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Customer Reviews of Chicago - City of the Century

Great Doc, But Chicago Is About More than The Labor Movement
PBS's "Chicago, City of the Century" is most informative in it's first and second discs, as it tracks the growth of the city from trading outpost to major metropolis in just 30-odd years. I'm a Chicago native, have made frequent visits to the Chicago Historical Society, and I was constantly amazed at the sheer volumne of fascniating stories featured in the doc. Most interesting is the rise of the stockyards, how rail made Chicago into the biggest city in what was then still consider the "west", and the growth of labor unrest. Up through the econd disc, the filmmakers weave a story of immigration, innovation, entreprenureal genius and social unrest that explodes at the end of the second disc with the Haymarket Riot. Up until this point, the documentary has been chugging along.

Then, the third disc, which spends it's entire 90 minute length on a period of about 5 years, and deals almose exlusively with labor issues, and sloughs off the great architectual achievements of those final years. The first hour is basically dedicated to the labor reforms going on in the city, the riots, the unrest. While the plutocrat vs. common man theme is compelling, the story of Chicago is indeed greater than that, and that greater story is lost as the filmmakers try to tie every event in Chicago to the labor movement. These leads to an utterly dissapointing final 30 minutes, which mostly deal with the Columbian World's Fair of 1893. Perhaps it's because I watched this documentary after finishing "The Devil in the White City", an authoritative volume on the fair, but the documentary gets much of the fair's history incorrect, especially the history of it's builders. The smaller stories that make the whole enterprise of the fair so fascinating are glazed over to accommadate the agenda of the doc, which is to make it all about labor. For one prime example, the documentary states that architect Louis Sullivan was a prime mover in getting the fair to Chicago. This is simply untrue. Lester Burnham and John Root were. Sullivan hated the fair and it's architecture. He was alone in this assessment. Also, in an attempt to tie the fair into the larger capital/labor theme, the documentary implies that the only people who seemed to want the fair in Chicago were the capitalists. These is absurd, as it was a matter of deep civic pride, from the lowliest stockyard worker to Potter Palmer himself. The civic pride is only given passing mention, as it may have distracted from the other theme of the doc, the dislike of all the various ethnic groups. In praising the fair, they were as one. Finally, the documentary states the Chicago's Mayor, Carter Harrison, was assasinated by a half-mad illiterate. He was wholy mad, and he was not illiterate. History needs to be precise, and this seems like a shameless attempt to add more sensationalism to the story.

All in all, the first two discs are great, but the third suffers. Also, Chicago was vastly important in the 20th Century as well. The DVD package here is also pretty bare, with nothing spectacular to offer besides the doc, a trivia game, and a thinly filled fourth extra disc. By all means rent it, but leave the third disc alone. The documentary has developed an agenda that overwhelmes it's subject-the importance of the great city of Chicago

Stellar...but it ends in the year 1900!
I lived in Chicago for 4 years while I attended Northwestern University. I've never much liked cities, but Chicago, despite its brutal weather, was an exception. I have fond memories of the place.

This four DVD set chronicles the rise of Chicago, from a French fur and lumber trading post on the shores of Lake Michigan, to the busiest port in the world less than a hundred years later. Replete with old photographs and video footage, it depicts many of the important events in the early years of Chicago's history: its influx of immigrant (German, Irish, Bohemian, Polish) labour in the early years, its growth as a major lumber trading center and later 'Butcher to the World', the great fire which burnt much of the city but allowed planned rebuilding, the personal histories of George Pullman (maker of the railway cars) and Marshall Field (the founder of the Chicago department store chain). It also depicts in great detail the labor strife that has been such an important part of Chicago's history.

There is little to nothing after 1900 -- this is not a DVD series to learn about the Cubbies, Rush Street, O'Hare airport, Carmen's Pizza or Buffalo Joe's wing joint. The 'bonus' DVD does include an hour-long trip that touches on each line of the 'El'; this is really the only bit of interest if you want to see the Chicago of today. The lack of any modern history makes me drop the overall series to four stars; however, what material is present is five-star quality.

Summary: Highly recommended, but know what you are getting!