Product Description

In depth look at the life and career of 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson.
Genre: Documentary
Rating: NR
Release Date: 25-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #138119 in DVD
• Brand: DICKINSON,EMILY
• Released on: 2006-05-30
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .20 pounds
• Running time: 45 minutes

Customer Reviews

In the Context of Her Times
Like all installments of the Kultur series, this was a lecture accompanied by a slideshow. It may seem dull to many. This reminded much of Kultur's work on Jane Austen, given that both women were Anglophones living in the same time period. Those who love period pieces may love this because it was filled with photos in which no one smiles, women with ornate braids in their hair, and men with mutton chop sideburns.

In the same way that Crazy Horse refused to take photos, Emily Dickinson took about about 3 in her life. The significance of her poetry and its popularity comes up, but it is never recited here.

Lisa Simpson, while at an all-male military academy said Emily Dickinson died insane, but this work says she died of Bright's disease. They don't define it, so I had to look it up: it's a disease of the kidneys, not the mind. The narrator basically says something like "We won't talk about modern theories of Dickinson's insanity." It instead uses terms like "reclusiveness." I wish the suggestions that she was crazy were spelled out more. This documentary positions Dickinson as completely heterosexual and her lover "Master" as being male. Wikipedia says "Master" may have been a woman and Notable Names Database lists Dickson's sexuality as "Matter of Dispute." The word "bisexual" never comes up in this lecture. This may be a sign of heterosexism from the documentary's producers. In the same way that Diego Rivera's mistresses may have hurt opportunities for Frida Kahlo's work to be seen, a scorned wife may have played a role in Dickinson's work being published even later than possible.

This may be a good work for students to see in high school English classes.

Not What I expected!
First I think this documentary is worth learning about Emily Dickinson. It's set up where pictures are shown and narration is told by an unseen face. It would have been nice if a literary scholar/critic spoke about Emily's contributions to poetry and her life to the film. I think it would have brought some life into this documentary style. It's not bad though.

Good for background and images
I wish the old "Voices and Visions" Dickinson video was available on DVD. But as of late 2009, none of the videos from that great series have been re-released. The next best thing is this "Great Women Writers" video that offers a slideshow of contemporary images as a disembodied male narrator gives us background information. The images are great - you can even see her room, her dress, her childhood chair. The narration borders on the monotone but is quite informative. Almost everything is biography or context, and very little is said about the poems, but this isn't necessarily a bad thing.

The 60-minute "Voices and Visions" videos were able to give both background information AND poetic analysis, and those videos included interviews with scholars and critics. They also offered motion, camera movement. But if you - and your high school or college students - can focus your attention for 45 minutes of slides and narration, you should be pretty pleased with this "Great Women Writers" DVD.