American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl

American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl

American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl
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DVD details

Brand: WGBH HOME VIDEO
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 55 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-04-24
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: WGBH Boston
Product features:
  • In 1931 the rains stopped and the "black blizzards" began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains--the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes. One journalist tra

DVD Reviews of American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl

DVD Review: Surviving the Dust Bowl
Summary: 5 Stars

It is well done. The first hand accounts with the historical footage give a clear understanding of this devastating time.

DVD Review: I wanted to know more
Summary: 3 Stars

The Dust Bowl is a fascinating topic. Unfortunately, this movie did not satisfy my questions. I would have liked to hear more about people's experiences.. I think it could have been at least an hour longer. I recommend it for what it has to offer, but it's not enough.

DVD Review: Almost essential for learning about the Dust Bowl and the Depression
Summary: 5 Stars

A well produced television special on the Dust Bowl. Though somewhat incomplete in its depiction of the Dust Bowl, Surviving the Dust Bowl gives a very good over view of that drastic event in U.S. history. It works very well as a tool to give modern students a perspective on 1930s American history and its implications to present day. While it does seem to lack in-depth analysis, I don't think that should dissuade people, as there is only so much a producer can do in a 50 minute television program. The really good thing about it is the inclusion of people who were there and witnessed it. It goes well with The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan.

DVD Review: Lack of deep analysis
Summary: 2 Stars

Before watching this film, I have a vague impression of the Dust Bowl. After watching this film, I still don't have a deep feeling and understanding about this.

Yes, we know dirt storms sweep the Southern Plains in 1931 and several years after. Rain stops and the land can not be farmed any more. Many people are forced to leave for survival. Through the interview with the survivors at that time and some videos, we know what exactly happen there and the related impacts.

But why does this happen? How is this problem solved? How is this related to the Depression? This film doesn't mention much for these aspects. Viewers, therefore, can just scratch the skin after having watched it.

DVD Review: Dust Bowl
Summary: 3 Stars

With the title, "Surviving the Dust Bowl," I was pleased to learn that 3/4 of the residents in that region stayed, something I never knew. However, I would have liked for this work to speak more about how to survive in a disaster area, how to make ends meet, and how to keep one's sanity.

The work is diverse in terms of gender. Because many Native Americans live in that region, I wish they could have been brought up. Did they stay because reservations aren't mobile? It's never stated. The work is a bit Eurocentric. Still, seeing female and male Dust Bowl survivors cry about their ordeal tugged at my heart. One interviewee probably had Parkinson's Disease. I wish this could have been stated because viewers unfamiliar with the malady may have thought the memories were causing her to shake that way.

This work is very focused on visuals. Yes, moving images had been around for three decades before the disaster, but still when someone says, "Dirt whirled a mile up," you could see it. When another person says, "All the livestock died," they show it. To the contrary, the work says farmers had to change their techniques and they don't really spell out what they did wrong and how they tried to improve. The narrator says the disaster could and did happen again, but no further facts are given.

Usually, geographic mobility is seen as a good think, or at least, geographic immobility is portrayed as being bad. So this documentary does flip the script in trying to positively portrayed people who stayed in harsh conditions. Seeing this also reminded me of Farm Aid concerts and how risky agricultural life can be.

Description of American Experience: Surviving the Dust Bowl

In 1931 the rains stopped and the "black blizzards" began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains--the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. Topsoil that had taken a thousand years per inch to build suddenly blew away in only minutes. One journalist traveling through the devastated region dubbed it the "Dust Bowl."

This American Experience film presents the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease--even death--for nearly a decade. Less well-known than those who sought refuge in California, typified by the Joad family in John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath," the Dust Bowlers who stayed overcame an almost unbelievable series of calamities and disasters.

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