The Roosevelts (film)
9.2 /10 1 Votes
Genre Documentary film Narrated by Peter Coyote Duration Language English | 9/10 IMDb Director Ken Burns Distributed by PBS Country United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Release date September 14, 2014 (2014-09-14) Based on The Roosevelts: An Intimate History
by Geoffrey C. Ward and Ken Burns Nominations Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Documentary Or Nonfiction Series Cast Meryl Streep , Paul Giamatti , Edward Herrmann , Peter Coyote (Narrator), Doris Kearns Goodwin , David McCullough Similar movies Being Awesome (2013), Rough Riders (1997), Ragtime (1981), Night at the Museum (2006), Incident at Victoria Falls (1992) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History is a 2014 American documentary film directed and produced by Ken Burns. It covers the lives and times of the Roosevelt family, including Theodore Roosevelt, a Republican and the 26th President of the United States; Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat and the 32nd President of the United States, a cousin of Theodore; and Eleanor Roosevelt, the longest-serving First Lady of the United States, a niece of Theodore who had wed Franklin. As a result of the influence of Theodore and Franklin as Presidents, as well as Eleanor as First Lady, a modern democratic state of equal opportunity was begun in the United States. The documentary film begins with the birth of Theodore in 1858 and ends with the death of Eleanor in 1962.
Contents
Actors and historians
The documentary film is narrated by Peter Coyote. Actors read lines of various historical figures and a series of noted commentators give background information. They include:
As themselves:
Other voices include: Adam Arkin, Keith Carradine, Kevin Conway, Ed Harris, Josh Lucas, Carl Lumbly, Amy Madigan, Carolyn McCormick, Pamela Reed, Billy Bob Thornton, and Eli Wallach.
Reviews and criticism
The series premiered to positive reviews and was nominated for three Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Emmy Award for Outstanding Narrator for Peter Coyote's narration of the first episode. In September 2014, The Roosevelts became the most streamed documentary on the PBS website to date.
One critic of the series, Michelangelo Signorile, wrote in The Huffington Post that the production was entertaining but noticeably omitted any references to the Newport sex scandal and another scandal involving Sumner Welles. Signorile also criticized Burns' dismissal of a possible sexual relationship between Eleanor Roosevelt and Lorena Hickok as 'tabloid' material. Pulitzer Prize winning historian John Loughey was similarly dismayed that the Newport affair was not included in the series.
References
The Roosevelts (film) WikipediaThe Roosevelts (film) IMDb The Roosevelts (film) themoviedb.org