7.2 | / 10 |
Users | 4.5 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Sharing their thoughts on the building of America, and what it means to be an American, are a world-class group of individuals including Tom Brokaw, Michael Douglas, Meryl Streep, Buzz Aldrin, Colin Powell, Donald Trump, John Legend, Melissa Etheridge, Brian Williams and more. DISC 1 (Episodes 1-4): Rebels / Revolution / Westward / Division / bonus DISC 2 (Episodes 5-8): Civil War / Heartland / Cities / Boom / bonus DISC 3 (Episodes 9-12): Bust / WWII / Superpower / Millennium
Starring: Liev Schreiber, Tom Brokaw, Brian Williams (III), Michael Douglas, Colin PowellDocumentary | 100% |
History | 73% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.78:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
English: DTS-HD HR 5.1
None
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Three-disc set (3 BDs)
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 2.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
Time is by its very nature such an ephemeral entity that it remains one of the central enigmas of our existence. When, for example, does “what happened” become “history”? That seems an especially cogent question in this supercharged era of 24 hour news cycles, when virtually every picayune situation around the world is deemed “Urgent” or “Breaking” or some other adjective denoting something of utmost import. History Channel of course attempts to separate the wheat from the chaff, putting both minutiae as well as larger arching stories into their proper context. The latter, mixed with a smattering of the former, is on hand throughout America: The Story of Us, a towering and teeming nearly 12 hour enterprise which traces everything from the 300 million year old meteorite which formed the Cumberland Pass to the first settlers of Jamestown to the rebels and rascals of the Revolutionary War, through to the formulation and expansion of the nation we call the United States of America. While a series of this magnitude can’t really delve too deeply into any given subject, or even timeframe, America: The Story of Us does manage to follow a rather sensible through line which attempts to weave something akin to a typical dramatic arc, usually falling back on the time honored tradition of focusing on the robust, independent and innovative nature of the American spirit. While the series gives us a more or less chronological narrative which begins with the Jamestown settlement and ends with the dawning of the Age of Terror, it does stop by the wayside more than a few times to explore individual stories of people both well known and probably relatively little heard of.
America: The Story of Us takes the typical History Channel approach of liberal doses of CGI, historical reenactments, and talking heads, mixed with a pleasant, if sometimes portentous, narration by Liev Schreiber. The series does an exceptional job of keeping the story moving, offering some splendid visuals to engage the viewer, and some at least occasionally cogent commentary. One aspect which may be cringe inducing to those more academically inclined is the reliance on such “expert” commentators as Michael Douglas and Sheryl Crow. The series would have done better to stick with the more historically astute people who are indeed included in many episodes, people like Tom Brokaw and Henry Louis Gates, Jr. But America is after all a democracy, a place where all voices have their place, so despite the sometimes banal reflections of some of these annotators, overall the series gives a good representative sampling of thought about what the United States has meant, both philosophically and more fundamentally as a driving force on our planet for the past several hundred years.
President Obama introduces 'America: The Story of Us'.
America: The Story of Us is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encode, in full 1080p and a 1.78:1 aspect ratio. As with many History Channel offerings, there are some distinct quality differences due to source and stock footage and footage shot especially for the miniseries. The contemporary footage, typically interview segments and some reenactments, looks quite good indeed, with well saturated color and decent, if not overwhelming, detail. Sharpness and depth of field are both very good. Things get a little trickier with both the CGI elements, which are omnipresent throughout the series, and some of the stock footage. The CGI is never incredibly artfully done. It certainly suffices and allows the viewer to get the gist of what's being discussed, but it never rises to the high-def heights of Pixar (ironically John Lasseter is one of the talking heads in the series). Stock footage is all over the map. It's never horrible, but a lot of establishing shots of various locales suffer from softness and occasional artifacts like shimmer. The worst stock footage is probably the very grainy, blown up segments from NASA detailing the space race.
Unfortunately, there are some pretty big problems to report with the two lossless soundmixes included on America: The Story of Us, at least with regard to some surround sound systems. I'm not sure whether I received defective discs for this review, or there is an authoring error, or if this is just a case of overly aggressive LFE (to put it extremely mildly), but the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix is, to put it bluntly, unlistenable on some systems. It's hampered by a completely odd, and overpowering, low frequency hum which drowns out narration, on screen commentary and sound effects. It's an odd and unsettling pressure inducing vibration which I frankly couldn't stand to listen to for more than a second or two. I spot checked almost all of the episodes over the three discs and it was present on all of them. I also tried playing the discs on different players and got the same result. My Onkyo 7.1 handled this anomaly best, with just a clumsy mix being the biggest culprit (Schreiber's voice is regularly buried under the omnipresent LFE), but my Sony 5.1 system went completely bonkers, with virtually nothing but the roaring LFE coming through the speakers. Another odd thing: when toggling between the two tracks, for a brief moment the 5.1 track shows a negative bitstream!
The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mix is marginally better. It at least does not have the omnipresent low hum, but, wow, is it ever an annoyingly noisy track (by which I mean sound effects, not hiss or the like). It is "busy" so much of the time that one actually feels a sense of relief when things quiet down and we just get Schreiber's narration or some onscreen commentary without a bunch of whizzing effects cluttering up the soundfield unnecessarily. Even this track is hampered by some poor mixing, however. When the sound effects do gear up, they often overpower Schreiber's voicework. While it's understandable to pump up battle scenes and the like with appropriate sound effects, this is one exhausting soundtrack to listen to for any length of time. Sometimes less is more.
Seven okay, if unremarkable, snippets on the first two discs are included, which offer a bit of supplementary material on specific subjects. Disc One includes American Revolution (1080i; 3:21), Declaration of Independence (1080i; 3:52), and George Washington (1080i; 2:21). Disc Two includes Civil War (1080i; 4:06), Transcontinental Railroad (1080i; 3:28), The Statue of Liberty (1080i; 3:12) and Henry Ford and the Model T (1080i; 3:21).
America: The Story of Us is an often riveting look at a nation of iconoclasts and innovators. With an engaging visual style and a good mix of general themes interspersed with individual stories, the series is never less than interesting, even when it devolves into specious commentary by stars, as opposed to scholars. This Blu-ray is plagued by a hobbled soundtrack, but otherwise this is a sterling release which offers both educational and entertainment value in abundance. Recommended.
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