It's rather surprising that most people today have never heard about the Johnstown Flood--even though it was a huge disaster that killed several thousand unsuspecting people. It seems that the rich folks living in the region wanted a resort lake for fishing, so they created a huge earthwork dam and for some time no one thought much about this new lake. However, after a particularly hard rain, the earthworks began to crumble and soon the entire lake--located high in the mountains--came tumbling down onto the villages below.
Like so many of the PBS documentaries, this one consists of a narrator (Richard Dreyfuss), photos, engravings and actors recreating people who went through this horrible ordeal. Because it occurred about a decade before movies were created, no stock footage was available--though vintage footage of other floods was used here and there to supplement the available material. It's actually interesting, because there really WASN'T that much available material and so this new footage and the recreations really helped to tell the story.
I loved this very depressing documentary. I noticed another reviewer also liked it but was upset that the film spent little time talking about the culpability of the industrialists in the accident and their escaping responsibility for the disaster. I would have to agree, as the film did seem to gloss over this. Still, it was very well made and compelling. It's hard to imagine watching this and not being affected. Well done.