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The
cost was $20 US (about $30 CAN), and I went ahead and ordered a copy
but felt sticker shock when I saw the shipping and handling charges
of $17 US, almost the cost of the video by itself. Larcenous!
I’m
all for supporting quality programming on the public networks by both
the US and Canadian stations but this fundraising thing should be
done ethically. I see a lack of ethics in charging a Canadian a huge
premium in shipping PBS products, especially when PBS has no shame
in soliciting Canadian donations during their fundraising drives.
It was not like they shipped the video via overnight courier delivery,
just plain Jane US and Canadian postal services. So, in all I paid
out almost $60 CAN for this videotape or about the cost of two DVD
Hollywood blockbusters. Keep in mind that Amazon.com charged me all
of $5 US to ship the much more massive, heavier and expensive Ansel
Adams at 100.
Ah
well, live and learn and I’ll be sure to get my VCR programming correct
the next time something like this is broadcast on PBS, anyway, onto
the documentary itself.
This
is a good supplement to the Ansel Adams autobiography. It fleshes
out a few tidbits that Adams did not include in his autobiography,
such as the love affair with his assistant that caused him a personal
breakdown and almost led him to leave his wife and children.
There
is ample commentary by those who were very close to Ansel Adams in
his later years and also by John Szarkowski, the editor of the high
quality retrospective, Ansel Adams at 100. The music is inspirational
and poignant and adds to the romanticism that many feel about Ansel
Adams, his work and his place in American lore (all well deserved
in my opinion).
The
video is certainly a celebration of Ansel Adams however, it also provides
honesty in that the various commentators talk of Adams from the perspective
of his best years but acknowledge that his artistic powers waned after
a solid thirty years of production from around 1930 to 1960, with
about 20 of those years being supreme. His later years were when Adams
became famous from a mass-market perspective and was finally when
he was able to enjoy financial stability after so many years of toil
without rest.
An
aspect of the video I found lacking were the scenic shots of Adams’
favorite locations, Yosemite and the Sierras. We all know that this
area is magnificent as seen in Adams’ (and others’) images but the
video failed to capture the glory and grandeur as effectively as the
still image. I’m not sure if this has to do with the videographer’s
skills or it has more to do with my ideas of what Yosemite is all
about after seeing images by Adams, Galen Rowell, et al.
One bit of trivia about the documentary, fans of 1970s television should recognize the narrator’s voice as that of David Ogden Stiers, otherwise known as Major Charles Emerson Winchester III of M*A*S*H fame. It would appear that Mr. Stiers is quite a soft-spoken man compared to his bombastic television alter ego. Note that this video is now available in DVD and the soundtrack is also available for purchase. At the time I ordered the video, I only had the choice of VHS tape. |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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Edwin's
Vignettes Ansel
Adams – PBS American Experience Video
I
cursed myself for missing the original broadcast of this documentary
on the life of Ansel Adams. Then I double cursed myself when I screwed
up the programming of my VCR for the second late night broadcast a
few days later and missed it once more. So, I perused the