American ExperienceSæson 17
TV-PG
"American Experience" combines dramatic re-enactments with commentary by historians and authors to present an absorbing look at the personalities, events and resources that have had a profound impact on the shaping of America's past and present.
Hvor man kan se American Experience • Sæson 17
11 episoder
- The Fight
E2The Fight"The Fight" recalls the June 1938 heavyweight title bout between Joe Louis and the German Max Schmeling, and assesses its political and social ramifications. "It was going to pit whole nations and whole ideologies against each other," says narrator Courtney B. Vance. Producer-director Barak Goodman also explores Louis's place in America's racial divide as well as the genial Schmeling's ties to Hitler. - Fidel Castro
E3Fidel CastroFidel Castro's march through Cuba and the second half of the 20th century is chronicled by filmmaker Adriana Bosch. Here, Cuban exiles and former Castro confreres, foreign-policy experts, a former Castro brother-in-law and his daughter Alina Fernandez paint a portrait of a dictator, a social reformer -- and a survivor. - Building the Alaska Highway
E4Building the Alaska HighwayRecalls the construction of the 1500-mile "shortcut to Tokyo" through Canada in 1942 by 11,000 U.S. troops (4,000 of them black). It wasn't the Army's greatest World War II triumph, but it was one of the first, and it gave Americans, who feared a Japanese buildup in the Aleutians, a needed morale boost. This hour is light on military and engineering detail, and packed with proud GIs recalling mud, cold and toil. - Kinsey
E5KinseyProfiling Dr. Alfred Kinsey, the Indiana University zoologist whose "revolutionary picture of American sexuality" rocked the country in the late 1940s and early '50s. Filmmakers Barak Goodman and John Maggio interview Kinsey colleagues and biographers, along with people took part in his studies, to paint a portrait of an "unyielding" proponent of sexual freedom who practiced what he preached. Says sexologist Paul Gebhard, a Kinsey assistant: "He was a rebel." - Mary Pickford
E6Mary PickfordProfiling Mary Pickford, the silent-screen "sweetheart" who blazed the trail to Hollywood and became "America's first superstar." Pickford (1893-1979) was also an astute businesswoman: She founded United Artists with Charlie Chaplin and her husband-to-be Douglas Fairbanks. But, as filmmaker Sue Williams stresses here, there was no glorious sunset. As Pickford biographer Eileen Whitfield puts it, she was "the first has-been created by film." - The Great Transatlantic Cable
E7The Great Transatlantic CableCyrus Field's struggle to lay telegraph cables across the Atlantic in the 1850s and '60s is chronicled. When Field finally succeeded, in 1866, it marked "the annihilation of space and time," says historian David Czitrom. But the 13-year effort -- recalled here in re-creations and comments from historians and engineers -- included many false starts and one spectacular failure. Still, says Czitrom, "he never let up." - The Massie Affair
E8The Massie Affair"The Massie Affair" chronicles a 1931 Honolulu rape case involving a young white Navy wife that became even more serious when one of the acquitted Hawaiian defendants was later kidnapped and murdered. Although marital discord and social "honor" play into the story, it's mostly about stark racial injustice that touched even the White House. It uncovers "cold, hard truths about America and the people who ruled it." - The Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken?
E10The Carter Family: Will the Circle Be Unbroken?Recalls "the first family of country music" in interviews with Carter relatives, music writers, and singers Gillian Welch, Joan Baez, Marty Stuart and Rodney Crowell. The tough early lives of A.P. Carter, his sister Maybelle and wife Sara were lightened by music, and their 1927 RCA audition proved to be "the big bang of commercial country music." But A.P. and Sara's marriage couldn't survive the turmoil that followed. - Patty Hearst - millionærdatteren som blev terrorist
E11Patty Hearst - millionærdatteren som blev terroristBortførelsen af millionærdatteren Patty Hearst i februar 1974 var den mest spektakulære aktion udført af nogen amerikansk terrorgruppe. Da Patty Hearst nogle måneder senere tilsyneladende frivilligt sluttede sig til gruppen udløste det et mediehysteri i den amerikanske offentlighed, som gruppen var ekstrem dygtig til at udnytte. The Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) blev dannet i 1973 af en lille gruppe unge, og det blev den mest berygtede og bombastiske terrorgruppe i amerikansk historie. Deres ideologi var en blanding af Black Power, modstand mod Vietnamkrigen og politisk radikalisme, og deres mål var intet mindre end en voldelig omstyrtelse af samfundet. Instruktøren Robert Stone fortæller historien om SLA gennem en masse ikke tidligere offentliggjort arkivmateriale og det første interview nogensinde med en af gruppens grundlæggere, Russ Little.
