The National Parks: America's Best Idea [Blu-ray]

One would expect that any miniseries named The National Parks: America’s Best Idea would be a geography lover’s paradise. Imagine all those majestic peaks, raging rivers coursing through endless canyons and valleys, rock formations, wildlife and flora of unending description placed in succession for more than twelve hours of splendor and wonder. Much to my surprise, however, Ken Burns’ monumental examination of the fifty-eight national parks along with a large number of national monuments, natural preserves, and wildlife sanctuaries is much more a history lesson than a geographical one. Hour upon hour brings forth incredible tales of the more than one hundred years of history in the acquisition, notation, and preservation of the eighty-four million acres of land which make up our national parks. It’s a awe-inspiring story, one many Americans will no doubt be unfamiliar with, and it’s presented in Ken Burns’ typical grandly episodic way with compendiums of vintage photographs, silent and sound films, historical testimony, and vocal reenactments as over a hundred years of strife and struggle pass before our eyes as the national parks take tortured but triumphant shape.

 

The most consistent theme that passes through all twelve-plus hours of this series is the unending conflicts between conservationists intent on forming the parks and keeping them as pristine and natural as possible and varied commercial interests who are always lurking on the outskirts aiming to exploit these protected regions of whatever natural resources they might be able to steal from its boundaries. As the parade of personalities traverse across the history of the parks’ formation and preservation, certain names begin to take on great significance, several of whose stories cross multiple episodes in the series as their influence and philosophies stand the test of time: John Muir, Gifford Pinchot, Theodore Roosevelt, Stephen Mather, Horace Albright, Ralph Cameron, George Melendez Wright, Franklin D. Roosevelt, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., Harold Ickes, Ansel Adams, Adolph Murie, Harold Bradley, Stewart Udall. And it’s rather thrilling to see the various parks finally take shape, sometimes under the most difficult of circumstances and the most vocal of opposition: Yosemite, Yellowstone, Mese Verde, Mount Rainier, Crater Lake, Rocky Mountain, Glacier, Arcadia, Zion, Mount McKinley, Great Smoky Mountains, Great Tetons, Everglades, Redwood, and on and on.

 

The sense of the grandeur and patriotic fervor of the succession of writers and historians who are used as talking heads in these six episodes is very impressive, and their enthusiasm for and love of these parks is never in doubt. Burns’ errs a bit in the repetition of their almost spiritual zeal throughout the series, however. Their sense of admiration in these miracles of nature is remarkable and admirable, but the droning repetitiveness of their candid insistence on the importance of the parks does tend to smack just a tad of overkill and gives a nagging sense that the series is overlong for the subject it’s covering. Peter Coyote’s narration is clear and precise, and those with careful ears will note such renowned actors as Tom Hanks, William Hurt, Sam Waterston, John Lithgow, Philip Bosco, George Takei, and Amy Madigan among those who voice important quotations from the long list of key people who made the national parks among America’s most valuable possessions.

 

Here are the six episodes which make up this miniseries, each placed on a separate Blu-ray disc paired with one select bonus feature (detailed below in the special features section):

 

1 – “The Scripture of Nature” (10 chapters)

2 – “The Last Refuge” (11 chapters)

3 – “The Empire of Grandeur” (12 chapters)

4 – “Going Home” (13 chapters)

5 – “Great Nature” (13 chapters)

6 – “The Morning of Creation” (13 chapters)

 

User note: These discs are not BD-Java enhanced, so they may be stopped at any point during an episode or during a bonus featurette, the player turned off, and then turned on again later with the program resuming where it left off.

 

 

 

The programs are framed at 1.78:1 and are presented as they were on PBS in 1080i using the AVC codec. Because the programs all consist of a plethora of different media in all kinds of conditions, assigning a video score is something of a problem. The live photography done in the parks specifically for the series, however, is erratic in quality. Grain levels are very inconsistent, and sharpness (except for some shots in the final two episodes) is never as crisp and detailed as one would like. (Those hoping for Planet Earth style video quality will be sorely disappointed). Color can be striking but is sometimes smeared, and there is some moiré present on occasion. The individual episodes have varying numbers of chapters (see above).

 

 

 

The Dolby True HD 5.1 audio track features solid and very clear vocal tracks placed in the center channel with music from a variety of sources (classical works, Scott Joplin, Stephen Foster, the Mamas and the Papas, Herb Alpert, Otis Redding) and ADR-produced sound effects spotted throughout the fronts and particularly the rears to good effect.

 

 

 

“The Making of The National Parks” is a 25 ½-minute feature that’s a bit mistitled. This appears to be rather a half hour introduction to the series showing clips from various episodes and some of the actors who do the voice-over recitations of famous people talking to the camera about their feelings concerning the project.

 

“Capturing the Parks” is a 23 ½-minute feature in which members of the crew relate anecdotes on the five years of work it took to bring the series to television.

 

“Musical Journeys through the National Parks” is a series of six sequences with musical themes from the series placed over film clip excerpts from the various episodes. They can be viewed individually or in one 25 ½-minute grouping.

 

There are two outtake sequences available for viewing. The first involves writer/historian Nevada Barr talking about her ancestor (only a portion of this 7 ¼-minute sequence was used in a particular episode). The second is a deleted sequence from Episode Four called “The Boss” which runs for 10 ½ minutes.

 

“The National Parks: This Is America” takes sequences from various episodes and arranges them into a 44 ¼-minute documentary featuring stories of various ethnic families and their experiences in the making of the parks. If you’ve watched the series, this bonus is unnecessary as the excerpts are exactly the same as they appear in the actual episodes.

 

“Contemporary Stories from America’s National Parks” finds park rangers and superintendents from five national parks offering up anecdotes of their careers and showing themselves in action informing and entertaining visitors to their parks. These five episodes can be watched together in one 61 ½-minute grouping or the individual stories of San Antonio Missions, Yosemite, Mount Rushmore, Manzanar, and Death Valley can be watched separately.

 

 

 In Conclusion

 

 

The National Parks: America’s Best Idea is a moving and historically relevant miniseries on the formation and maintenance of our fifty-eight national parks. Though the series stumbles just a bit with the repetitiveness of its themes over six lengthy episodes, there is no question that it’s a worthwhile venture, and this Blu-ray edition represents a notable release fostering a real sense of Americana in all who view it. Recommended!

 

 

 

Matt Hough

Charlotte, NC