Mjeteconer Just perfect...

Stevecorp Don't listen to the negative reviews

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Scarlet The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Leofwine_draca Another exemplary documentary from the fine American documentary maker Ken Burns. This one has a smaller scope than the other documentary series I've seen from Burns, which typically explore wars the like; this one examines the Roosevelt family, which gave America two presidents alongside many other interesting historical figures. The film has an intimate, personal tone and I'm not ashamed to say I was involved enough to shed tears in the final instalment. This is because the series is so good that it makes you feel like you know the characters involved. I had my suspicions that there wouldn't be enough material to sustain a lengthy running time, but I needn't have worried; this is endlessly engaging, fascinating in fact.

sirk1971 I've watched this series multiple times. I'm not political. I've never really paid much attention to the Roosevelt's. But I absolutely love biographies. Ken Burns has done a fantastic job with this series. I totally recommend anyone who enjoys biographies to watch this series. I came away thinking that our country could use another Teddy Roosevelt. His beliefs and tactics is something our country could definitely use right now. Not too fond of FDR based on this series. Wish it would have went more into Elanor since she was a true Roosevelt by blood (side note....I knew they were cousins before I watched this and it's still very icky that he married his cousin). I would love for Mr. Burns to create more biographies of this nature. I've tried watching others and they've failed to keep my interest like this one did.

MartinHafer Although folks adore Ken Burns' series on the Civil War and it will no doubt be his most famous series, to me this one on the Roosevelts is as good. It ostensibly covers from the birth of Teddy until the death of Eleanor, it in fact emphasizes Franklin Roosevelt foremost. So, although Teddy was born decades before them, starting in the first episode, the show kept bouncing back and forth between the lives of Teddy and Eleanor and Franklin on the other. This did short-change Teddy's portion of the film just a tad but even still, it really delves into them all in depth unlike any other biography on any of the Roosevelts.Like other Burns series, this one consists of the roving camera over photos, lots of interviews as well as important celebrity impersonations of the particulars. Especially good among these was Meryl Streep's voicing for Eleanor, as it really sounded like her. In addition to all this, the show features quite a bit in the way of film footage and overall, they all create a gorgeous and loving look at these famous folks. Well worth seeing and exhaustive--clocking in at about 12 hours!

DKosty123 The master of this type of documentary, Ken Burns has picked a very good subject again for this history series. There can be no doubt the Roosevelts are as close to Lincoln as there was for leadership in the 20th century. Sad how modern Democrats like Clinton and the current administration have not taken leadership lessons from FDR or even LBJ. They have turned away from this type of Leadership at this countries peril. While that is still playing out- I am hearing things about all the 2000 communications between FDR and Churchill yet not hearing many quotes from those communications. Maybe they are still classified? Comparing this with the epic The Civil War, this one does not seem to go quite as deep as the prior one did. It does still follow the same format, though the picture of FDR's real private life are hard to come by due to hiding of his illness and frail condition because of the war.It is interesting that FDR despite his health was keeping company with someone other than Eleanor. This does seem to fit the playboy reputation of Democrat leaders. What comes over for me though is because of FDR's health, I doubt if these private affairs were much more than keeping company. As is told, a lot of people around FDR took a lot of very special care of him, and I think any mistresses were a part of that care.I am glad to see some of the photos that were gotten out for this documentary. While a lot of the themes have been covered before, this fresh series does point out things I did not realize. I never knew Churchill spent a whole 3 weeks with FDR. The series is not over as I write this but I am hoping for more focus on the letters and communications between FDR, Stalin, Japan, and any world leaders at the time. Teddy Roosevelt was in many ways larger than life itself and some of that definitely shows in the series.Glad to see some of the focus on the race issues including the correct points about Conservative Southern Democrats problems with race and how they conflicted with FDR Roosevelt. Modern Democrats are trying to paint themselves as a party which is not racist and have been since the Kennedy/LBJ era. That is historic revisionism and from the latest installment Ken Burns is getting this right.Just because a party has the first Black President, does not mean they do not have a race problem. It shows up constantly with Democrats in the main stream media who are keeping it alive and well to divide people.The section on policy of FDR bringing the country out of depression is very well done. It correctly points out what FDR did to save the banking system. Unfortunately for the country, the wall (glass-Spiegel) that FDR built to protect our financial system was torn down by Clinton era progressives and this directly led to the big melt downs 1998-2010 era. Losing this wall, the financial system is still at risk now.Great leaders lead, as the Roosevelts did. They were not perfect leaders as that is impossible, but they do not blame others for their problems. Just imagine if at the beginning of World War 2, if FDR had made a speech blaming Henry Ford and Thomas Watson Sr. for providing financial aid and arms to Adolf Hitler (which they did) for all the worlds troubles. At that critical junction of History, that would not have united people when they needed to stand tall.I was a bit surprised that when covering discrimination against Blacks in war related hiring, that the issue of hiring women for war related industries was not mentioned. Women being hired was historic at the time and FDR's progressive policies were in part responsible for that. The series might make up for this later.Industries after the war went back to this discrimination against women until the late 1970's when the women's movement at last started to take hold on corporate management. The country went from rosie the riveter to rosie the housewife, and then moved to where we are today where 2 parties are both busy trying to keep any woman out of the White House except for the First Ladies.