Product Details

• Actors: Theodore Roosevelt
• Format: Box set, Black & White, Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 2
• Studio: Pbs Home Video
• VHS Release Date: July 5, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003A9RT
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,674 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is bully!, August 2, 2003

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Theodore Roosevelt: The American Experience [VHS] (VHS Tape)

American Experience documentaries are always stellar efforts and this is no exception. The magnificent life of TR is told is painstaking detail and everything is beautifully photographed and arranged. When the film details TR's childhood asthma, they photograph a small boy, meant to be TR, in a darkened room, as the wind batters the curtains. It's an ethereal moment and makes the viewer think they are in the room with Roosevelt.

TR's entire life is depicted, with generous amounts of time being spent on his early years in New York. But the majority of the program is rightly devoted to TR in the period 1898-1909, where he went from Rough Rider to President. His private side is illuminated and one realizes he was a fascinating, though sometimes infuriating man; stubborn, headstrong, yet brilliant. It's all here: his ability to speak languages, his amazing memory, the fact he read a book every day, his passion for the outdoor life, his years at Harvard. His romances are here as well, including his early passion for eventual wife Edith, whom he threw over for his first wife, Alice. She died on the same day as TR's mother, and this dual blow is examined in detail.

This is a gorgeous film, photographed with care and produced with exquisite flair. If you're not especially interested in Roosevelt, you will be after viewing this documentary. If you are already a fan of TR, this will make you love him all the more.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent video documentary of the most interesting leader, March 17, 2002

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Theodore Roosevelt: The American Experience [VHS] (VHS Tape)

While the American president that possessed the greatest amount of some characteristics can honestly be debated, Theodore Roosevelt was hands down the most energetic. He lived life at a frenetic pace, being more active at fifty than most men are at twenty. While his war and political exploits are well-known, it is also certain that he was the most intellectual president of the twentieth century. In fact, it is at least debatable that he rivals Jefferson and John Quincy Adams for the title of most intellectual president of all time. A Nobel prize winner, expert naturalist and shrewd political operative, his was one of the fullest lives of anyone in the last two centuries. All the more amazing when you realize that he died at a rather young age.
It is unfortunate that he is most widely known for his war exploits rather than his actions as president in pushing for social progress. He was the first president to ever take the side of organized labor and we all owe him an enormous debt for his stand against the most egregious of the trusts. The original establishment of laws governing pure food and drugs were pushed by him over incredible resistance.
I was fascinated by this story of his life. In my personal ranking of presidents, he has always been placed in eighth or ninth place. After watching this tape, I have moved him up to sixth place, after Washington, Lincoln, FDR and Truman. His expansion of American power via the opening of the Panama canal is not to be underestimated, as it made the United States a two ocean powerhouse.
As is the case with so many dynamic people, his high level of activity was used to avoid pondering the consequences of fate. There was a great deal of tragedy in his life, decades later, he still was not over the death of his father. He was so devastated by the death of his first wife that he never spoke about her at all to the daughter she bore.
Theodore Roosevelt is also the holder of the most dubious distinction of all the presidents in committing the greatest voluntary political blunder. His comment that he would not run again in 1908 cost him another term and set him on a course where he launched a third party bid in 1912, leading to the election of Woodrow Wilson. It is a fascinating exercise in alternative history speculation to ponder the very real possibility that TR could have been president when the United States entered World War I. No one knows what difference that would have made, but it is clear that American power would have been used more forcefully and earlier.
This is a tape that should be viewed by all Americans before they graduate from high school. TR did so much to help change the United States as it made the transition between centuries. You cannot be considered educated in American history until you understand the life and accomplishments of Theodore Roosevelt.