When the topic of prohibition comes up in school or in conversation most people see it in a one-dimensional view point. They see it as a time in history where people simply weren’t allowed to drink. They also see it as the government taking away a God given right to enjoy a brew. To be honest, I was the same way.
Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have put together a film called Prohibition that goes deeper into the effects of the Volstead Act. His film goes through different scenarios that illustrate how positively devastating the act was on family life, the economy and crime. These are all aspects that generally aren’t considered when the topic of Prohibition comes up. The film covers how the banning of alcohol (not all of it, but most of it) shutdown companies and caused massive layoffs, which helped spiral the economy into a depression. It also talked about the emergence of bootleggers, homemade alcohol (which would be dangerous, and sometimes even deadly) and crime syndicates that gained power through the supply and demand of underground alcohol sales. Burns lays out there how bad of an idea prohibition was, and why the country took so long in turning it around and eventually out.
What’s shocking about the entire ordeal is that it lasted 13 years. Again, no one out of the know really goes this far, so it’s refreshing to see the effect so intricately and deeply told on this Blu-ray. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick do a spectacular job of researching the beginning, middle and ending of the prohibition era. They bring to light very detailed accounts of what went on and what became of society during this time period. To help guide the research along, they recruited famed researchers and historians on the topic at hand to be interviewed during the film. So, if you have never seen a Ken Burns/Lynn Novick film before you should expect solid on camera interviews to help give more detail to the subject at hand during Prohibition. Especially interesting, and very detailed from historians and Burns/Novick is the involvement of Al Capone and his rivals, and what shipping booze meant to them and the city of Chicago. It’s all fascinating to watch and unfold in great detail.
To boot, Peter Coyote narrates the majority of the film. His calm, very serious voice helps to push along the mood and nature of Prohibition. While he’s no Morgan Freeman, he’s still very interesting to listen to, as he explains this mess in the early 1900s. Along side of him, you’ll find voice over cameo appearances from Tom Hanks, Paul Giamatti, John Lithgow, Oliver Platt, Patricia Clarkson and Blythe Danner. All of them have short segments, and all of them are as equally interesting as the next.
If you haven’t seen Prohibition then this might be the time to get it. If you’re a fan of good documentaries that provide very in-depth details on this time period in American history then look no further than this film. Yet another example of the Ken Burns effect.
As for the Blu-ray portion of the film, it’s quite impressive. While it’s expected that the interviews and modern day footage is of the utmost quality (it is), what is unexpected is how good the old footage and still pictures from the early 1900s looked. I was simply blown away on how clean the footage was they they showed. Some of the footage was from the 1920s, and it looked extremely detailed in HD. Granted, there were times where the footage was clearly damaged, which means there is nothing that can be done to prevent artifacts and whatnot from appearing, but the majority of it looked perfect in HD. The still pictures especially looked great. I haven’t been this impressed with a documentary in some time. PBS did a beautiful job with cleaning up and transferring the old and new footage to the Blu-ray medium. What’s even better is that the documentary hits you harder when you can see more details in the older footage. When you can see how devastating this time period was on the faces of adults and children then you’ll step back and say ‘whoa’. The HD helps magnify the importance of this documentary, and more importantly how brutal the Volstead Act was on Americans.
With that said, the features were good. Here’s what you’re getting on this Blu-ray:
– In the Studio
– Bonus Scenes
– Interview Outtakes
Not much, but they do compliment the main feature quite well. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting anything extravagant for this release in terms of special features. The main feature was more important to me, as it probably will be for you.