Thomas Jefferson - A Film by Ken Burns

THOMAS JEFFERSON - DVD Movie

The visuals include beautifully photographed shots of Jefferson's famed estate, Monticello, other locations where Jefferson lived and worked, and a vast number of period drawings and paintings. This film (which covers Jefferson's entire life, including his two terms as the young country's president and his later years in Virginia) doesn't sidestep controversy but provides a balanced account of one of the most fascinating of all Americans. The man who wrote the Declaration of Independence owned slaves, and some of what he wrote about race is both troubling and puzzling. Jefferson, who was born into a prosperous Virginia family but lost his father when he was young, became a skilled lawyer despite his natural shyness. The complicated life of Thomas Jefferson is the subject of this excellent documentary by noted filmmaker Ken Burns. Commentators, including the noted African American historian John Hope Franklin, grapple with the peculiar inconsistencies of Jefferson's life. And the story of how he became a public figure and rose to prominence during the American Revolution is told intelligently. Using techniques that will seem comfortably familiar to viewers of other films by Burns, historians and writers (including Joseph Ellis, Daniel Boorstin, Garry Wills, and Gore Vidal) appear on camera to speak about Jefferson, a cast of actors read the words of Jefferson and others. --Robert J. McNamara