"The American Experience" Influenza 1918 (1998)

User Rating:

8.8/10   

Director:

Robert Kenner

Writer:

Ken Chowder (writer)

TV Series:

"The American Experience" (1988)

Original Air Date:

9 February 1998 (Season 10, Episode 10)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography | Crime | History | War

Plot:

The great influenza pandemic of 1918 - the worst epidemic ever seen in the United States. |

Plot Keywords:

Influenza | Epidemic | Disease | Death | Flu

Cast

Alfred Crosby	...	Himself (as Dr. Alfred Crosby)
John De Lano	...	Himself
Shirley Fannin	...	Herself (as Dr. Shirley Fannin)
Cathryn Guyler	...	Herself
Linda Hunt	...	Narrator
William Maxwell	...	Himself
Anna Milani	...	Herself
Porter Reading	...	Himself
Lee Reay	...	Himself
Barbara Rosencrantz	...	Herself (as Dr. Barbara Rosencrantz)
William Sardo	...	Himself
Daniel Tonkel	...	Himself

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Color

Company:

Robert Kenner Films

long on testimony, short on analysis

A fairly typical pbs documentary, which is to say somewhat shallow. Rather than help us understand events, the makers wanted us to *feel* how people felt (they may have been seduced by having living witnesses who look good on camera -- the trap is that they lose the focus on actual history putting off-point stuff on, just because they have it.) Also, they fall into the trap of the "good story" - repeating a good story (with the implication that it is history), rather than trying to get at the actual history.

This is nowhere more obvious in the Fort Riley story ("some say..." that burning manure there "the sun went dead black in Kansas" -- pu-leese) and that this is the cause. The 'spanish flu' -- actually a strain of bird-flu -- apparently first jumped from birds to humans in Haskell County Kansas (then died down, but then Haskell men were inducted and sent to Fort Riley, where it spread again). However, the "burning manure" story is never contradicted. The "good story" (the sun was blackened by mens folly, and death followed) is allowed to trump "good history" (bird flu that probably jumped species in several places almost at the same time on different continents).

So, just be aware that this is yet another case of a television documentary pulled away from good history by the 'good story', and telegenic witnesses. The stories they tell are certainly true, but the implications set up by the makers are sometimes off the mark. The less said about the absurd "nobody's safe" ending the better, eh?