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Home Theater: The Lighter Side of Swine Flu |
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Dr. Samuel Says -
Arts & Science
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Written by Dr. Samuel Centralia, Ph.D., D.D.S., Esq.
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Thursday, 15 October 2009 |
I’ll tell you one nice thing about the H1N1 virus, it opens up a lot of time for home entertainment. After getting virally stomped last week, I spent an alarming amount of time in the Dyscern World HQ Labs digging into the DVD stack. At one point, I formulated an awesomely complex theory regarding Marxist-feminist subtext in the John Hughes oeuvre. But that was probably the cough suppressant.
Now that we have a decent home theater system in the labs -- Blu-ray
player, HDTV, surround sound -- getting sick is almost a pleasure. I
had the rhesus monkeys whip up some popcorn, and we were off.
 The monkeys, as per frickin’ usual, insisted on watching a nature
documentary, so we went with Ken Burns’ latest: “The National Parks:
America’s Best Idea.” If you missed the initial run a few weeks back on
PBS, you can now get the complete series in a six-DVD set that may very
well impact your holiday travels for a decade or two.
Improbably fascinating, the topic of national parks doesn’t seem to
have the epic sweep of previous Burns topics like jazz or baseball, but
you will be amazed. The series’ central premise -- that America’s
national parks are a distillation of democratic ideals at their finest
-- resonates throughout the program’s 12-plus hours of running time.
America was the first country to deliberately set aside and protect
vast tracts of land for “For the Benefit and Enjoyment of the People”
(as reads the famous inscription at Yellowstone’s arched entrance.)
Burns explores his topic with typical thoroughness, using archival
photos and film, interviews with historians and academics, and of
course some of the most beautiful cinematography you will see on DVD
this year. The generous extras -- at least one featurette per disc --
detail the making of the film and add codas such as overviews of the
contemporary state of the parks.
Particularly compelling is Disc 2, “The Last Refuge,” which documents
President Theodore Roosevelt’s resolute quest to protect America’s
natural playgrounds. Allied with a handful of progressive Congressman
and famed naturalist John Muir, Roosevelt fought off wave after wave of
businessmen and local politicians who, left unchecked, would have
trampled wonderlands like the Yosemite and the Grand Canyon for
commercial development and profit. (Consider the state of unprotected
Niagara Falls to see how that would have worked out.)
All in all, Burns’ ultimate triumph here may be the rather galvanizing
effect his film has on the viewer. Crater Lake.Carlsbad Caverns. Joshua
Tree. Mesa Verde. The Smoky Mountains. Within the first couple hours, I
was almost panicky: “Why am I not spending every free moment at, or
making plans to get to, these places?”
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