Product Details

• Actors: Keith David, Tom Hanks, Adam Arkin, Tom Bodett, Philip Bosco
• Directors: Ken Burns
• Writers: Dayton Duncan
• Producers: Ken Burns, Craig Mellish, Dayton Duncan, Pam Tubridy Baucom, Susanna Steisel
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Pbs Home Video
• VHS Release Date: September 30, 2003
• Run Time: 107 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000A02Y2
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,271 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "My Darling Swipes....", February 18, 2005

By 

tjcrewsbooks (Indiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Horatio's Drive - America's First Road Trip (DVD)

Horatio Nelson Jackson bet a group of men in San Francisco $50 he could drive an automobile coast to coast in three months or less, something which had never been done before.
"You're on," they told him, and the next day Jackson searched for a suitable vehicle. He spent $3,000 on a 1903 Winton Touring Car, hired a mechanic to accompany him on the drive, and three days later left the city by the Golden Gate heading for the Big Apple.
The duet became a trio when Horatio Jackson brought aboard a light-colored, good-natured bulldog named "Bud" in Caldwell, Idaho.
Jackson back-tracked the trails of westward migration. He introduced the dawn of a new age to a soon-to-be-passing way of life.
He encountered a wagon train heading for the last free land in the Great Northwest. He waited for a stage coach to bring him new tires. He had his automobile repaired at blacksmiths shops. He crossed mountain ranges, forded streams, and got the car stuck in buffalo wallows.
Horatio Nelson Jackson and his mechanic, Sewell Crocker, embodied the American ideal that you can accomplish the impossible with pluck, grit, and determination. They managed to cross the continent by automobile in just over two months and thus win the bet.

The story is superbly told by Dayton Duncan and Ken Burns. Jackson's letters home to his beloved wife, Bertha, or "Swipes", as he calls her, are read by the peerless Tom Hanks.
Behind the narration and the telling of the story is a very lively soundtrack which makes viewing the film most enjoyable!
The documentary, "Horatio's Drive," is Americana at its best.
Don't miss it!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The birth of the road trip and the changing of America, November 27, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip (DVD)

Horatio's Drive is not simply about one man's impulsive bet that he could become the first person to drive across the U.S. in an automobile. It is also about the dawn of a new form of transportation in the United States, one that would forever change way we travel.
The story, told mostly through the letters that Dr. Horatio Nelson Jackson writes to his wife as he slowly weaves his way across the continent, is about the first wave of the future passing through an American that had remained unchanged for many years. Jackson, ever the optimist, writes about how certain he is that he can make it even when faced with a hostile terrain, no road maps and an under powered car prone to breaking down at the worst possible time. As he passes through one small town after another, he and his mechanic become instant celebrities. As one newspaper account of the time read, it would have been no less of a story had a spaceship touched down in the middle of town.
I though the story was intriguing and a real history lesson. It's amazing to think of Nelson and his mechanic crossing the continent without a major highway or road, let alone in a car that needed near daily repair.
The film itself is well done and certainly worth watching. Old time car historians will enjoy the mention of models come and gone. History buffs get a glimpse at a changing America. And while Horatio's Drive may not have the depth of other Ken Burns works, this is a delightful `light' version of an interesting time and a wonderful story.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Little Known American First, September 28, 2007

By 

Granni Jani (lone tree, colorado USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Horatio's Drive: America's First Road Trip (DVD)

What a gem this DVD is!!! While surfing channels in a motel room, I ran across this presentation and started viewing it. I ordered the DVD as soon as I returned home. The story of the first coast to coast automobile road trip in 1903 is just wonderful. The adventure and challenge of this undertaking is nothing short of remarkable. Included are Horatio's letters to home recounting his journey, newspaper accounts of trip, and actual pictures he took on the road. This is a little known story of a remarkable man, his companion, and his dog on an adventure that I found to be a wonderful part of American history.