The Cars That Made America

Don't let the sour grapes from the gear heads fool you. This docudrama achieves its purpose of a comprehensive overview of the auto industry's emergence and integral part of the industrial revolution in the United States. And, how it interconnected with, steel, railroads, petroleum, finance, a national highway road system, the rise of labor unions, war efforts, and all the rest, to become the greatest economic engine the world has ever seen.

This mini series as much as I would love to say its a great history of cars in America falls very short. The program constantly repeats itself like most shows on the history channel if they actually played it though without all the recaps of what they actually showed you it would probably be about 2 hours of real content. As for history they don't even mention many american car makers and many others they just touch on this is mainly a story about Henry Ford much more than all the Cars that made America. There were many car manufacturer that sold many cars that are not even mentioned. If you do some searching you will find there were hundreds if not in the thousands of companies that built cars in the United States they only talk about the big three in this show Were is Packard , Studebaker, AMC ,Keiser, Nash ect... They just spend so much time rehashing stuff and going into the personel lifes of the top three automakers. I would love to see an actual history of all the manufactures and what they came up with in innovation. I found this show a waste of time for the most part some good info but could have been so much better

Serious omissions were made in some of the "also-rans." The Stanley Steamer was not mentioned. And, too often, starting with the mid-50s, any car nearby would do. Other reviewers already mentioned the Mercury being touted as a Chevy. Later, DeLorean was modifying a 1963 Buick LeSabre. At least it was the right car company. But, these Buicks had horrible top ends; the valves were way too small to accommodate efficient breathing. I'm sure an early model of GTYO could have been found top make it more realistic.

Disappointed at the lack of technical accuracy. Being a photographer, I noticed right away that turn of the century photographers were using 50's camera's and flash bulbs. flash bulbs were not invented until 1926. You see flash bulb use throughout the episode. Cameras of the day were sheet film, box, and bellows. Only professional photographers used flash pans. Also, what about the electric cars? Henry Ford's wife only drove electric. Actors are overdressed and are guilty of over acting. Assembly line shots are a laugh.

This series is a nice overview of the development of the car industry and its impact on society, which is obvious from the name of the series (The Cars That Made America"). It's not a biography of any of the major players, although they certainly are there, warts and all. Nor is it a documentary on cars per se. While it does give us lots of biographic details and lots of engineering drawings, etc. the focus of the series is on how cars changed the way we live. The producers succeed admirably.