America: Promised Land Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.0
Extras		0.0
Overall		3.0

America: Promised Land Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 13, 2017

Perhaps some of you are first generation native born Americans, as I am on my father’s side. For those of you who are at least relatively recent "arrivals" to the shores of the United States, and especially for those of you with some sort of interest in genealogy, America: Promised Land may offer a bit more interest than the standard History documentary. As the son of an immigrant, I was raised with a firm belief and regular “schooling” in The American Dream, though certain mysterious elements of the history of my father (who was orphaned) ultimately led me on a several decades’ search to find his missing family (which, incredibly, we managed to do last year), courtesy of the many genealogical databases that are now online and which have become something of a “fad” for those attempting to trace their roots. (Ironically, as some of you may know, most if not all of those databases are held by the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, the very place my father lived most of his adult life and where I was in fact born and largely raised.) Both immigrant and genealogical elements play into the often interesting if awfully vignette driven enterprise America: Promised Land, a History outing that appealed to me quite a bit if only because it touched on those very aforementioned aspects of my own family history in a way that was extremely meaningful. While perhaps hobbled by some overly portentous narration (especially given the fact that this is not one of History’s ever popular “apocalpytic” entries), America: Promised Land attempts to understand the movement of various populations to the United States by using significant examples of those populations to deliver typically interesting if fairly shallow examinations of individual lives and their impact within the larger context of huge immigration forces that helped to shape our nation. It’s an appealing premise, one thankfully free of History’s penchant for emphasizing doom and gloom (though there is a bit of that, as well), and it’s perhaps especially meaningful given the current hot debate over how exactly the United States of America should go forward with its immigration policies.

As with many History offerings, America: Promised Land has certain production elements which may chafe at some viewers’ sensibilities. Among these is an introduction that seeks to define where certain nationalities or ethnicities ended up in the United States by showing a map with glowing pinpoints of differently colored lights, with each hue supposedly representing something like Germans or Chinese (see screenshot 5). In fact the documentary kind of begins without any context whatsoever, showing a Civil War battalion of Union soldiers who were almost all Germans, with their commander shouting out orders in their native language. That is a fascinating little piece of historical trivia (and one which the documentary ultimately returns to, tying in German immigration to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln), and it’s in elements like this that America: Promised Land arguably delivers some of its most intriguing content.

The documentary’s main presentational style is then exploited as it moves on to detailing various aggregations of nationalities and/or ethnicities that crossed “the pond” over the past several centuries. There are any number of fascinating vignettes delivered throughout the documentary, many of them offering interviews with descendants of whatever ancestor is being profiled as the exemplar of that particular nationality or ethnicity. Therefore, the documentary may get into elements like the ultimate founding of New York City courtesy of the early history of New Amsterdam and one of its first denizens, Harmen Meyndertsz van den Bogaert, along with brief interviews of a descendant of that man. Nothing is ever explored overly deeply, perhaps a recurrent issue with this documentary, but what is on tap is frequently extremely interesting, if underdeveloped or at least underexplored. All of these individual stories are initially presented with lists of names who either traveled with this particular person or at least at around the same time to the "New Land" (see screenshot 9), many of whom would go on to found some of America's most notable families (the aforementioned van den Bogaert is at least distantly related to a certain Casablanca actor, and among his shipmates was an ancestor of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's.)

As with many History offerings that seek to present various stories, some tales will most likely resonate with some viewers more than others. There were a couple of stories that were focused on the Pacific Northwest, where I’ve lived most of my adult life, which “spoke” to me, despite the fact that I wasn’t particularly linked to whatever ethnicity or nationality was on display, while some other sotires, as often interesting as they were, seemed less “representative” of whatever group was being highlighted one way or the other, and therefore perhaps less compelling. Also as with many History offerings, there is a ton of picayune details doled out in subjects as far ranging as Chinese immigrants helping to build the transcontinental railroad to homesteaders staking their claims as the American experiment pushed westward.

While there are the typical talking heads segments here, there’s perhaps more of an emotional component than is often on display in History documentaries, courtesy of the many descendants who are interviewed as many of the stories unfold. It’s extremely touching to see a descendant touch for the first time a relic one of his pioneer ancestors brought across the country, or to have another descendant connect his own military experience to some unwise strategic decisions his particular ancestor may have made. It’s the personal connection that really makes America: Promised Land so meaningful, if only because that very connection subliminally suggests that the promised land still exists for those willing to look for it.

America: Promised Land Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

America: Promised Land is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of History and Lionsgate Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is a pretty typical looking History outing, with generally very sharp and well detailed presentations of the talking head segments, but with a variety of digital tweaks done to some of the historic reenactments that can detract from detail levels. Quite a bit of the "flashback" material is graded to look almost like 16mm, with fuzziness and even pixellation intruding (see screenshot 17), while other, perhaps more whimsical, stylistic choices like the depiction of a man suffering from heat prostration and dehydration also don't support fantastic detail levels (see screenshot 18). While quite a bit of fairly aggressive color grading comes into play at various moments, in decent lighting conditions, detail and fine detail levels are quite high (see the fabric texture in screenshot 3 for one example). While this is a progressive presentation, it looks like some of the stock footage was sourced from interlaced elements, and there are intermittent but noticeable combing artifacts on display.

America: Promised Land Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

For the record, let me state that there's nothing seriously wrong with America: Promised Land's Dolby Digital 2.0 track, at least in terms of damage, distortion or other problems. However, in what is surely yet another sign of History and/or Lionsgate's kind of bizarre decision to return to lossy audio formats after years of at least decent (and at times quite impressive) lossless audio, America: Promised Land takes another arguable step backward by not even offering a surround track. Therefore, while all elements are at least reasonably rendered on this track, consider my score above a "protest vote" of sorts.

America: Promised Land Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

While there are "Special Features" listed on the Main Menu (see screenshot 20 accompanying this review), those turn out to be trailers for other Lionsgate releases and bookmarks, neither of which I consider true supplements nor worthy of a score.

America: Promised Land Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The good news is that America: Promised Land is a rare History documentary that actually manages to find a new way to present tried and true data, and that it does so in a consistently engaging way. The bad news is that this Blu-ray release doesn't just offer lossy audio, it doesn't even offer a lossy surround track, in a marketing decision that almost certainly will turn off some potential high definition consumers.