The national parks : America's best idea
(Movies) 

Originally broadcast as episodes of the television documentary on PBS in 2009.

"With 391 units (58 national parks, plus 333 national monuments and historic sites), the National Park Service has a presence in 49 of the 50 states (Delaware is the sole exception). Like the idea of freedom itself, the national park idea has been constantly tested, is constantly evolving and is inherently full of contradictory tensions: between individual rights and the community, the local and the national; between preservation and exploitation, the sacred and the profitable; between one generation's immediate desires and the next generation's legacy. As America expanded westward, pioneers would "discover" landscapes of such breathtaking and unusual beauty that written descriptions of the lands were sometimes assumed by people in the East to be works of fiction. Eventually, there emerged a belief that these special places should be kept untarnished by development and commerce so that they could be experienced by all people. Wallace Stegner called the national parks "the best idea we ever had," and no activity of the federal government engenders such universal support and public loyalty; yet the story of how these special places became preserved as parks, the role of individual citizens in creating them, and the powerful stories of people's emotional connection to them remain relatively unknown."--PBS website.

Special features: disc 1: "The making of The national parks: America's best idea" behind-the-scenes tour; disc 2. "Capturing the parks" Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan and crew on location; disc 3: Musical journeys through the national parks; disc 4: Outtakes: An interview with Nevada Barr, author and former National Park Service ranger; "The Boss", the story of Frank Pinkley and Casa Grande; disc 5: "The national parks: this is America" mini-documentary that celebrates the diverse history of the national parks; disc 6: "Contemporary stories from America's national parks" series of five short films: San Antonio Missions: Keeping History Alive, Yosemite's Buffalo Soldiers, Mount Rushmore: Telling America's Stories, Manzanar: "Never Again", City Kids in National Parks.

Cinematography, Buddy Squires with Allen Moore, Lincoln Else, Ken Burns (Episode 1, 2, 3); supervising film editor, Paul Barnes ; episode editors, Paul Barnes (Episode 1, 4), Craig Mellish (Episode 2, 6), Erik Ewers (Episode 3, 5).

Narrated by Peter Coyote.

Traces the birth of the national park idea in the mid-1800s and follows its evolution for nearly 150 years. Using archival photographs, first-person accounts of historical characters, personal memories and analysis from more than 40 interviews, the series chronicles the steady addition of new parks through the stories of the people who helped create them and save them from destruction.

"The National Parks: America's Best Idea is a six-episode series produced by Ken Burns and Dayton Duncan and written by Dayton Duncan. Filmed over the course of more than six years at some of nature's most spectacular locales - from Acadia to Yosemite, Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, the Everglades of Florida to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska. The National Parks: America's Best Idea is nonetheless a story of people: people from every conceivable background - rich and poor; famous and unknown; soldiers and scientists; natives and newcomers; idealists, artists and entrepreneurs; people who were willing to devote themselves to saving some precious portion of the land they loved, and in doing so reminded their fellow citizens of the full meaning of democracy."--PBS website https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/the-national-parks/ (viewed August 9, 2023).

Not rated.

DVD, Region 1, NTSC, widescreen presentation, enhanced for 16x9 televisions; Dolby digital 5.1 surround, 2.0 stereo.

English or dubbed Spanish dialogue with optional English or Spanish subtitles; video description for the visually impaired; closed-captioned.