The Men Who Built America [Blu-ray]

Description

Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Morgan, Ford THE MEN
WHO BUILT AMERICA. Meet the titans who forged the foundation of modern America
and created the American Dream. The Men Who Built America mini-series shines a
spotlight on the influential builders, dreamers and believers whose feats
transformed the United States, a nation decaying from the inside after the
Civil War, into the greatest economic and technological superpower the world
had ever seen. THE MEN WHO BUILT AMERICA is the story of a nation at the
crossroads and of the people who catapulted it to prosperity. The
Men Who Built America were quite a quintet. Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had
already made a fortune in ships, saw which way the wind was blowing, invested
in railroads, and became the richest man in America. John D. Rockefeller
revolutionized the oil business, from refining to delivery, with Standard Oil.
Andrew Carnegie was the first great steel magnate. J.P. Morgan controlled the
electricity market, consolidated the steel industry after Carnegie, and was
“the creator of modern finance,” while Henry Ford constructed the automobile
assembly line and made cars affordable to everyone. But these were not merely
brilliant entrepreneurs, visionaries who had great ideas and the will and
wherewithal to see them through to fruition, in the process helping America
emerge from the ruins of the Civil War and become the greatest nation on Earth
in just a few short decades. The way this History Channel production tells it,
with its bluesy theme music, emphasis on dramatically re-created Big Moments,
and generally overheated POV (a challenge from a competitor is nothing less
than “a declaration of war”), Vanderbilt et al. were outlaws and rock stars,
tough, macho men who strode the Earth like colossi, crushing lesser beings
with their ingenuity, acumen, and very large piles of money. Indeed, although
it has some typical documentary elements (like occasional use of file footage
and photos), The Men Who Built America is really more of a docudrama; the
characters are all portrayed by actors (none of them household names, except
maybe in their own homes) mouthing scripted dialogue; and while there are a
few historians, academics, and biographers on hand, most of the people who
offer their modern-day insights are celebrity business figures like Donald
Trump, Mark Cuban, Steve Wynn, Ted Turner, Charles Schwab, and Carly Fiorina.
This is not a bad thing. The style takes some getting used to, but in the end,
the eight-episode miniseries is both entertaining and enlightening, providing
information about such events as the financial panic of 1873, how the
refinement of oil into kerosene brought light into Americans’ homes, the role
played by Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan in the election of President
William McKinley in 1896, and the efforts of reformers like William Jennings
Bryan and Theodore Roosevelt to put an end to the vast monopolies they’d
created. –Sam Graham

Features:

Product Details:

• Genre: Special Interests/History
• Format: Blu-ray, NTSC, Multiple Formats, Widescreen, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
• Contributor: Isaiah Washington, David Hillary, Barry Brooker, Ash R. Shah
• Language: English
• Runtime: 9 hours and 12 minutes
• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ NR (Not Rated)
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 0.7 x 7.5 x 5.4 inches; 2.24 Ounces
• Media Format ‏ : ‎ Blu-ray, NTSC, Multiple Formats, Widescreen, DTS Surround Sound, Subtitled
• Run time ‏ : ‎ 9 hours and 12 minutes
• Release date ‏ : ‎ January 22, 2013
• Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, Spanish
• Producers ‏ : ‎ Barry Brooker, Ash R. Shah, Isaiah Washington, David Hillary
• Studio ‏ : ‎ Lionsgate