marsh876 This is one of my favorite shows, movie or documentary; I've watched it many times. It's very well done, always interesting, well edited, well written. I've suggested it to many people to watch. The opening sequence with the survey of some of Wright's most famous buildings along with dramatic Beethoven music (5th Piano Concerto "Emperor") is spectacular. The photography of his buildings is often beautifully and lovingly done.Some commentators were disappointed that there were not more buildings shown or that there was not more technical architectural discussion. I agree, but that wouldn't have been practical, and probably not so interesting to the general public. For instance, there really wasn't much discussion of "cantilever", which is what is holding up his most famous building, Falling Water. It would have been impossible to show all of the 700+ buildings he designed. Survey and technical information about Wright are much more available on the Internet now than in 1998 when the show came out. There are free online courses that cover these topics in detail.This show is about Wright the man. His history, the people and events that shaped his life and work, his ideas, along with his greatest works. His life was dramatic enough to provide an interesting story. One thing that stood out for me: when the stock market crashed in 1929, Wright was 62 years old. People didn't live so long in those days and his career seemed over. He was out of money and couldn't get a commission to build, and the economy had tanked anyway. This comes at the end of the first half of the show, and the commentator says somewhat profoundly: his greatest achievements were yet to come.Also fascinating was how his 3rd wife influenced him at this stage of his life, and how she moved his career along.Edward Herrmann does a very good job as narrator. (He died last year in 2014.) More than just reading a script, his voice is thoughtful and responsive to the words, as he's digested them and is reacting personally.Philip Johnson, eminent architect, is the main person interviewed. Interestingly, Johnson talks about his love-hate relationship with Wright, who he knew personally and by whom he was influenced greatly.Overall, the show is beautiful, breathtaking, dramatic, informative and at times shocking. Well worth watching by anyone.

T Y This documentary is useful to neophytes, and it will get you up to speed on the general shape of Wright's episodic life, career and accomplishments. Its on-screen experts are on the silly side. Meryl Secrest strays into self-parody as she delivers her glib stories with an over the top poseur accent originating from parts unknown. Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer looks like a pale, red-eyed cadaver. Brendan Gill overstates half his anecdotes until any reasonable person begins rolling their eyes. As with any career this long, many Wright stories are truncated or left out. The speedy failure of Midway Gardens (via bad financing) is pushed off screen by the tragedy at Taliesin. A suitable coda for this production would have been to flash the images of all the architects Wright influenced or trained directly (Bart Prince, Bruce Goff, Schindler, Neutra, John Lautner, Paolo Soleri, too many too name...).Ken Russell "civil-wars" another topic. And the treatment is now a tepid, dull, formulaic, outdated way to encounter any material.

swagner2001 Wright complained to a friend about about how many thousands of dollars he owed. His friend lent him money to pay off his debts. Later that day, Wright went out and purchased three grand pianos! And went back to complaining about his debts. He felt a compulsion to live at 'the edge.' "Take care of the luxuries of life, and the essentials will take care of themselves," Wright philosophized.Ken Burns examines the character of Frank Lloyd Wright. What made him 'tick'? How does one go about becoming the greatest American architect of the 20th Century? (or as Wright would say: the greatest architect of all time)? A few of Wright's grandchildren are interviewed to help solve this puzzle. A 100-year-old son of the famed architect wheezes his views, in a raspy voice. Those views aren't very flattering: Wright abandoned his first wife, and his children, for various women over the years. In fact, he was jailed in Minnesota for crossing the state border in the company of a woman for 'immoral purposes.' He proved an embarrassment to his family. "I have felt fatherly feelings towards my buildings, but never towards my children," FLW muttered.Burns interviews the long-lived architect, Philip Johnson: "I hated Wright. Hated him." Embittered with feelings of jealousy, and contempt, Johnson (serving in the 1930's as a curator at New York's Museum of Modern Art) had the unenviable task of wrestling a small home design from FLW - to be displayed with other modern architects at a museum exhibition. Wright, who was penniless at the time, refused to cooperate, insulted that he wasn't offered a solo show. Johnson: "I felt he was the greatest American architect of the NINETEENTH century. When someone at MoMA said they wanted Wright to be part of a modern architect showcase, I said sarcastically, 'Isn't he dead?'" Wright may have been 'dead' in 1930, but FLW's creative output after his 1935 comeback (Fallingwater) remains unequaled.Many of the interviews (including some of Johnson's answers) are very positive regarding FLW's work. Sometimes overly reverent. FLW is compared to Beethoven. And the Johnson Wax Building is called his 'Ninth Symphony.' FLW, the man, on the other hand, is branded a con-man, a charlatan, a child who liked to play with other people's money.Titles, such as "Can you just build me an office building?" or "I am immortal," divide the documentary into focused segments. Much like chapters of a biography. Each 'chapter' includes a question and answer with FLW himself - taken from an early television interview - with young Mike Wallace as reporter.In response to another reviewer on this site who claimed that the Tokyo Imperial Hotel is not covered...perhaps that was true for the PBS broadcast...but that is NOT true for the extended home video version of this film. The earthquake-proof Imperial Hotel (for which FLW designed every aspect - down to the Hotel stationery) is briefly covered, but for no more than five minutes.Many building projects are shone, but few are examined in any real detail. Perhaps one or two pervading traits of a particular structure will be mentioned and shown. Burns gives you enough information to get a taste of FLW's genius, but not enough for you to learn the nuts and bolts of architecture. Aspiring students will need to consult a book for that. But, for the rest of us, who are merely curious, the footage of the buildings are long enough to grant us a sense of place, a sense of serenity, and a glimpse of that organic truth for which Wright devoted his life.

ivan-22 I can't help liking a man so devoted to what he perceived as excellence, but it's possible to find his creations less than perfect. They were too costly and impractical and may have started a pernicious trend in architecture: ostentation rather than comfort. Wright seems to forget that buildings are there to serve us, not the other way around. He seems more at home on the stage, as a set designer for futuristic films or operas, rather than the real world. Did he like Beethoven? Well, so do I, and Chausson and Faure too. This is a great documentary about a fascinating man, at war with practicality and mortality.