| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 88.3

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| Movie Review | The Journal of American History, 88.3 | The History Cooperative

Movie Review

The Rockefellers. Prod. by Elizabeth Deane (part 1) and Adriana Bosch (part 2). American Experience/WGBH-Boston, 2000. 210 mins. (PBS Video, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314-1698)

The oil magnate John Davison Rockefeller (1839–1937) was America's first billionaire. His son and namesake, known to many as Junior, spent most of his life giving away as much as his father had—more than half a billion dollars. Junior's five sons also became powerful figures: John D. III (in philanthropy), Nelson (in New York and national politics), Laurance (in conservation), David (in finance), and Winthrop (in Arkansas politics). Their numerous children, known within the dynasty as "the cousins," included West Virginia governor and senator John D. IV but generally were more eclectic and anonymous than their forebears. According to this ambitious, two-part PBS production, these four generations of Rockefellers are "the closest thing the country had to a royal family." At once enthralling and frustrating, informative and visceral, investigative and manipulative, The Rockefellers poses as a fair and informed historical rendering. But its patina of fine production values and ostensibly contrasting views about the Rockefellers thinly conceals what is at heart a study in "corporate greed," family squabbling, and the power of great wealth. . . .

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