Product Details

• Actors: Liev Schreiber, Harry Bulkeley, Julia Dent, Alex Ingram, John Jacques
• Directors: Adriana Bosch, Elizabeth Deane
• Producers: David Condon, Kathy White
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Pbs Home Video
• DVD Release Date: August 27, 2002
• Run Time: 220 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00006AUJK
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #247,009 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Ulysses S. Grant - Warrior President" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It will make you appreciate how great Grant was, September 11, 2002

By 

Charles Ashbacher (Marion, Iowa United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ulysses S. Grant - Warrior President [VHS] (VHS Tape)

I have always been ambivalent about Ulysses S. Grant, both as a General and as a President. His record as a General was one of success, but at the expense of an enormous amount of blood. His administration was rocked with scandals, so severe that had they happened in modern times, it is unlikely that he would have survived as President. Yet, his greatest failing was also his greatest strength. He was a man of utmost character and principle, and he found it difficult to understand that other people did not share those traits. Lacking this sense of cynicism towards others, it was impossible for him to anticipate the unsavory actions of his nonmilitary associates. This is all the more unusual, because he never had any difficulty discerning the deceptive practices of his battlefield opponents.
This tape has forced me to rethink my opinion of Grant the General. His record of successive victories is largely unmatched in American military history, and his conquest of Vicksburg was one of the most well-planned military operations in the history of the world. He also was a great strategic thinker, understanding that the fall of Vicksburg doomed the Confederacy. Until I viewed this tape, I had no appreciation for Grant as an original military thinker. After seeing the descriptions of how he carried out many of his campaigns, it is clear that he was a great military commander and the person most responsible for the Union victory.
My opinion of his presidency has also been rather low, but this tape has forced a serious upward revision. He faced enormous problems, the intransigent elements in the South refused to accept anything but apartheid, and if Grant made a mistake, it was in realizing that military defeat did not change the attitudes in the South. He just could not comprehend the deep hatred for blacks that was a fundamental part of the psyche of so many southern whites.
This tape also reminds us that the United States citizenry has experienced terrorism in the past. The white supremacist groups that arose after the Civil war terrorized blacks and white sympathizers for almost a century. People were brutally killed, homes burned and bombed so that black people were forced to accept a denial of their rights as citizens. Grant did all he could to help the freed slaves, but the country had no stomach for any additional federal action and most people just wanted the whole problem to go away. Ironically, the one solution that may have worked was for the U.S. to annex the Dominican Republic and turn it into a state that black people could migrate to. Grant proposed the plan to congress, but few were willing to accept a black run state on equal terms with all others.
This tape is one of the best in the biography series produced for PBS. Grant is truly an American hero, and like so many, was humble in his enormous success. If he had not been there to save the union, it is doubtful that Lincoln could have done it. I enjoyed this tape so much, I watched it twice just to see if I had missed anything the first time.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Grant You Never Knew, September 6, 2004

By 

Square Peg (AZ) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Ulysses S. Grant - Warrior President (DVD)

After watching numerous DVDs about the Civil War, I became intrigued about Hiram Ulysses Grant. This DVD filled in a lot of gaps and I learned some interesting things about him. In 1821, the American Colonization Society was formed to return blacks to Africa (thus the colony of Liberia). Lincoln gave this concept consideration. What I learned in the DVD was that in his presidency, Grant pushed for the annexation of Hispaniola, not to relocate blacks (and get rid of them), but to give them the option to leave, thus impressing upon white southerners the importance of black people in their labor force and encouraging them to pay better wages and treat their employees better so that they wouldn't relocate to the Caribbean instead. He tried, unsuccessfully, twice to push this through. His efforts to ensure that black Americans were treated fairly (prosecuting KKK members in South Carolina) caused him a lot of grief and contributed to his failed presidency.

His name doesn't ever pop up in discussions of great presidents, and he doesn't seem to be appreciated as an American very much either, or not as much as I think he should.

Buy the video, see what you think.

26 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't capture Grant's essence, but intriguing, December 24, 2003

By 

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

This review is from: Ulysses S. Grant - Warrior President (DVD)

Ulysses S. Grant was an extremely difficult man to get to know. He was shy, taciturn and not in the habit of revealing his feelings to many outsiders. It's always been difficult for historians and film makers to accurately portray the man and most often, they have failed in their interpretations. Though the American Experience PBS project is at the apex of historical biography, this one on Grant falls a bit wide of the mark.

Problems abound from the get go: the production is uneven, occasionally plodding and doesn't reveal much of Grant as a human being. Though they take pains to introduce his parents, siblings and give a thorough overview of his childhood, there is something intangible missing. Though he was retiring, Grant was still a vibrantly alive man. He had fierce appetites and had a desire to be somebody. None of this is really explored in the film and it results in massive frustration for the discerning viewer.

The interviews with historians are uneven. Unfortunately, the producers elected to have Geoffrey Perret air his opinions on Grant, none of which are historically valid or interesting. Brooks Simpson and John Simon fare much better, and their views are entertaining and reliable.

Much of the documentary focuses on Grant's Presidency, which is a curious facet of the film. The revisionist aspect of the show reveals USG to have been a much better President than he's given credit for, but the content again induces more questions than it answers.

Grant was a fascinating man with rare depths of emotion and feeling. He's worth getting to know, even though the journey is sometimes a complex experience. That description would sum up this futile attempt to shine a light on the psyche of this remarkable man. Though the film has definite merit, it simply doesn't begin to showcase what an incredible man Grant was. The definitive film of Grant has yet to be made.