleepy 1:45:00. Don't waste your money on this video, spend it on pizza and doritos for more of an education.