Thomas Jefferson (1997)

THOMAS JEFFERSON  (1997)  ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
    D: Ken Burns
A three-hour documentary on the life of America's brilliant and somewhat elusive third president. Like Benjamin Franklin, Jefferson was a product of the Enlightenment, and nobody except Franklin could match his range of skills and interests. As a slave owner who wrote the defining document on human freedom, he was also contradictory. He viewed slavery as a curse on the nation, yet he never freed his own slaves, and according to some sources, fathered several children with one of them. He was a forceful advocate for states' rights, and an equally forceful advocate for the separation of church and state. He spent lavishly (and often went into debt), played music, invented a machine that could reproduce his letters as he wrote them, and did significant work in architecture and horticulture. After retiring from public life, he founded the University of Virginia. He's one of those primal figures you can't imagine American history without. His image is on the nickel and the two-dollar bill. Photography hadn't come along yet in Jefferson's time, which limits what Burns has to work with visually. He uses a few black-and-white photos of slaves (not Jefferson's), but mostly relies on paintings and engravings, idyllically lit pastoral scenes, and footage shot in and around Monticello. Ossie Davis is the narrator. Sam Waterston does the voice of Jefferson. Watching this, you can't help wondering what Jefferson would have to say about the political situation today. And if you should hear a faint whirring sound the next time  president #45 opens his mouth and speaks, that's Thomas Jefferson spinning in his grave.