Customer Reviews

Iowa: An American Portrait [VHS]

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Didn't much care about Iowa and sure didn't know a thing about it -- until viewing this very well-made documentary. It draws you in and makes you care, emotionally appealing on many levels, a sensory treat. Very similar to Ken Burns' style, except shot on video, not film. Excellent cinematography & editing. Many of the same voices that Burns often uses. Very effective music, and wonderful editing transitions between past & present. Would love to see this sort of treatment for other states as well. Truly a fine job!

As a lifelong resident of Iowa, I was excited at the prospect of watching this tape and I recognized most of the names of the towns and some of the scenes. However, the pace of the tape is so slow that it could be a partial cure for insomnia. The music track is sedate to the point of being acceptable background music in an elevator and there are significant gaps in the narration. Furthermore, some of the images are maintained longer than is really necessary. I found it so boring that I had to watch it in segment approximately 20 minutes in length. With so much material to work with, it was disappointing that the producers chose to go slow when they could have sped up the pace and covered so much more information about a state with so much to offer.