Blu-ray Review: Ken Burns’ ‘The Dust Bowl’ Resonates Today

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CHICAGO – One of the greatest gifts that Ken Burns has as arguably our best working documentarian is his ability to take historical subjects and make them resonate to our lives today. “The Civil War” transports us back in time, making the lives of those people relate to our own. His amazing “The Central Park Five,” which opened last week in Chicago and was given 4-stars by Patrick McDonald, is playing in theaters and his PBS documentary “The Dust Bowl” was recently released on Blu-ray and DVD. Once again, Burns takes history and makes it present.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

The brilliance of “The Dust Bowl” is in how Burns and his team not only transport us back to one of the darkest chapters in our country’s history but how they make it so relevant to today. This is a saga of a government misleading its own people and climate controlling mankind’s fate. Sound familiar? It is about economic tragedy that still resonates in part of this country. Through incredible interviews with some of the people who lived through the Dust Bowl years, Burns has done history a favor, capturing an incredible story of human drama for generations to come.

The Dust Bowl was released on Blu-ray and DVD on November 20, 2012
Photo credit: PBS

Synopsis:
The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history when a frenzied wheat boom on the southern Plains followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Menacing black blizzards killed farmers’ crops and livestock threatened the lives of their children and forced thousands of desperate families to pick up and move somewhere else.

Special Features:
o Behind the Scenes
o Deleted Scenes
o Additional Interviews

By BRIAN TALLERICO Content Director HollywoodChicago.com brian@hollywoodchicago.com