Ken Burns' The National Parks: America's Best Idea

Burns' documentaries are exercises in emotional manipulation. Not that all documentaries aren't that, nor all movies. The problem is Burns' effectiveness and the simplicity of his technique. The transparency of the manipulation is evident, but does it matter? With series like the Civil War and The War, Burns was approaching large, heavy subjects with plenty of human emotion to draw on.

But how do you make the emotional connection with the National Parks? The same way he does with everything else. Poignant photographs, with lots of scenic spaces and figures in silhouette, inviting the viewer to place themselves there. It could be anyone's.

Simple emotional contact with nature. A picture of a gutted forest can make anyone feel ashamed. It should. There's a certain evil-figure looming above, industrious capitalists ready to feed upon the Earth. It's more black and white than war.

The title is a problem. It's a problem that the interviewees seem aware of, addressing it directly. They agree, but with stipulations. The best idea since we became a country. One of the best idea. Why did Burns stick with the title?

There's also the constant reminder from Burns' gallery of interviewees of the whole democratic embodiment found in the National Park system. This is where Burns looses a lot of interest, in the repetition of ideas and emotions that won't mean much for the casual observer. The stories of the people involved in the park are interesting, but even then it seems a repetition of the same struggles. We're introduced to a place and then a person or two. You can see where it goes.

Burns could be the most consistent filmmaker ever though. He works like a TV series often does, reusing style and assets that worked on previous shows. You can watch a documentary he made 20 years ago and nothing has changed. The titles have the same style, the format is the same, and the film stock is so similar that watching the NP felt like looking into a recent past where Burns was a big deal in pop culture. Now he's starting to feel antiquated. The talent is still there. He can still pack an emotional punch. But where's the change? It's easy to invite an attack on Burns' America, where change doesn't seem to come soon enough, a lot like real life.