HOLLYWOOD, CA – Ken Burns’s and Lynn Novick’s engaging, entertaining and enlightening documentary about the rise and fall of the 18th Amendment debuts on Blu-ray and DVD when PROHIBITION arrives on October 4, 2011 from PBS Home Video and Paramount Home Entertainment. A fascinating story that goes beyond the oft-told tales of gangsters, rum runners, flappers and speakeasies to raise profound questions about the proper role of government, individual rights and responsibilities, PROHIBITION delves deep into how a society founded on individual freedom became a nation of scofflaws and hypocrites. Told through expert interviews, vintage footage and compelling images, the five-and-a-half hour film explores how the enshrining of a faith-driven moral code in the Constitution paradoxically caused millions of Americans to rethink their definition of morality.
PROHIBITION is narrated by Peter Coyote and features voiceovers by Patricia Clarkson, Blythe Danner, Paul Giamatti, Tom Hanks, John Lithgow and Oliver Platt. The Blu-ray and DVD both include over 90 minutes of additional footage, including a behind-the-scenes look inside the studio with Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, bonus scenes and interview outtakes.
Blu-ray & DVD
The PROHIBITION Blu-ray is presented in 1080i high definition with English Dolby TrueHD 5.1, Spanish Stereo and descriptive video. The DVD is presented in widescreen with English 5.1 Surround, Spanish Stereo and descriptive video. Total runtime is 5 hours, 46 minutes. The DVD and Blu-ray will be available for the suggested retail prices of $39.99 U.S./$42.99 Canada and $44.99 U.S./$47.99 Canada respectively. Disc contents are as follows:
Feature:
“A Nation of Drunkards”
“A Nation of Scofflaws”
“A Nation of Hypocrites”
Bonus Material:
– Bonus Scenes
o In the Studio
o Owled, Edged, Jingled, Piffed…
o Kentucky Bourbon
o And I Caught Hell
o He Never Did Get Caught
o San Francisco Welcomes Visitors From Italy, 1921
o Hoover’s Medicine Ball Cabinet
o An Object of Ridicule
o Ten Nights in a Bar Room
– Interview Outtakes
o Saloons
o The Notion That Man Is Perfectable
o It’s Better to Know the Judge
o That’s Just the Way Life Was
o Rebels of New York
o Somebody Got a Pineapple
o Kentucky
o Capone
o Roy Olmstead
o Tabloid Heroes
o You People Were Thirsty
o Gangs
o Bad Booze
o Lessons
