THE NATIONAL PARKS America's Best Idea

The PBS National Parks series was a marvelous production featuring spectacular pictures and a compelling story of the preservation of natural and historic places for the use of all Americans, irrespective of class or wealth. This abridgment of the companion book to the series reveals the political battles and personal stories associated with the development of the national park system. However, Ken Burns is a far better filmmaker than a narrator. His pace is too slow, and his tone overly dramatic, making the whole production clunky and dull. A supporting cast provides some of the longer quotations from letters and documents, and Dayton Duncan (the author of the companion book) gives an effective afterword, but, sadly, the production as a whole is disappointing. A.B © AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2009]