The Dust Bowl: The Great Plow Up (2012)
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
The first film in Ken Burns' two-part series taking a look at what would become known as The Dust Bowl, a group of dust storms that would pretty much destroy the South West. The documentary starts off in the 1920s as we get some great information about how valuable the soil was in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and other nearby states. We learn that the government was pretty much giving this land away and we hear why so many people wanted it. From here we learn about the riches that were made from the land but soon when the storms started to hit everything from the land to the animals to the people were lost. Once again Burns has created a very entertaining documentary and as usual this here is full of wonderful information. Part one runs 110-minutes and covers in great detail what was going on prior to the storm and this perfectly sets up the destruction that was to follow. As you'd expect, we get some wonderful narration to tell the story but there are some priceless interviews with dozens of people who actually lived through these storms. You can just look at their eyes and see that these memories from over seven decades ago still haunt them. Hearing people talk about the various family members who were killed was just heartbreaking. THE GREAT PLOW UP also contains some wonderful and shocking photos of the events so anyone interested in learning about these storms will find this a great place to start.
*** 1/2 (out of 4)
The first film in Ken Burns' two-part series taking a look at what would become known as The Dust Bowl, a group of dust storms that would pretty much destroy the South West. The documentary starts off in the 1920s as we get some great information about how valuable the soil was in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and other nearby states. We learn that the government was pretty much giving this land away and we hear why so many people wanted it. From here we learn about the riches that were made from the land but soon when the storms started to hit everything from the land to the animals to the people were lost. Once again Burns has created a very entertaining documentary and as usual this here is full of wonderful information. Part one runs 110-minutes and covers in great detail what was going on prior to the storm and this perfectly sets up the destruction that was to follow. As you'd expect, we get some wonderful narration to tell the story but there are some priceless interviews with dozens of people who actually lived through these storms. You can just look at their eyes and see that these memories from over seven decades ago still haunt them. Hearing people talk about the various family members who were killed was just heartbreaking. THE GREAT PLOW UP also contains some wonderful and shocking photos of the events so anyone interested in learning about these storms will find this a great place to start.
