Educational Media Reviews Online

This DVD from the Discovery Channel’s Great Books series would an excellent resource for students tackling Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. An hour long, Huckleberry Finn provides background material on Twain, the overall plot, literary themes, and the book’s controversial history in American life and education. Donald Sutherland’s narration is accompanied by a visually stimulating mix of stills, illustrations, photographs, and film footage. In addition, interspersed throughout are various experts offering literary criticism and historical information. The overall effect is engaging—what potentially might have been a very dry topic becomes a dynamic presentation.

The content is excellent. Although there is discussion of the book’s literary themes and a fair amount of the plot, this is meant to be used as a supplement rather than a substitute for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. There is even some coverage of the book’s publication history, specifically that of the various attempts to ban the book. In one of the most effective segments, the narrator dryly mentions a television adaptation from the 1950s. The filmmakers removed all that could possibly be objectionable; an effort that resulted in a story with no Jim, no mention of slavery, no African American characters whatsoever, no violence, no political irony, and an unreservedly happy ending. The narrator also tells us the finished product “made no sense” either.

Extras include a video or chapter index, a slide show, and a thematic units section, which corresponds to the printed insert in the DVD case. The DVD version presents a pre-viewing question, the pertinent clip of the DVD, and then follows it up with a post-viewing question. The printed insert also includes a glossary. There are also online teaching resources available on the Discovery School web site. Huckleberry Finn is highly recommended and would be highly useful for collections supporting high school English classes.