Customer Reviews

The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God

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After viewing this beautifully mastered film by Burns et al at Florentine Films, you will never think of another task or job as a waste of time. The Shakers did not strive for producing the most things, but that each action was done to perfection. They worked as though "Today is the last day of your life" and they worked as though "they had the rest of time" to perform each and every task". Slow your life down; watch this film!

The Shakers were an American religious sect that nurtured an explosion of creativity in theology, social experimentation, architecture, music, design, and invention. Never larger than a few thousand men and women, this group accomplished an amazing amount and their legacy is out of all proportion to their numbers. Ken Burns does a very superficial job here. Next to nothing is said about their radical theology: Mother Ann was seen as the second coming of Christ in female form. Ken Burns, who did such a good job with the Civil War, never mentions that the Shakers' numbers grew radically after the upheavals of the Civil War left many people seeking extreme religious lifestyles. While there are examples of Shaker music, no one discusses the unique style of their hymns. The vast Shaker thological literature that survives seems to have little interest to him. It is as if Burns spent a weekend doing research and figured that he had learned enough. He didn't.

In The Shakers: Hands to Work, Hearts to God" Ken Burns truly hit his stride as a documentarian. By combining personal journals of shakers, historic and social commentary of scholars and contemporaries, and wonderfully insightful interviews with present day Shakers, Burns tells a simple story, but tells it beautifully. By illustrating the Shaker life and ideology, Burns presents a group of dedicated people who strove to put God into every aspect of their lives.

If you know the Shakers for only their furniture and ritual dancing, then this film will illuminate your understanding of early America's most powerful Utopian movement.

While I was watching this documentary by myself (the fam is more into action packed dramas), my hubby stuck his head in the door, became interested in this video on Shakers and watched most of it with me.

Now *that's* an endorsement!

It is a very well done piece with some amazing insights into the day to day life of Shakers, with many interesting tidbits about their history and American history.

They were an ultra-strict group and they strove for perfection in everything they did. Some of the tidbits I enjoyed most - a woman Shaker is credited with inventing the circular saw and Shakers are also credited with the invention of the clothes pin.

Shakers were devoted, devout, quiet, principled and deeply religious people. Above all, they were highly disciplined, rising at 4:30 each morning to begin prayers and chores.

I highly recommend this video - even if you have only a passing interest in Shakers. It is a compelling documentary.

Although this is not an extensive project, it is a wonderful introduction to the world of the Shakers and gives the curious a place to start. If you would like to get inspiration for additional research on this fascinating subject, this is an ideal DVD and beautifully produced. Don't hesitate seeing it!

Their true name was the United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, but to the world and even to themselves, they were known as the Shakers. This was because of the ecstatic dancing they engaged in during their group activities. The Shakers were a religious movement that survived for decades, despite the fact that they were celibate. Men and women were housed in separate areas and with no children being born to replenish their numbers, it was necessary to recruit people into the movement if they were to survive over the long term.
There is much to admire about the Shakers. They believed in strict equality for all people, they were one of the very few organizations that treated men and women equally. Blacks were also accepted as equals and theirs was a truly communal society. They produced very high quality merchandise, as they strove for perfection and simplicity in everything they did. They were pacifists, when the government tried to conscript Shaker men into the military during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln was persuaded to grant them exemptions from the draft.
Ken Burns uses archival photos, diary entries, interviews with some of the few surviving Shakers, statements of historians, readings of commentators of the time and film of their merchandise and structures that still exist to tell their story. The Shakers were quite inventive; it is stated that a Shaker woman invented the circular saw. They worked hard and valued all labor, believing that it was the will of God. Unfortunately for their movement, the Industrial Revolution allowed factories to make goods far cheaper than the Shakers could. Society also changed a great deal after the Civil War, the opportunities that existed outside their community were a strong attraction that many of the young Shakers could not resist. Finally, the strict vow of celibacy meant that their numbers could not be replenished from within. It became harder and harder to attract new people into the movement, and when people began leaving faster than they were recruited in, the decline began. This started a negative feedback loop, as the numbers dropped; fewer people wanted to join.
Burns captures all of this in the film. As one of the historians' states, the Shakers were the first group to do many positive things. Social commentators as prominent as Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels are quoted as commenting favorably on the Shaker society. Even though the movement was a casualty of the changes in society, the Shakers did many very positive things and had a strong influence on the development of the country. Their influence went far beyond their numbers and Burns does an excellent job in capturing and explaining all that they accomplished.

This video was helpful in my studies of the Communial Communities that sprung up around the US in the advent of our country. However, I was unhappy that the director omitted the fact that these communities depict early socialist ideals. It is important in the understanding of where American Socialist movements began or where their inspiration may have come from. I recommend this movie if you are looking for religous movement info or insight on the first religous "Great Awakenning" that took place in the US.

Ken Burns brings his inimitable style and "emotional archaeology" to one of the most fascinating and least understood religious sect in American history.

I love the images and the sweeping scope of the narration. But that is where I have to fault the film -- I don't think it goes deep enough. Some of the most engaging images and topics are treated with only a cursory touch. I wanted to hear and learn much more.

Unlike Burns' later work, this film actually felt a bit rushed in places.

As a primer on the Shakers, this film is virtually peerless, but I'm afraid it had me asking more questions than it answered. Still and all, it is beautiful and compelling.
****1/2

Ken Burns' film about the religious sect "The Shakers" is typical of the superior work he has done in making historical documentaries for PBS. The film is less than an hour in length so of course it is a fairly superficial look at this fascinating group and their contributions to American history. However Burns does delve at least somewhat in to the history and religious beliefs of this group that was originally called the Shaking Quakers and was founded in 18th century England by an illiterate woman known as Mother Ann. The church grew to have nineteen thriving "societies" in the United States that aside from their beautiful simple furniture developed high quality seeds, cattle breeds, brooms, architecture and many other perfectly designed products. As in most Burns documentaries quotes from journal entries and contemporary writers and observers are read by actors and authentic pictures and photographs are used throughout to illustrate the story. The most memorable part of the film for me was the interviews with two elderly women who were long time Shakers and who radiated peace and contentment as they told of their long lives in the community.

One of Ken Burns earliest documentaries, this is a fascinating documentary, not least because of the many interviews with the few remaining Shakers. Due to declining new members, especially young members (a great deal of their new members came from caring for orphans, which were cut off from them as the twentieth century went along), the Shakers decided to close their final settlements. But the Shakers were morally impressive and inspirational. They avoided involvement in the capitalist system by being self-sustaining and maintaining a few supporting industries. They are famous, of course, for their purely functional yet nonetheless beautiful furniture and design and architecture. The buildings they show in the documentary were incredibly beautiful. They have a wonderful simplicity and some amazing lines. I loved their progressive social stances on the role of women and their abhorrence of slavery and other forms of oppression. Their tolerance and extreme generosity was the antithesis of contemporary attitudes. When one settlement discovered that others were stealing some of their crops, they simple started planting more.

I can understand how the Shakers were not able to survive. As a celibate community they relied exclusively upon people deciding to join; they depended upon converts. But you can't help but believe that the world is poorer for their absence.