The Presidents (History Channel)
Picture: B
Sound: B Extras: C- Episodes: B
The three-disc The Presidents set is an exhaustive
look at the American presidency, from its infancy with George Washington to its
current incarnation with George W. Bush, to be sure. Broken up into eight, roughly 45-minute segments spread over the
three discs in the set, The Presidents looks and the lives and careers
of the 42 men who have held the office of President (yes, there are 43
presidents, but Grover Cleveland served two, non-consecutive terms) and what
led them to the office.
The segments are interesting in how they tie the lives of
the Presidents into one another. During
some periods, like the Revolution and Civil War, the connection is explicit; in
others, what bridges one president to another could be as simple as a
friendship or as complicated as the inner workings of political patronage. And through the analysis of historians,
authors, and even former President Jimmy Carter, we are given some insight and
background into these people, in many cases putting a human face on what have
ostensibly become static portraits hanging on the walls of the White House or
found in pages of books.
The best segments are the ones that deal with the
oft-forgotten Presidents, like Franklin Pierce, Millard Fillmore, or Chester
Arthur, to name a few. These aren’t
presidents in the mold of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, or the
Roosevelts. These people had
interesting presidencies in their own right, but not of the consequence of the
“major” presidents. So to get insight
into these characters of American history is interesting and exceptional.
The problem with a set like this, though, is that the
looks at the lives and careers of the Presidents is too quick. Because the segments are only 45 minutes
long, there can’t be a great deal of time spent on any one president, unless
it’s a Washington, Lincoln, or FDR.
What results, then, is a somewhat trivial look at the Pierces and Fillmores
of American politics, with their portions or segments broken into one decent
thing they accomplished, any scandals, how they’re viewed by history, and
cutesy factoids. Perhaps this is the
only way to approach such presidents in this format. After all, to have a truly global view of the presidents would
require something akin to the 11-disc World At War set that documents
World War II. Add to that the logistics
of programming a series look at the presidents to run on the History Channel,
and the difficulty of proper looks at the President is compounded.
But as it is, The Presidents is as good a set as
one could expect given the source material.
The 1.33 X 1 analog NTSC video is crisp and clear, but as it is a recent
television program being converted to DVD with little to no bells and whistles
as far as the video presentation goes, there would be no excuse for anything
less than what is presented here.
Sonically, too, The Presidents doesn’t stray from being a
television program on DVD, resulting in an audio presentation that sounds
exactly as it should — clear and precise.
On the extras side, there is little to speak off. The only extras here are a text-only
timeline of the American presidency and a 90-minute A&E special on the
lives of the First Ladies of the United States.
The documentary, on its face, is a proper addition to this
set. When watching it, though, two
things are striking: first, how ramshackle the production is when compared to
the segments on the Presidents; second, that it should have been broken up, a
la the segments on the Presidents.
“All the President’s Wives” looks at most of the
First Ladies, but the documentary is broken up according to common thread
rather than chronologically. For
instance, there is one section on First Ladies who had to face the loss of
their husbands while they were sitting Presidents. That’s all fine and good, but Jackie Kennedy is talked about and
discussed in numerous sections of the documentary, including the one about the
assassination of President Kennedy. So
why not pull all the information about Jackie Kennedy together into one
segment? It’s a question that perplexes
throughout the documentary, and indeed causes you to stray form what’s being
shown because you’re trying to relate it all together.
That extra documentary constitutes the only significant
extra in The Presidents set.
What could have been added to make it more interesting extras-wise is
debatable — how about a selection of inaugural speeches? Or how about some of FDR’s Fireside Chats in
the form of audio-only extras? Maybe
some of the debates from past elections that have been broadcast on radio or
TV, perhaps? — but what’s not is that this set shouldn’t be picked up with the
expectation of a treasure trove of extras.
What can be expected, though, is a decent set on the lives
of America’s Presidents. In a time when
the office is under more scrutiny than ever, this set offers a nice, compatible
package that puts the present in the context of the past while offering hope
for the future of the office.
- Dante A. Ciampaglia
