Once again, our greatest contemporary documentarian, presents us with a masterful product. This is the first of his intimate biographical pieces on the Roosevelts, who, like the Kennedys, like them or not, dominate Twentieth Century history. This focuses on the rise of Theodore Roosevelt, a complex man, who saw opportunities, and crafted them into a place at the White House. The Roosevelt family was filled with opportunists and salesmen, drunks and cowards, but these failings by some led to greatness in others. The most interesting segment of this episode has to do with Teddy's use of an insignificant war in Cuba to bring about his aggrandizement. At one point, the narrator refers to Roosevelt's "blood lust" and the fact that he was a killer. He described his role in the war as a soldier of fortune as great fun (the truth is over 80 men paid with their lives as well as the rotting corpses of the enemy filling the battlefield). He used this to make his way to the Vice Presidency under William McKinley, by becoming one of the most popular men in the United States. Of course, we know what happened to McKinley.
Review of Get Action (1858-1901)
