Landslide: A Portrait of President Herbert Hoover

This documentary is a re-examination of the political career of Herbert Hoover. In some ways, it all came as a bit of a surprise--at least in the beginning of his career. Although I knew a bit about pre-presidency Hoover, so much came as a surprise--particularly how he was seen as a great humanitarian during WWI and was such a self-made man. And, the biggest surprise of all is that in the 1920s, his biggest fan was FDR himself! Still, the majority of the film was about his presidency--a presidency that is associated with failure and a deepening of the Great Depression.

The film consisted of vintage photos and film, interviews and narration. I appreciated how it emphasized the good and bad about the man--giving you a relatively well-rounded and non-partisan view of the guy. My only objection were the repeated interviews with Robert Rubin who repeatedly said that the Depression was worsened by the government not increasing spending. This Keynesian view of deficit spending is still debatable today (especially since what lifted the US out of the Depression was WWII--not prior spending programs). I kept wondering if perhaps the purpose of his comments were more to bolster the current administration's attempt to spend our way out of a recession. Still, overall, an interesting and well made film.