The American Experience: Hoover Dam, The Making of a Monument (2005) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)"Hoover Dam, the Making of a Monument," is more than just the story of how the Hoover Dam was built. It's the story of people who fought for the dam and fought against it. This fine documentary puts the struggle to build this dam in its proper context: in the midst of the Great Depression when men were begging for work and in the American Southwest where farms were thirsting for water. In just one hour, this film chronicles the struggle to gain approval for the dam, and then the search to find someone who could build the something most engineers said was impossible, and finally the actual construction. The film also tells the story of the average workers who flocked to the desert looking for work, regardless of how dangerous it was. The documentary's validity benefits from interviews with many former dam workers and residents of the local workers' village. These interviews, along with extensive period footage and still photos, paint a vivid picture of ordinary men and women who created something marvelous and fantastic in the midst of one of America's greatest domestic crises. This film will help you appreciate Hoover Dam a little bit more the next time you see it, and will remind you that great works don't just occur by themselves. They happen because people, from the highest levels of power to those digging the tunnels, make them happen.

Click Here to see more reviews about: The American Experience: Hoover Dam, The Making of a Monument (2005)

An ambitious, hard-working engineer turns a ragtag army of unemployed into a celebrated work force to create one of the world's greatest engineering projects. Here lies the dramatic story. A colossus rising more than 700 feet above the Colorado River, the dam was constructed in the face of oppressive heat, choking dust and perilous heights. More than one hundred workers died during the construction that consumed giant buckets of concrete twenty-four hours a day for over two years. Witness this phenomenal story as part of The American Experience and see how this massive undertaking became a beacon of hope in dire times, bringing electricity and water to millions and forever transforming the West.

Click here for more information about The American Experience: Hoover Dam, The Making of a Monument (2005)