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Topic: Ken Burns´ latest: The man-made disaster of the Dust Bowl |
Ken Burns´ latest: The man-made disaster of the Dust Bowl
Los Angeles Times, by Scott Timberg
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Original Article
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Posted By:Emerson, 11/16/2012 8:05:35 PM
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| In a sense, Ken Burns´ new documentary is the photographic negative of the one he delivered in 2009: Instead of swooning full-color shots of azure lakes and soaring mountains, his new film is made of images that could come from the dark side of the moon. In some of them, the parched land tells its own silent story. In others, we see bleached-out shots of people, in overalls, scowling. Or children in gas masks, looking like humanoid visitors from another world.
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Comments: To a great extent a government-made disaster.
I read the Timothy Egan book from which Burns drew much of his material: The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl. One of the most difficult but compelling books I´ve ever read.
The documentary airs Sunday and Monday on PBS. (I gave up PBS some time ago, but will record this.)
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Reply 1 - Posted by:
Ida Lou Pino, 11/16/2012 8:11:49 PM (No. 9019567)
If Kenny is producing it - - he´ll find a way to make blacks the biggest victims.
No doubt about that.
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Reply 2 - Posted by:
stolenusername, 11/16/2012 8:22:10 PM (No. 9019576)
I read that book, too. It spends a lot of time judging the past by today´s standards. Grew up in SW Kansas, my grandparents worked through that. The ones that stuck with farming and learned better methods were very successful. The descriptions and interviews were interesting. I don´t imagine that I´ll spend any money to see this movie.
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Reply 3 - Posted by:
Teddy Roosevelt, 11/16/2012 9:11:13 PM (No. 9019625)
The Dust Bowl was a man-made disaster. But what environmental nuts fail to tell you, it was a man-made disaster created by the government. Since the Gilded Age, the government lied to the people to promote settlers on land west of the 100th Meridian. The land was marginal for farming, but the government lied about the bounty of the land to sell homesteads.
Moral of the story...GOVERNMENT DOESN´T ALWAYS KNOW BEST!!!
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Reply 4 - Posted by:
bullhead, 11/16/2012 9:25:39 PM (No. 9019648)
FTA: Burns sees an irony here. "In a land of flinty individuals — at the present moment, and then, as red a bunch of red states as you can find — they are pleading with the government for help. And the government stepped in and saved this land.
So it appears that the film´s message is as one would expect from Ken Burns. The "Red States" really need the government´s help but don´t know it.
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Reply 5 - Posted by:
BcdErick, 11/16/2012 10:33:35 PM (No. 9019730)
Ken Burns can take his public handouts and stick ´em where the sun don´t shine. He is a large part of the problem. His nut job left wing rants deserve only ridicule and contempt. The man is a jerk.
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Reply 6 - Posted by:
RoseOfTexas, 11/16/2012 10:36:51 PM (No. 9019733)
I really enjoyed The War & had high hopes for the one about national parks but it was too politically correct - everything the white man´s fault etc. Doesn´t sound like this one is any better.
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Reply 7 - Posted by:
pearlyjo, 11/16/2012 11:07:39 PM (No. 9019752)
Unless I am mistaken, Burns came out with a personal endorsement of Obama right before the election. I will say this much, Burns pairs some of the best music with his documentaries. The Civil War and The War were two of my favorites.
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Reply 8 - Posted by:
mamafrog, 11/17/2012 12:08:14 AM (No. 9019798)
Ken Burns does great work, I always watch his stuff.
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Reply 9 - Posted by:
Japanorama, 11/17/2012 12:24:48 AM (No. 9019807)
I trust nothing on PBS.
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Reply 10 - Posted by:
texaspast, 11/17/2012 12:29:55 AM (No. 9019812)
Moral of the story: The idiots ran off to California. The smart ones stuck it out and their children are now feeding America and the world. BTW - this explains why California is now completely populated by idiots. BTW II - if you profess to be ´conservative´ and still live in California - you are also an idiot.
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Reply 11 - Posted by:
BcdErick, 11/17/2012 1:29:23 AM (No. 9019864)
#10, actually if you´re a conservative and still in CA it probably means you can´t sell your house for enough to cover the mortgage. There are more than a few in that sinking ship.
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Reply 12 - Posted by:
Country Boy, 11/17/2012 3:58:40 AM (No. 9019937)
I´m with #3. And Woodrow Wilson was a huge proponent of leveraging America´s agriculture, same as Bill Clinton wanted every moron to get a big mortgage. The stock market crash and 1930´s depression was really the result of a de-leveraging farming industry, same as the banking crash of 2008 was the result of de-leveraging of residential mortgages.
Seems likely the financial pressures in the agricultural industry contributed to the destruction of the farmland, "Dustbowl".
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Reply 13 - Posted by:
lazyman, 11/17/2012 7:48:55 AM (No. 9020117)
#1 you beat me to it!
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Reply 14 - Posted by:
Rumblehog, 11/17/2012 1:59:57 PM (No. 9020814)
To #10´s point, the term "Okie" is still a term of derision in Mexifornia.
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