User Reviews

When this film delves into the history of and construction of the "East River Bridge" or what is now known as the Brooklyn Bridge, the film is masterfully constructed and endlessly fascinating. However, when Mr. Burns tries to romanticize the bridge in the present day (1981 when this film was shot), it becomes a mess, at the same time pedantic and preachy. I would highly recommend the first half of this film to anyone interested in historical documentary filmmaking, NYC history or architectural history, but the second half could be skipped by anyone save an Oscar completist (this film was nominated for best documentary feature in 1982) or the most hard core of Mr. Burns' fans.

It seems quite fitting that this Ken Burns documentary was narrated by the historian, David McCullough. That's because McCullough has written a book detailing exactly what you'll see in this PBS film--the building of the Brooklyn Bridge.

Speaking of Ken Burns, this film marks his first production. He directed and produced this film--a film that would lead to many amazing PBS documentaries, such as "The Civil War" and "Lewis & Clark".

And, in an interesting twist, the voice for Washington Roebling (the son of the man who designed the bridge and who actually built the bridge) is provided by Paul Roebling--who I assume is a descendant of Washington Roebling, though IMDb gives no information about Paul other than a few film credits.

The film is broken into two major parts. The first portion consists of the events leading up to construction of the bridge and work on the bridge itself. I agree with another poster who felt that the best part of the film was this portion. Then, once the bridge was completed, comes the final part where people wax poetical talking about the bridge and it's about the impact of the bridge on our culture. Much of this sounds like a lot of blather, actually--like heavy padding. I really wish that more time had been spent on the building of the bridge and the final portion eliminated or severely truncated. Sure, it's an impressive engineering feat for its day, but talking about it at such length just seemed unnecessary. I'd give the first portion a 9 and the final portion a 3. But, since the first portion is much longer, I think an overall score of 7 is merited.

By the way, late in the film it shows the New York City skyline and the narration talks about Roebling's death in 1926. Oddly, the clip was of the city over a decade later, as you can see the swastika-bedecked dirigible flying over the city--a rather sloppy mistake. I assumed it was the Hindenburg but it could have been the Graf Zeppelin after its Nazi insignia was added.

Also by the way, I watched this streaming from Netflix and the sound and action were out of sync--and watching people talking in the later portions of the film was kind of freaky! You may want to look for the DVD instead.

Brooklyn Bridge (1981)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Ken Burns' first documentary takes a look at the history of the Brooklyn Bridge. We follow it's progress from the mind of Roebling who would have his son complete it, open it on May 24, 1883 and along the way we hear about the blood and tears that went into it. The second portion of the documentary takes a look at the bridge in current times and we get clips from movies, pictures and paintings that feature the famous landmark. At just 58-minutes there's certainly nothing ground-breaking about this documentary but I think it does a pretty good job at going through the history of the bridge as well as the impact it has had on certain people. I don't think there's any doubt that the most entertaining stuff is during the first half when we hear about how the bridge idea came to be and we also get to see how other bridges were being built at the time. Some of the most fascinating stuff comes from the creation of the caissons, how they were constructed and what their final purpose was going to be. This led to a disease, which became known as the Caisson Disease and we also hear about the day the bridge opened and who got to go across first. Fans of history will most certainly want to check this film out because the storytelling is extremely good and we also get all sorts of photos of the bridge as well as newspaper clippings from the days when it was being built.

Told in soundbite mode where no one person tells the story, but everyone tells one-liners in bits and pieces in chronological order. This can be a bit annoying.

Presenters and film clips: Paul Roebling as Washington Roebling(voice) Julie Harris as Emily Roebling(voice) Arthur Miller as Self. The writer of The Crucible Kurt Vonnegut Jr. A writer and actor, known for Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) Richard Pini. Actor, Brooklyn Bridge (Documentary) (voice) Fred Sherry. Actor, Brooklyn Bridge (Documentary) (voice) Austin Stevens. Actor, Brooklyn Bridge (Documentary) (voice) Richard Rescia. Actor, Brooklyn Bridge (Documentary) (voice) David McCullough as Self - Narrator(voice) Mel Blanc: Bugs Bunny (clip from 'Bowery Bunny') Sheelah Feinberg as Self(uncredited) - Open House NYC (TV Series) Paul Goldberger as Self(uncredited) - Frontline (TV Series documentary) Oliver Hardy as Self (clip from "Way Out West") Stan Laurel as Self (clip from "Way Out West") Anna Hostvedtas Self(uncredited) George Raft as Self (clip from "The Bowery") Lewis Mumford as Self(uncredited) Adam Schefflan as Self(uncredited) -------------

Two parts The first part is concentrating on the building of the bridge. I was interested in the caisson disease (compression sickness) (pain in the joints, a bent forward posture, blindness, and sometimes death) and of course from retro sight wondered why they did not think of decompression chambers?

We get political interference and a substandard steel debacle.

We also set to see what is happening way out west at the time of the building of the bridge.

The second part is the impact the bridge has on people. It may seem like a distraction at first. However, this is the real reason for the documentary and has some great information including pictures of the bridge from many popular artists.

There are lots of film clips and great background music. The music is one of the characters in the presentation.

"It happened in Brooklyn" with Frank Sinatra and many other famous people. "Tarzan's New York Adventure" You will need to wats it over again as it comes to you pretty fast.

The DVD has special features: Ken Burns: making history A conversation with Ken Burns You will want to see more of Ken Burns' earlier works.

If you want to learn the who, what, when, why and where of the Brooklyn Bridge from conception, to construction, to the grand opening, then many of the general interest questions about the Brroklyn Bridge will be answered in this documentary film which was Ken Burns first attempt at creating a historical documentary comprised of witnesses, historical video and picture(s), and interviews.

As the bridge took some 14 years and more than a dozen construction deaths to complete, as well as hundreds injured due to the depths of construction submerged under water I would not have been surprised if this was the eigth (8th) wonder of the world.

It is a beautifully told story (although some of the information is compressed too much) and provides considerable facts of an historical nature about the builders, politicians, investors and civil servants.

It is well worth a watch. I give ken Burns first attempt a creating a historical documentary a decent 6 out of 10 rating.