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Category:    Home > Reviews > Documentary > Writing > History > Ideology > TV Mini-Series > Bill Moyers – A World Of Ideas: Writers (1988 – 1990/Athena/Acorn Media DVD Set)

Bill Moyers – A World Of Ideas: Writers (1988 – 1990/Acorn Media DVD Set)

 

Picture: C     Sound: C     Extras: C+     Episodes: B

 

 

In one of his finest shows ever, Bill Moyers – A World Of Ideas: Writers has the great journalist asking questions of some of the most important writers of his time and all time.  They include Chinua Achebe, E.L. Doctorow, M.F.K. Fisher, Carlos Fuentes, Nadine Gordimer, Jeannette Halen, Joseph Heller, Toni Morrison (two parts), Bharati Mukherjee, Derek Walcott, August Wilson, Tom Wolfe (two parts) and a striking two-part piece with Issac Asimov comprise the 16 main hour-long shows. Segments from his hit TV series NOW include Barbara Kingsolver, Arundhati Roy, Laura Restrepo, Doris Lessing, Isabel Allende and Alice Walker, while Bill Moyers Journal pieces include Maxine Hong Kingston and Louise Erdrich.

 

There was a time when it was expected that all interviews and journalism were this smart, good, important and advanced, but the kind of dumbing down we have seen on TV since (ironically) the late 1980s has made this kind of a show a classic.  Moyers is very smart (like Charlie Rose since, for instance) and it is a shame we don’t see or hear more intelligent interviews with writers or anybody else today.  Despite the Internet and its reach, it has had the opposite effect of offering more such intelligent discourse.  That is why this is a key DVD set and one really worth going out of your way for.  Yes, it is dated in spots, but that does not hurt it in the least.  It is worth going out of your way for.

 

The 1.33 X 1 image was shot on analog NTSC videotape and is on the soft side throughout, so expect the image to be dated and challenging, with haloing and aliasing errors, while the Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo is simple and shows its age despite being as from clean a source as possible.  I just wish it was clearer, but it is from a time when TV audio standards were simple stereo at best and this is common with many sets of TV on DVD. Text on Moyers, book lists for each writer and updates on those who participated are included on the DVDs, as well as a 16-page booklet that adds to the shows are included, but this set also has bonus interviews from various Moyers shows (as noted above) that are worth seeing after watching the mini-series episodes.

 

For more Moyers DVD releases, try these links:

 

Joseph Campbell – The Power Of Myth

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10329/Joseph+Campbell+on+The+Power+of

 

Genesis: A Living Conversation + On Faith & Reason

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10579/Bill+Moyers:+On+Faith+and+Reason

 

In Search Of The Constitution

http://www.fulvuedrive-in.com/review/10785/Bill+Moyers+%E2%80%93+In+Searc

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo


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