Mark Twain
Written byDayton Duncan
Geoffrey C. Ward
Directed byKen Burns
Narrated byKeith David
Country of originUnited States
Production
ProducersPam Tubridy Baucom
Ken Burns
Running time212 minutes
Production companiesFlorentine Films
WETA
Original release
ReleaseJanuary 14, 2002 (2002-01-14)

Mark Twain is a documentary film on the life of Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Clemens, produced by Ken Burns in 2001 which aired on Public Broadcasting System on January 14 and 15, 2002.[1] Burns attempted to capture both the public and private persona of Mark Twain from his birth to his death. The film was narrated by Keith David.[2]

Voice actors and subject interviews

The voice of Mark Twain was provided by Kevin Conway and the voice of Olivia Langdon Clemens was portrayed by Blythe Danner.[2] Other voice work was provided by actors Philip Bosco, Carolyn McCormick, Amy Madigan, Cynthia Nixon, and Tim Clark. The film also includes interviews with playwright Arthur Miller,[2] novelist and Twain biographer Ron Powers,[3] writer William Styron,[4] poet Russell Banks,[4] historian John Boyer (executive director of the Mark Twain House),[5] Harvard University professor Jocelyn Chadwick,[6] Stanford University English literature professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin, comedian and civil rights activist Dick Gregory,[4] actor Hal Holbrook,[1] animator and actor Chuck Jones,[4] and Mark Twain scholar Laura Skandera Trombley.[7]

Critical assessment

Mark Twain Legacy Scholar Barbara Schmidt asserts on her website twainquotes.com that some artistic license was taken, resulting in some historical inaccuracies and misrepresentations.[8] She also notes, that some of these errors are the result of the Twain scholarship at time the documentary was made, and that more recent scholarship has revealed some of the factual errors that are in the documentary.[8] Schmidt's website twainquotes.com is widely cited in academic publications on Twain and is highly regarded as an authoritative resource within Twain research.[9]

Film critic Caryn James wrote the following in her review in The New York Times:

"No writer was ever more sardonic about American culture than Twain, and no filmmaker is more earnest than Ken Burns. In Mark Twain that makes for a maddening collision between Twain's ironic sensibility and Mr. Burns's familiar, sentimental style. Twain is forced into the Burns cookie cutter here, complete with the unironic sound of Sweet Betsy from Pike, fiddled relentlessly in the background."[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Bill Carter (January 12, 2002). "Ken Burns, Artist, Meets Mark Twain, Stand-Up Comic". The New York Times. pp. B19, E1.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Caryn James (January 14, 2002). "TELEVISION REVIEW; When Ken Burns Pilots the Twain Riverboat". The New York Times. p. E1.
  3. ↑ Mary Ann Gwinn (January 14, 2002). "The American: With 'Mark Twain,' Ken Burns captures pathos of the man behind the humorist". The Seattle Times.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Susan King (January 13, 2002). "The Other Mark Twain". Los Angeles Times.
  5. ↑ TARA WEISS (November 9, 2001). "MARK TWAIN: THE MOVIE". Hartford Courant.
  6. ↑ "Jocelyn Chadwick Visits the White House to Speak on Race, Censorship and Teaching Mark Twain". Harvard Graduate School of Education News and Events. November 29, 2001.
  7. ↑ Laurel DiGangi (February 1, 2003). "Always the Twain Shall Meet". University of Southern California News.
  8. 1 2 Schmidt, Barbara (April 28, 2010). "Mistakes and Misrepresentations in Ken Burns' film MARK TWAIN". Retrieved January 22, 2014.
  9. ↑ Rasmussen. R. Kent (Spring–Fall 2017). "Legacy scholar: Barbara Schmidt: scholar and internet pioneer". Mark Twain Journal. 55 (1–2).
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