Review Of National Parks: America's Best Idea, By Ken Burns

When I think of a documentary, I think of a film whose main objective is to be informative and spread knowledge on a topic or a problem many people may not already know about. Ken Burns does a great job with spreading knowledge in his films, especially in one the first documentary films we watched in class which was National Parks: America’s Best Idea (2009). Burns is one of the most famous and influential documentary makers in the world so obviously, he’s good at what he does. I learned a lot from this documentary on how our National Parks got started and their history. I loved learning about it as visiting our National Parks is one of my favorite things to do. But, it did get kind of repetitive and took a more religious standpoint, as the title of the episode was even, “The Scripture of Nature”.

I am not a religious person and never have been. So, honestly, I was not really a fan of all of the religion talk and references. But, I can see why he may have gone in that direction of a more religious tone. The film focuses a lot on John Muir who was a big influence on the creation of America’s National Parks system. Muir’s was a very religious man and that is shown throughout the film. That is why I believe Burns continued that theme throughout. Honestly, if the film hadn’t focused so much on John Muir, I don’t know if Burns would have made it as religious sounding as it does at