****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
Pending who you ask, this documentary may seem incomplete. However, this reviewer believes it does a handsome job for an hour-long documentary, not to mention the maiden output by Ken Burns. I first saw this special (in a heavily-edited form) as a boy of eight. I was already the world's first self-proclaimed bridge freak, and my father figured I'd be fascinated with the Brooklyn Bridge. He was probably too right. It was on the heels of this presentation that I urged my parents to escort me to the center of the bridge in July 1988. (During that excursion, I distinctly remember taking my first photograph.)Ken Burns did rely heavily on the published writings of David McCullough (The Great Bridge) for the construction synopsis which was the subject of Part One. The most significant details of the construction process were described very well in this instance. Anybody who would wish to know about The Great Blowout in the Brooklyn Caisson or the merger of Greater New York (or how the bends initially reared its head in the same place) need only turn to other publications (or the Modern Marvels documentary). Meanwhile, we still get very adept readings of the papers left by John A. Roebling, Colonel Washington Roebling, Emily Warren Roebling, Dr. Andrew H. Smith and others. The two most significant voice contributers are (arguably) the narration by aforementioned author David McCullough and the portrayals of John Roebling and Colonel Roebling by stage actor Paul Roebling (most fitting, since Paul Roebling was a direct descendent of that ingenious bridge-building family). In 1990, Ken Burns, David McCullough and Paul Roebling would be reunited in the production of Burns' mini-series, The Civil War.Part Two incapsulates how the Brooklyn Bridge would come to affect the people of New York (and other parts of the world) in the ninety-eight years after its completion. Aside from musical & archival snippets featuring Frank Sinatra, animated footage, pictures by Joseph Stella & Georgia O'Keefe, plus loads more, we get interview footage of McCullough, Lewis Mumford, Paul Goldberger and Arthur Miller (who also provided excellent voiceovers during Part One). That section is for the people who need to be educated as to how a work of art such as the bridge does affect people in a way that isn't strictly "utilitarian" as Arthur Miller put it.One of my favorite lines from this presentation is a quotation from Washington Roebling stated at a rough moment in the plot, in which his father, John Roebling had died and the construction of the bridge fell on Washington's shoulders: "The prop on which I hitherto leaned had fallen. Henceforth, I must rely on myself." That line, coupled with the message of faith and perseverance should serve as a psychological message to people making big changes in their lives. (Now, I need to go back and see if McCullough put that line anywhere in The Great Bridge - )
