The Star-Spangled Banner

Although the date of September 11 will be forever linked in the collective American memory to the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., it was not the first 9/11 on the historical calendar to witness aggression on our country's Eastern seaboard: on September 11, 1814, the British fleet arrived at the mouth of the Patapsco River and shortly thereafter launched a 25-hour bombardment on Fort McHenry during the Battle of Baltimore in what later came to be known as the War of 1812. Out of this engagement would come a famous song, "The Defense of Fort McHenry" (later renamed "The Star-Spangled Banner"), penned by a witness to the failed siege, Francis Scott Key. Based on Peter Spier's 1973 picture book of the same name, The Star-Spangled Banner offers a simply animated series of historical sketches of the nation's flag seen rising over various wartime and peacetime tableaus while the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, serves up a stirring rendition of our national anthem on the soundtrack. Unlike the adaptations of other Spier books (see reviews of Noah's Ark [VL-11/89] and People [VL-1/96]), The Star-Spangled Banner, unfortunately, just doesn't feature enough visual variety to hold the interest of the younger target audience (whose attention spans will flag--no pun intended--long before Aretha embarks on her third verse). With over seven minutes of song, followed by another seven minutes of monotone-narrated background information on the song's origins and subsequent history, this patriotic mood piece features some nice animated fireworks shots and interesting trivia tidbits, but is overall somewhat repetitive and unlikely to impress kids. Optional. Aud: E, I, P. (R. Pitman)