Filmmaker Ric Burns' documentary 'The Pilgrims' tells the story of England's settlement of Plymouth in 1620. Its central figure is William Bradford who casts a tall shadow - from that a child orphaned at an early age to governor of the Plymouth Colony. The narrator underscores his role by saying, "To a remarkable degree, we would scarcely remember the Pilgrims at all and certainly not remember them as we do, if not for the unusual man who came to lead them in the New World and the unusual book he left behind." Throughout, quantities of stories are told and finely sharpened, both new and familiar.
The 'unusual man', Bradford, breathes a life of religious devotion mixed with harrowing difficulty. Among the points illustrated: that he was drawn to a religious sect with radical leanings; their conflict with the British monarch; the group's flight to Denmark, and later rejoin the British Empire as part of a risky journey to the New World. This is followed by their arrival in America. "Your carcasses shall fall," was a warning fulfilled (from the Bible, Hebrews 11) that first harsh winter. Indeed, it is remarkable those few surviving Pilgrims and English "Strangers" survived at all - it was a brutal and nasty business.
And yet after so much suffering the seeds of democracy fell, too, consecrated as literary scholar and author Kathleen Donegan says, by the bones of the Plymouth settlement's buried dead. Planted carefully are the dark and violent events communicated by Bradford's whispering voice and powerful words. They echo his search for Godliness, divine principle, unity and liberty, taken together and poetically clarified by extremes endured.
And in his 'unusual book' the colony's struggles were both revealed and hidden as part of a manuscript twenty years in the making, "a luminous text unlike any other account of early American settlement" - written, the experts observe, for some future audience, prosperity - and called 'Of Plimoth Plantations'. This volume plays its part in the film as national treasure, and author Nathaniel Philbrick rightly calls it "one of the great books of American literature and history." Two hundred years later, of course, this work became the basis for America's annual Thanksgiving celebration.
The film's narration by Oliver Platt is woven among appearances by Bradford, played by Roger Rees (whose diction is unclear) to whom the documentary is dedicated, together with many rich observations from an illuminating panel of commentators: historians, authors, and experts, those who have studied, lived and breathed this material, so captivating and dramatic.
Event follows tragic event as the indigenous Indians taunt, help, kill and are killed and finally decimated. Collectively the experts seem to ask, "How might we best appreciate this violent tale of our national origin?" And their answer: by reflecting on the suffering and success portrayed with critical appreciation of what is worthy and troublesome then as well as today, as history teaches. Human drama has rarely unfolded in a deeper fashion - an extraordinary gift, indeed, to remember.
One final note - it is recommended to use the closed caption option while viewing this film so as not to miss a word.
