Mark Twain

Documentary Director Ken Burns does it again. This time he sets his sights on the quintessential American author Samuel Clemens, more famously known as Mark Twain.

This three-and-a-half hour biographical documentary covers every imaginable detail that was significant to his life and writing, from his rambunctious youth and young adulthood to his rise to the top of American literature with the Mark Twain persona to his tragic later years when he was left with no family and resting merely on his own celebrity.

Of course, Ken Burns does an amazing job of tracing the storylines of Twain's life, showing the roots and growth of his strong moral positions that pulled at his consciousness and influenced his literature. But, as usual with Ken Burns's films, the biographical and historical narrative is broken up with enlightening commentary by a nice mix of celebrities and historians - such as Hal Holbrook who performed as Mark Twain.

At times the film is dragged down in some of the details of his lesser works while perhaps a few more minutes could have been used to discuss the significance of "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." This would not have stayed true to the form, though, as it focused Clemens's life and work and not on the works themselves - regardless of whether one of those works ("Finn") is possibly the single greatest piece of American literature ever written.

Ultimately, we grow to understand the writer as a human being apart from the books he wrote. It helps to have at least a general knowledge of the Twain books, but isn't necessary. What is necessary is a nice long chunk of time to truly absorb the life of quintessential American writer as documented by the quintessential American documentarian.