Examining the man of Monticello

If I said cherry tree, crossing the Delaware and throwing a dollar across the Potomac, you would quickly reply: "George Washington." I wouldn't have to list "Father of His Country" or Mount Vernon for you to know who I was talking about.

If I said rail-splitter, honesty and log cabin, you would respond "Abraham Lincoln" without hesitation. You wouldn't need the Gettysburg Address or Ford's Theatre to guess his name.

But what if I said, gardener, ambassador and thinker? Suppose I added scientist, violinist and planter? How about if I noted that he was never a soldier and professed to hate public life?

I suspect that most Americans wouldn't come up with the name of Thomas Jefferson until I started listing more obvious clues, such as the Declaration of Independence, Monticello and the Louisiana Purchase.

Man of the head

Although he was one of the founding fathers, Jefferson does not have any Lincolnesque or Washingtonian mythology surrounding him to create emotional attachment. He was a man of the head, not of the heart; and his contradictions don't invite warm feelings. The author of "all men are created equal" owned slaves, one of the great oxymorons of history and something that distances him from us.

All of that is preamble to encouraging you to watch "Thomas Jefferson," the latest effort by Ken Burns. The three-hour special will be shown in two parts on WMHT on Feb. 18 and 19 at 9 p.m.

Burns, who is famous for his multi-hour examinations of the Civil War and baseball, actually short-changes Jefferson, one of the few people in history who merits more than three hours for a fully realized presentation of his life. But within the given time limitation, Burns delivers another one of his expertly crafted looks into American history.

Images of Virginia

Presenting a filmed biography of Jefferson is not easy, since he lived before photography and sat for only a handful of portraits. Burns makes up for that by taking time to show stunning and arresting images of Monticello, Jefferson's home; Williamsburg, where he went to college; and the mountains of Virginia, which he loved all his life.

Narrated (a little too lugubriously) by Ossie Davis, "Thomas Jefferson" is forced, in light of its time constraints, to rush over events in the life of someone who lived 80-plus of the most interesting years in history. The Revolution speeds by and Jefferson's eight-year presidency seems to be little more than the Louisiana Purchase, the Lewis and Clark expedition, and a nasty campaign or two.

But while specific events fly by, expert commentators (including George Will and Gore Vidal) concentrate on examining the man himself: what made him tick? was he a hypocrite for holding slaves? how did he endure the deaths of so many loved ones?

Religions missing

Also lost in the race through his life are Jefferson's views on religion. The quotations from Jefferson used in the film often refer to prayer and God; but the special spends only seconds exploring his feelings on the separation of church and state, and none examining his personal faith. Yet he considered his efforts in this area to be one of his abiding legacies. It's a shame this is all but omitted.

What remains, however, is well worth your time. I suspect it will whet your appetite, as it did mine, to learn more about Jefferson. David McCullough, the author of "Truman" and narrator of Burns' "Civil War," is working on a new biography of Jefferson that promises to feed that hunger.

(One quibble: Jefferson's quotations are spoken by Sam Waterston, who has done Lincoln's voice for at least two specials. I would have preferred someone with an accent more closely approximating what must have been Jefferson's British-cum-Blue Ridge sound.)

(02-13-97) [[In-content Ad]]