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EXPO - Magic of the White City DVD 
written by Gene Wilder, Mark Bussler
Actors : Gene Wilder, Claire Litton
Director : Mark Bussler
Studio : Inecom Entertainment Company
by Inecom Entertainment Company
Brand : INECOM ENT.
Release Date : 2005-09-13
Publisher : Inecom Entertainment Company
Availability : Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Number of Items : 1
EAN : 9781592180288
UPC : 806213157025
Avg. Customer Rating: (based on 21 reviews)
List Price : $24.98
Our Price : $17.28
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Narrated by Gene Wilder (Young Frankenstein, Blazing Saddles and Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory), EXPO - Magic of the White City brings the Chicago World s Fair to life. Experience the world of 1893 through a cinematic visit to Chicago's Columbian Exposition. Many of the world's greatest achievements in science, technology and culture are unveiled there. In addition, fairgoers
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Product Description |
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Narrated by Gene Wilder, "EXPO - Magic of the White City" brings the Chicago World s Fair to life! Experience the world of 1893 through a cinematic visit to Chicago's Columbian Exposition. Many of the world's greatest achievements in science, technology and culture were unveiled there. Fairgoers enjoyed the Midway Plaisance where a one-mile boulevard of fun offered camel riding, belly dancing, street fighting and beer drinking. Nearly 28 million visited the Fair. Dubbed the "White City," it inspired future innovators such as Henry Ford and Frank Lloyd Wright, debuted the Ferris Wheel and Cracker Jack®, and, in many ways, marked the beginning of the 20th century. Against the backdrop of 1893 s troubles with workers' rights, prejudice, discrimination and corruption, the World s Columbian Exposition cast a brief ray of hope for the future of humanity. Filmed in high definition, "EXPO - Magic of the White City" immerses viewers in one of the world s biggest extravaganzas and one of the most unforgettable events in American history. There will never be another event like it...or will there? Special Features: - Feature Length Commentary Track with World s Fair Historian David Cope - "Making the Fair" - "Art of the Fair" - "Storyboards of the Fair" - "Pictures of the Fair" - Commentary tracks on Special Features by Director Mark Bussler and Writer Brian Connelly - Deleted scenes |
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The Devil You Don't Know |
Like so many other viewers, I came round to viewing EXPO - The Magic of the White City ("EXPO") because I read The Devil in the White City (The White City) first. Sort of. Actually, my wife read The White City years after I did and, her curiosity piqued, rented the DVD.
EXPO is about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, an exposition of such majesty, scope, corruption, and expense that it is a feat unparalleled in America today. The closest we have to the Fair is Disney World, a lineage most explicitly drawn in The White City; Walt Disney's father, Elias, was a construction worker on some of the buildings at the fair.
EXPO is narrated by Gene Wilder. I'm admit to a bias - I'm a big fan of Young Frankenstein and he's the only "celebrity sighting" I've ever encountered in real life. Wilder's getting on in age (the DVD was produced in 2005), so there's now a bit of a whistle to his speech. Still, his lilting voice has enough emotion and wry humor to make his narration enjoyable. And there is a lot of narration.
We tend to think of previous American centuries as quaintly backward, where such modern notions as political correctness and global unity didn't exist. And while EXPO is careful to point out that American culture still had its own foibles and intolerance endemic to the time, the World's Fair put all those to shame. It was a global unification of wealth, prosperity, and cultural exchange in a way that's inconceivable in today's contentious world. We can learn a lot from the Chicago World's Fair.
EXPO uses old maps and photographs to detail events at the fair whenever possible, with few computer graphics or animation. There are occasional shots of live actors, none whom particularly add anything of value to the narrative. In fact, it's clear that the producers felt that the medium was a little dry, because there are copious live action shots of a belly dancer interspersed with discussion of the Midway.
Minor quibbles aside, EXPO works overtime to try to encompass the grandeur of such a huge undertaking without losing sight of the details. As a result, it necessarily glosses over some pieces (rampant corruption, the aforementioned Devil himself who is the subject of The White City book) and emphasizes others (global diversity, architecture, and the first appearances of American staples). That's okay though; EXPO is a huge undertaking with such a sweepingly broad subject that it's better served as a companion piece to a book. Like The Devil in the White City.
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The Gilded Age comes alive |
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I cannot believe that anyone who is interested in this period of history ( as I am) would not love this video. First of all it covers virtually everything about the Fair, from beginning to end. Second, Gene Wilder does a great job of narration. Third, being recorded in HD makes it visually beautiful. Finally, how many such programs like this get made these days anyway? For the producers to take on a project like this shows they have great fondness for the subject. Minor complaints like too much belly dancing is irrelevant to the overall excellence of the program. You simply get lost in the whole visual experience of what the Fair must have been like to tourists of 1893. It was a wonderland. I've always wished I could have lived back then and this program just confirms it. |
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Great Info but static video |
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Thinking that this film would be a documentary that I could use in teaching economics and U.S. History, I bought it. Well . . . I found it very detailed in terms of explaining the various exhibits and structures, this part of the video I'd give 5 stars to. The rest however, left me hoping the video would come to an end. Gene Wilder, while a fun actor is not the best narrator, he would put a class of teenagers to sleep. The film is very static in that it only uses old photos and artist portrayals with panning in and out of them to tell this story. Then there is the cheesy belly dancer that is put in the video and is about the only thing that moves. This documentary would have been better interviewing Chicago historical society folks, some professors and maybe bringing in the present day site before the end. I was dissappointed in the way this story was presented. Great info for informations sake, but not very good in terms of being watchable. |
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Fantastic Living History! |
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This film brings to life a major event in our country's history, indeed the world's history that has all but been forgotten about. It is truly sad that there isn't much information about this in the general history books, but I'm glad I read "Devil in the White City" to get my interest up about such a wonderful time in our past. The twentyith century really did begin on that fateful spring day in 1893! |
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A Flawed Masterpiece |
As a long-time fan of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, I was eagerly looking forward to seeing this film. In spite of a well-researched script, an abundance of historical photos and visuals of the Fair, and Gene Wilder's excellent narration, I was disappointed by it. Other reviewers have mentioned the "cheesy" and distracting modern-day footage of the dancing girl, zoo animals, fish in an aquarium, beer being poured into a glass, etc. I'd like to add some poor choices in the music heard on the soundtrack. Rather than limiting themselves to music that was actually played at the Fair or at least that was in existence in 1893, the producers chose to include music from a much later period. Two examples are "Dill Pickles Rag" from 1906, and "Swanee" from 1919. On the other hand, they failed to include the one piece of music that is closely associated with the Chicago World's Fair Midway, the famous "hootchy-cootchy" dance (aka "Dance of the Snake Charmer"), the music for which appears in both Stanley Applebaum's "The Chicago World's Fair of 1893," and Erik Larson's "The Devil in the White City." Lapses such as these ruined what might otherwise have been a production in the same class as one of the Ken Burns films.
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