America's Western National Parks

This overview of some 40 national parks and monuments in the American West offers a good alternative for libraries who can't afford a series of individual programs on each of the parks. Unfortunately, while the "compilation" approach is perfect for monuments like Mt. Rushmore and smaller parks such as Capitol Reef, it is inadequate for the major parks profiled here. Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Olympic among other majors simply can't be summed up in a three-minute clip. The video quality and surehanded narration are on a par with the excellent standard Finley-Holiday has established in earlier productions, and while some of the park scenes (particularly in Washington State) are somewhat older film rather than newer video footage, the overall quality of the production is superb. Other sights include: Lassen Volcanic, Death Valley, Montezuma Castle, Sequoia, The Petrified Forest, Wind Cave, and Carlsbad Caverns. Recommended. [Note: Finley-Holiday is releasing a video entitled The Indian & His Homeland: American Images 1590-1876. This program is actually a retitled version of 1988's Native Grace: Prints of the New World, 1590-1876, favorably reviewed in the January, 1989 issue of Video Librarian.] (Available from most distributors.)