Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long

Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long
by Ken Burns

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Actor: Arthur Schlesinger Jr., David McCullough, Huey Long, I.F. Stone, Russell Long
Director: Ken Burns
Brand: Paramount
Cinematographer: Buddy Squires
Cinematographer: Ken Burns
Producer: Ken Burns
Editor: Amy Stechler
Producer: Richard Kilberg
Writer: Geoffrey C. Ward
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 88 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-09-28
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: PBS Paramount

DVD Reviews of Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long

DVD Review: EXCITING, THOUGHTFUL, IMPARTIAL HISTORY
Summary: 4 Stars

America's memory of Huey Long owes a lot to two films: this 1985 documentary by Ken Burns, and Robert Rossen's 1949 movie, "All The King's Men." Both the documentary and the movie portray a hero of the common people, who rises to be dictator of his state, then falls to an assassin's bullet. Yet there are large differences.

The movie was inspired by Robert Penn Warren's novel of the same title, which in turn was inspired by Long's career (a fact that Warren famously and unconvincingly denied). The movie's hero (named Willie Stark) is very bright, but a hick - a redneck - by birth and childhood circumstances. His political career only catches fire when he learns to hammer his audiences with the tough sternness of a hick pounding fellow-hicks.

In contrast, Huey Long, in the documentary, is born to a hardworking, middle-class family, which sent most of its offspring to college, at a time when only one in twenty American children had that privilege. Huey was an accomplished debater in high school, and a persuasive salesman in his first full-time job. After just a year in Law School, he passed the bar, and soon was elected, at age 24, to the Louisiana Railroad Commission.

The movie confines Stark's political career to governor and boss of his state, and his policies primarily to state-sponsored public works, e.g., highways, public education, hospital care. The documentary adds Long's years as United States Senator, crusader for the redistribution of Americans' wealth, and probable candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 1936.

The documentary includes colorful excerpts from Long's speeches, crusading against economic inequality: "4% of the American people own 85% of the wealth of America," while "70% of the people of America don't own enough to pay the debts they owe." "The Lord has answered the prayer, he has called the barbecue. Come to my feast, he says to 125 million American people. He has invited Americans to his feast, but Morgan, Rockefeller, and Mellon and Baruch have walked up and took 85% of the victuals off the table. Now, how ya gonna feed the balance of the people? What are Morgan, Rockefeller, Mellon and Baruch gonna do with all that grub? They cain't eat it, they cain't wear the clothes, they cain't live in the houses. Give `em a yacht! Give `em a palace! Send `em to Reno & give `em a new wife if they want, if that's what they want. But when they've got everything on God's living earth that they can eat, and they can wear and they can live in, and all their children can wear, and live in, and eat, and all their children's children can use, we gotta call Mr. Morgan and Mr. Rockefeller and Mr. Mellon back, and say: Come back heah, put back on this table heah what you took away from heah, the stuff you don't need; leave something for the American people to consume."

The documentary notes the tremendous public response to Long's crusade, but fails to take seriously his plan for redistributing American wealth. The plan is not described; its merits, pro and con, are not weighed. This failure is my reason for giving Burns' work four, rather than five stars. I won't try here to discuss the merits of the plan, but its main provisions -- very large taxes and subsidies -- are stated below. I found them in a slim book of Long's speeches, entitled "Kingfish to America: Share Our Wealth," edited by Henry Christman,1985, and available on Amazon.

By taxing savings and property, the wealth of the very rich would be reduced, so that "no one would own more than 3 or 4 million dollars." Income would also be taxed, to "limit the total anyone could earn or inherit in one year to $1 million." [These 1934 limits were actually less severe than they sound in 2009. Due to inflation, one million 1934 dollars would equal over 15.4 million 2009 dollars, and four million 1934 dollars would equal over 61 million 2009 dollars.]

The money thus gained was estimated to provide every needy family in America with "a home and the comforts of home, including such common conveniences as a radio and an automobile, free of debt." The government would "guarantee food and clothing and employment for everyone who should work, by shortening the hours of labor to thirty hours per week, and to eleven months per year." Education would be free for every child, not just through high school, but on through college and vocational education. Everyone over 60 years old, whose income was less than $1,000 per year, or whose net worth was less than $10,000, would receive a pension sufficient to support them in comfortable circumstances.

DVD Review: hard-to-find information
Summary: 4 Stars

This is an excellent video for those interested in Huey Long. It gives more insight into his personality and beliefs than any other source that I have found. One of a kind!!!

DVD Review: Do not watch!
Summary: 1 Stars

I just watched this film and was very unhappy with it. I expected more out of KB and thought that this movie was very one-sided and was unable to express what Huey Long was really about!

This documentary was not emotionally grabbing nor even minimally enthralling. I would give this movie a 1 out of five. If you know nothing of Huey Long, watch this movie.... If you already know of Huey Long....well, watch this movie anyways, cuz there aren't too many about him.

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DVD Review: Ken Burns at his best.
Summary: 5 Stars

From the interviews to the music and photos, this is a very informative and inspiring piece. Long was a complex man, and, now nearly 3/4 of a century later, we are no closer to sorting him out than when he was shot. There are fascinating interviews and comments by Mrs. Hodding Carter Sr, and other contemporaries, but Robert Penn Warren absolutley steals the show with his readings and comments. It's good if you know a little about either Long or Louisiana going in (If your only frame of refrence is contemporary urban culture, you may have a little trouble understanding why some of these things happened...), but in any case, get it!

DVD Review: The Kingfish
Summary: 4 Stars

For those of us old evough to remembr anything about politics in the 30s, this is must viewing. Huey Long once stated: "I can beat FDR because I can out promise him." Who knows what this man would have done if he hadn't died by an assisins's bullet. The people of Louisiana loved him like no other. The bigwigs in the state despised him with a passion. Fascinating period in American history.

Description of Ken Burns America Collection - Huey Long

Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 09/23/2005 Director: Ken Burns

The story of Huey Long is the quintessential drama of power and ethics. To his constituents, he was a populist hero. To his critics, he was the unscrupulous "dictator of Louisiana" who didn't break the law, but used the law to achieve his own ends. A towering figure on the political landscape, Louisiana's infamous governor and United States senator may well have wound up in the White House, had he not been felled by an assassin's bullet in 1935. Long was the inspiration for Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King's Men (a film version of which earned Broderick Crawford an Academy Award). As this fascinating documentary by Ken Burns (The Civil War, Baseball, Jazz) vividly illustrates, truth is even more compelling than fiction. Originally broadcast on the award-winning PBS series The American Experience, Huey Long painstakingly charts Long's inexorable rise to power. Archival footage and interviews with Louisiana natives, politicians, family members, historians, and political colleagues bring Long to thundering and bombastic life. --Donald Liebenson

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