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Rob Wick · 09-25-2012, 09:34 AM

Bill, Bill, Bill <head shake> turn in your Sandburg decoder ring and membership card. Big Grin

Seriously, it was really good.

Let me start by picking a few small nits. First, while there was surprisingly few errors, there were a couple. There is a scene which shows the young actor playing Sandburg as a teen that shows him going into the Sandburg birthplace, which couldn't have happened since the Sandburgs only lived in that house for a year after his birth. Also, the narrator said that Sandburg was the first private citizen to speak before a joint session of Congress, which is wrong.

I also realize that a filmmaker has just so much time, but I felt that they spent far too much time on his poetry at the expense of his Lincoln work, but that, of course, is my interest. Rodney O. Davis and Sean Wilentz had some good commentary on his Lincoln work, but I felt they should have explored the reaction to it, especially from academic scholars (since the film's talking heads on his Lincoln were both college professors). They completely left out the influence of Phillip Green Wright, Sandburg's professor at Lombard College, who printed the first of Sandburg's literary work. Also left out were his friendships with Harry Hansen and Lloyd Lewis, which were major influences, especially Lewis on Sandburg's Lincoln work.

As I said, these were small criticisms.

I thought the documentary was very good and would serve as a powerful introduction to the work of Sandburg. I wish schools would require it's watching, but I doubt that will happen. What I particularly liked was seeing the interview with Sandburg's wife, Paula, who really deserves a biography of her own (and no, I'm not writing one....my dance card is filled for the next few decades Big Grin

). I also liked the interview with his only surviving daughter, Helga. Plus, seeing the late Studs Terkel and the late Norman Corwin was very interesting. By far, the best of the "talking heads" was Sandburg's biographer, Penelope Niven. I have hopes that once I get my book written, I can convince her to write the forward.

All in all, it was a fascinating insight into Sandburg the man and was long overdue.

Best
Rob