Ken Burns: Benjamin Franklin

No wonder the man is on our $100 bill. :) This was a singularly amazing life that impacts all of us to this day.While some might find Ken Burn's depiction more sensationalistic than an earlier PBS show on Franklin, I think you do get a better sense of the man here, warts and all.Most revelatory to me was the sad schism between Benjamin Franklin and his son, and the fact that the man was so influential right up until his passing.Benjamin Franklin is the definition of Carpe Diem. :)

Very good documentary 👍

Great

I like PBS films. The quality is good and large variety of topics is good.

Another Ken Burns masterpiece!

I've watched (and own) many of Mr. Burns' documentaries. This one was pretty interesting. I knew a lot about Franklin from studying the Founding Fathers over the years. What I appreciated the most was how much time they spent talking about the relationship between he and his son William, the loyalist governor of New Jersey. Also Franklin's change of heart when it came to slavery showed that people in that time could change their minds, but the commentators also pointed out that it wasn't uncommon for people to own slaves and it didn't mean you completely betrayed the ideals of the Revolution.It's always important when looking at historical figures to show how they fit into the context of their own time and that's what Mr. Burns' documentaries are great at doing!

Ken Burns captures the state of the colonies before statehood, and the incredible life journey of Benjamin Franklin from a relatively uneducated family and with the equivalent of a couple of years of “high school.” He left home driven by unrelenting curiosity, high energy willingness to learn and acquire rational thinking, and to develop hard earned lifestyle principles, and unique abilities in several areas. In spite of difficult moral value changes, struggles with family relationships, and sorting out social culture differences, he enjoyed eventual success as a writer, printer, scientist, musician, negotiator, statesman, and inventor - sometimes giving his inventions away for average folks to enjoy, but could not afford.

I really enjoyed this. I am interested in how Ken Burns makes his films similar, yet with subtle differences, such as using wood-block print images to frame different sections. Great work Mr. Burns!