American Experience (TV Series) Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film (2002) User Reviews

Intimate, fascinating, surprising

[angelofvic · 10/10 · 13 August 2012]

It's almost shocking how fascinating this biographical documentary is. But when you combine the curious and variegated and pioneering story of Ansel Adams -- who led a much more unusual and surprising life than one might expect -- with his extraordinary, absolutely breathtaking photographs, presented gloriously and reverently, you get a film that is riveting from start to finish.

Whether you are a fan of Ansel Adams or not, whether you know even one whit about him or not, or even whether you are well-versed on Adams' life, I guarantee you will enjoy and be mesmerized by this intimate and fascinating film. It's like one of those novels you can't put down.

This is a heartwarming masterpiece of a film.

Note: This film is listed under various titles in various places, so if you're looking for it or for the DVD, just remember it's the 2002 film, and search under the following titles, which are all the same film:

Ansel Adams

Ansel Adams: A Documentary Film

American Experience: Ansel Adams

It will be a glorious find. You won't be disappointed.

Oddly, a bit too talky and overlong.

[planktonrules · 5/10 · 17 March 2012]

This episode of "The American Experience" is about the great outdoor photographer, Ansel Adams. I was very interested in seeing this, as like so many people, I love his work. However, I was surprised that the show was so very talky. The greatness of Ansel Adams' work is that it is sublime---something you really cannot adequately explain in words. Yet, often, folks because waxing quite poetic about him and they talked and talked and talked. To me, understanding Adams is to learn about his life and also just to see his work--it speaks for itself and is VISUAL poetry. I also think this problem was exacerbated by the film being much longer than an ordinary one-hour show (the time format of the series greatly from one hour to much, much longer shows that are multi-part). Had the show focused more on his life and art, it could have been done quite well in one hour. Overall, while there is lots of interesting stuff (such as how he was tempted to throw away his marriage but didn't), too much talk make this one of the hardest of the series episodes to enjoy. My advice, just buy a book or go visit the places he photographed.

By the way, one of the talky things I didn't like was how one guy REPEATEDLY used the word 'evanescent'....huh?!