I
remembered the pictures and a few minor details from American history
class in grade school, but otherwise recollected little about Hoover
Dam. I hadn’t even stopped to visit it during the several times I’ve
driven through Nevada and the surrounding areas. So, settling down to
watch Hoover Dam, I was prepared for a staid little history
lesson. Wrong. I was quickly sucked into the fascinating story of the
controversial construction America’s own pyramid — a towering structure
which employed thousands during the Great Depression and helped reshape
the economic outlook of all lands to the west.
 and the four, 56-foot diameter diversionary tunnels<br />
that opened up the canyon. The period piece photographs are amazing,<br />
particularly some time-lapse shots, and there’s also quite a bit of<br />
home video footage, which puts viewers right in the thick of things.<br />
Equally important is the time the program affords to the period leading<br />
up to the building of the structure, like the great Imperial Valley<br />
flood of 1905. This contextual material lends the Hoover Dam — which<br />
had many detractors at the time, and some still now — an important<br />
sense of reason and necessity.<b></p>
<p>As with most programs of this ilk, however, <i>Hoover Dam</i>’s<br />
bread and butter comes in the form of its overview interviews</b>, which<br />
here include well-spoken talking heads like Nevada state archivist Guy<br />
Louis Rocha and architectural historian Richard Guy Wilson, but also<br />
several natty old coots who were actually there. These include<br />
photographer W.A. Davis, who richly details the jeers that went up when<br />
it was announced the dam would be named for the tremendously unpopular<br />
sitting president, Herbert Hoover.<br />
Like other “American Experience” releases on DVD from PBS, <i>Hoover Dam</i><br />
is presented in 1.33:1 full screen, with an English language Dolby<br />
digital audio track that easily accommodates the meager aural demands<br />
of its production. <b>The only supplemental extras include printable<br />
teaching materials that educators may access through the Web.</b> It’s a<br />
testament to the allure of <i>Hoover Dam</i>’s salute to American ingenuity that it leaves you so mightily irked, wanting more. <b>B+ (Show) C- (Disc)</b></p>
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