The Address

The cover art of Abraham Lincoln for this PBS-aired film by legendary documentarian Ken Burns may well have viewers thinking that this will be yet another historical piece on the War Between the States. Not so: Burns here discards his patented Florentine Films techniques (no voiceovers by Keith David, no slow pans over vintage photos) to depict modern life at the Vermont-based Greenwood School. Founded in 1978, the specialty boys-only boarding school is an institution of last resort for young males (no more than 50 at a time) with severe learning/behavioral disorders, including dyslexia and ADD. Many of the students here are gifted in music, athletics, puzzle-solving, and yo-yo tricks, but are also stymied by verbal communication and reading skills. A yearly contest at the school has boys reciting the Gettysburg Address (although a few students use alternates, one doing Chaplin's classic final soliloquy from The Great Dictator). Burns captures the hardworking, patient teachers and hopeful students (many of the latter are bullied misfits in the outside world). Of course, the filmmaker can't help resist dropping in little bits of Gettysburg history and also reprising the classic The Civil War theme music by Bobby Horton in the end (viewers should also watch past the closing credits for a priceless William Shatner gag). With this humane, engaging, and thought-provoking documentary, Burns continues to prove himself to be one of America's most essential nonfiction filmmakers. Aud: H, C, P. (C. Cassady)