Walt Whitman

Apr 14, 2008

1h 49m

★ 5.0

Overview

This American Experience tells Whitman's life story, from his working-class childhood in Long Island, to his years as a newspaper reporter in Brooklyn when he struggled to support his impoverished family, then to his reckless pursuit of the attention and affection he craved for his work, to his death in 1892.

Genres

Documentary

History

Production Companies

PBS American Experience

PBS

GBH

Hidden Hill Productions

Walt Whitman Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

Narrator (voice)

J.K. Simmons

Walt Whitman (voice)

Chris Cooper

Self (archive footage)

Walt Whitman

Two families, abolitionist Northerners the Stonemans and Southern landowners the Camerons, intertwine. When Confederate colonel Ben Cameron is captured in battle, nurse Elsie Stoneman petitions for his pardon. In Reconstruction-era South Carolina, Cameron founds the Ku Klux Klan, battling Elsie's congressman father and his African-American protégé, Silas Lynch.

0.0

The Miller Prediction

Jul 9, 2016

An American veteran travels to the Middle East searching for peace after suffering the horrors of the Civil War and the ridicule of his peers over his 'Crazy uncle William's prediction' ...

5.4

To Stay Alive: A Method

Nov 19, 2016

Iggy Pop reads and recites Michel Houellebecq’s manifesto. The documentary features real people from Houellebecq’s life with the text based on their life stories.

6.6

American Torso

Jan 1, 1975

In the final days of the American Civil War, an emigre Hungarian military officer attempts to map the situation of the enemy. Many veterans of the 1848 War of Independence in Hungary fought on the northern side. Experienced Fiala, Boldogh who struggles with homesickness and the reckless Vereczky all experience their enforced emigration in different ways and news of impending peace elicits different reactions from them all.

7.1

Finding Forrester

Dec 21, 2000

Gus Van Sant tells the story of a young African American man named Jamal who confronts his talents while living on the streets of the Bronx. He accidentally runs into an old writer named Forrester who discovers his passion for writing. With help from his new mentor Jamal receives a scholarship to a private school.

3.2

Ralph Ellison: Invisible Man, Celebrated Writer

Jan 1, 2005

Ralph Ellison was an African-American writer and essayist, who's only novel Invisible Man (1953) gained a wide critical success. Ellison's ambitious journey from a childhood of hardship and poverty to celebrated African American writer is chronicled in this inspiring program through exclusive interviews and personal recollection.

7.1

The Doors

Mar 1, 1991

The story of the famous and influential 1960s rock band and its lead singer and composer, Jim Morrison.

10.0

Mes indésirables

Sep 18, 2023

"Before I left today, I almost forgot to answer a lot of e-mails."

5.6

Set Fire to the Stars

Nov 7, 2014

An aspiring poet in 1950s New York has his ordered world shaken when he embarks on a week-long retreat to save his hell raising hero, Dylan Thomas.

5.6

A Season in Hell

Sep 10, 1971

The tumultuous life of Arthur Rimbaud, the cursed poet, who completed his masterwork at the age of twenty, became an arms dealer and died at thirty-seven; and his passionate relationship with Paul Verlaine, full of wanderings, storms and falling out.

5.3

The Colt

Feb 6, 2005

During the heat of battle in the midst of the Civil War, a beguilingly innocent colt is born to Union Jim Rabb's beloved mare. Refusing the orders to shoot it, lest it prove a hindrance, Rabb keeps the colt as a consolation in these desperate times-a symbol of hope that leads the men of the First Cavalry on a journey of self-discovery and newfound brotherhood.

0.0

Samuel Beckett: Silence to Silence

Apr 15, 1987

The elusive author of Waiting for Godot cooperated in the production of this portrait, which traces Beckett’s artistic life through his prose, plays, and poetry. Billie Whitelaw, Jack McGowran, and Patrick Magee—Beckett’s great dramatic interpreters—appear in selected extracts from the plays; Beckett specialist David Warrilow narrates a variety of texts.

6.9

Gettysburg

Oct 8, 1993

In the summer of 1863, General Robert E. Lee leads the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia into Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with the goal of marching through to Washington, D.C. The Union Army of the Potomac, under the command of General George G. Meade, forms a defensive position to confront the rebel forces in what will prove to be the decisive battle of the American Civil War.

7.4

The Color of Pomegranates

Oct 1, 1969

The life of the revered 18th-century Armenian poet and musician Sayat-Nova. Portraying events in the life of the artist from childhood up to his death, the movie addresses in particular his relationships with women, including his muse. The production tells Sayat-Nova's dramatic story by using both his poems and largely still camerawork, creating a work hailed as revolutionary by Mikhail Vartanov.

7.3

Testament of Youth

Jan 16, 2015

Testament of Youth is a powerful story of love, war and remembrance, based on the First World War memoir by Vera Brittain, which has become the classic testimony of that war from a woman’s point of view. A searing journey from youthful hopes and dreams to the edge of despair and back again, it’s a film about young love, the futility of war and how to make sense of the darkest times.

7.3

When You're Strange

Apr 9, 2010

The creative chemistry of four brilliant artists —drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Kreiger, keyboardist Ray Manzarek and singer Jim Morrison— made The Doors one of America's most iconic and influential rock bands. Using footage shot between their formation in 1965 and Morrison's death in 1971, it follows the band from the corridors of UCLA's film school, where Manzarek and Morrison met, to the stages of sold-out arenas.

0.0

She

Dec 27, 2022

She is a full-length documentary about writer Aimée Baker and her award-winning poetry collection Doe. Doe is her quest to give voice to the missing and unidentified women of the United States.

5.6

House of Seven Belles

Jan 1, 1979

The seven sisters of the outcast LeFleur family try to survive in a post-Civil War Deep South. The movie was unable to be completed, thus, it may be left to the viewer to imagine the ending to his screeching, sinful epic.

6.2

The Edge of Love

Jun 20, 2008

When the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas and his flirtatious wife Caitlin sweep into war-torn London, the last thing they expect is to bump into Dylan's childhood sweetheart Vera. Despite her joy at seeing Dylan after so many years, Vera is swept off her feet by a dashing officer, William Killick, and finds herself torn between the open adoration of her new found beau and the wily charms of the exotic Welshman.

Walt Whitman

Overview

Genres

Production Companies

Walt Whitman Trailers