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Film Reviews | Regular Feature Film Reviews The Rockefellers (Aired on PBS' The American Experience, Fall 2000) John D. Rockefeller, the founder ofthe most powerful family in American history, was either the most monstrous, cruel and calculating ofAmerica's robber barons or the most contemplative , intelligent and philanthropic capitalist ofhis generation. Each view has its supporters and detractors and each is portrayed with eye-catching detail and meticulous research in the recent American Experience series, The Rockefellers. To say John D. Rockefeller lived and breathed the American Dream is like saying George Washington was a relatively important figure in the Revolution. As the "anaconda" or "octopus," both venomous creatures of metaphor for the muckrakers and public alike, Rockefeller truly bestrode a colossus of industrial output and control in the late 19th Century. His corporation, Standard Oil, became a byword for ruthless exploitation, capitalist endeavour, tense and often violent business relations, and daring financial investment. It was these contradictions in business that also got translated into Rockefeller's personal and emotional life. It was a dawning realisation of the magnitude of his wealth and influence that suffocated the comfort, happiness and contentment of his siblings in later life. Rockefeller's was the most enormous of legacies. Control of 90% ofthe world's oil supply in the 1870s, a $40 million fortune in the 1880s, and the wrath of workers, fellow industrialists and politicians alike by the 1890s; it was an inexorable ride few who came to America in those years could ever have dreamed. The family's adviser, Frederick Gates, told Rockefeller that he would have to distribute his fortune faster than it grew, and if he did not, it would crush him. The son of a dysfunctional family that grew up in Cleveland and learnt to scrimp and save would, decades later, become a reclusive, prematurely aged mystery, who had Pinkerton detectives protect him, and who faced a litany of libel suits resulting from the actions of his company. AU this is a story that should not be hard to tell, or invest with the starry-eyed wonderthat only comes from observing mere mortals reach unimaginable states of power and control. To its credit, The Rockefellers has fantastical human interest and incredible stories to burn, and does not shy away fromthe controversies of a family that possibly only has the Kennedys as rivals in any dynastic account of late 19th and 20th Century America. The story is told in two parts but the second half does, perhaps inevitably, suffer in comparison with the exploits ofJohn D., Sr. and his only son, John D., Jr. in programme one. John, Jr.'s ability to remould the company and legacy of his father, in the aftermath of attacks and the break-up of Standard Oil in the early part of the twentieth century, is where the true resonance of the story lies. He made philanthropy the bedrock of the Rockefeller ideal and left a lasting indent on theAmerican landscape in the form of the creation of national parks, educational institutions such as the University of Chicago and, of course, the family centrepiece, Rockefeller Centre, in the heart ofManhattan . But in the twentieth century, with the programme having to open out to encompass a third generation ofbrothers, the narrative is largely confined to the most public family figure at this time, Nelson A. Rockefeller. Nelson was certainly the most high profile and prominent Rockefeller in these years, but one whose career progression was part of a wider appreciation of political change in post-war America. Rockefeller's failure to secure the Republican presidential nomination in 1964, for example, was a major turning point in a party that was about to be engulfed by New Right politics. With Rockefeller running against Lyndon Johnson, who knows what might have happened in that election? In the end, the extremist tendencies of theArizona Senator, Barry Goldwater, alienated the whole wing ofRockefeller Republicans and political triumph was lost. The programme is able to give a flavour of this sea change in American politics but in a way those political battles are not part of the spectacle, and the truth is they deserve a separate reading all of their own. What...

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