Walt Disney: An American Experience (New documentary!) on tonight

[greatbigbeautifultomorrow]

On the PBS channel, they will be showing a new documentary tonight and tomorrow on Walt as a part of their 'American Experience' program. It'll be on tonight at 9PM (ET), 8PM (CT), and 6 (PT). It's a 4 hour program that's broken into two parts, so tonight and tomorrow each program will be 2 hours long.

For friends who will be unable to see it, the channel should have the parts up on their website (for free!) the following day.

More info from the website:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/walt-disney/

 

[swarlock]

Saw both. Quite a revealing take on the man who by no means was entirely an angel. A lot of people know this but despite his shortcomings he strived to be somebody. That is all that really matters.

 

[one11sgt]

It really shows how Roy Disney really kept the company running and how little credit or fame hes gotten for it

 

[swarlock]

It really shows how Roy Disney really kept the company running and how little credit or fame hes gotten for it

I don't think he ever thought about it. He was the realist and whereas his brother was the opposite.

 

[choirboy501]

I thought it was disappointing. Here are what I think are some of the problems:

- little material from those who knew Walt, even if it was older interviews
- there are a number of well-researched biographies on Walt, but the project relied on the material from what seemed only one or two, especially input from biographer Neal Gabler, who maintains that Walt had a dark psyche
- omission of material that allowed wrong conclusions. The statement was made that Walt went on South American tour to flee the studio strike, when the reality was that he was asked by the U.S. government to go on the goodwill tour.
- gave a lot of airtime to folks that were neither biographers or historians. Example: Ron Suskind got a lot of airtime. Who is he? A writer that wrote a book about how a mutual love for Disney's works allowed him to connect with his autistic son. Not sure how that makes him an authority about Walt's life.

Overall, there seemed a bias to paint Walt as living in some Pollyanna-like fantasy world and that he was surprised, scarred and vengeful when his fantasy collided with reality. It wasn't very scholarly, and seemed to have an agenda.

 

[choirboy501]

An interesting review:

http://outoftheinkwell.blogspot.com/2015/09/i-recently-wrote-review-for.html?m=1

 

[old lady]

Nobody is perfect. Heroes make mistakes.

 

[CD_Tink]

I finally saw part one on my DVR today, it was very interesting! I have watched a couple documentaries on Walt, and each one is unique. The video clips and photographs were great to see either way!