Movie Review

John Brown (1800–1859) is one of those historical figures to whom strong labels tend to be applied—"madman," "martyr," and "terrorist," for example. Brown absorbed antislavery sentiments from his father at an early age. Then, in 1837, at a memorial service for the murdered abolitionist editor Elijah Lovejoy, Brown committed his life to destroying slavery. Economic struggles prevented Brown from acting on his vow until the 1850s. In October 1859 his raid on the United States arsenal at Harper's Ferry, Virginia, was supposed to provoke a massive slave uprising; instead it brought death to the members of the raiding party.

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This PBS documentary about Brown's life has been prepared in the tradition of Ken Burns, with a mixture of interviews, period photographs and sketches, scenery, and some fragmentary reenactments. Nine historians and authors give opinions during the film, some merely making a single appearance. An ordinary viewer would have to do some additional research to determine the connection to Brown that caused those persons to be selected, since nothing in the film says more than "author" or "historian." The most frequent interviewee is Russell Banks, author of the novel Cloudsplitter. An articulate person, he seems to play the Shelby Foote commentator role as in Burns's The Civil War (there is a superficial physical resemblance too). It is not clear, however, why Banks should be more qualified than any of the historians.

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