''Mark Twain'' is a documentary film on the life of Mark Twain, also known as Samuel Clemens, produced by Ken Burns in 2001 which aired on Public Broadcasting System on January 14 and 15, 2002. Burns attempted to capture both the public and private persona of Mark Twain from his birth to his death. The film was narrated by

Keith David Keith David Williams (born June 4, 1956) is an American actor. He is known for his signature deep voice and commanding screen presence in over 300 roles across film, stage, television, and interactive media. He has starred in such films as '' T ...

Voice actors and subject interviews

The voice of Mark Twain was provided by Kevin Conway and the voice of

Olivia Langdon Clemens Olivia Langdon Clemens (November 27, 1845 – June 5, 1904) was the wife of the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain. Early life Olivia Langdon was born in 1845 in Elmira, New York, to Jervis Langdon and Olivia ...

was portrayed by Blythe Danner. Other voice work was provided by actors

Philip Bosco Philip Michael Bosco (September 26, 1930 – December 3, 2018) was an American actor. He was known for his Tony Award-winning performance as Saunders in the 1989 Broadway production of '' Lend Me a Tenor'', and for his starring role in the 2007 f ...

Carolyn McCormick Carolyn Inez McCormick (born September 19, 1959) is an American actress who played Dr. Elizabeth Olivet in the ''Law & Order'' franchise. Life and career McCormick was born and raised in Midland, Texas, and graduated first in her class from ...

Amy Madigan Amy Marie Madigan (born September 11, 1950) is an American actress. She was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1985 film '' Twice in a Lifetime''. Her other film credits include '' Love Child'' (1982), ''Places ...

Cynthia Nixon Cynthia Ellen Nixon (born April 9, 1966) is an American actress, activist, and theater director. For her portrayal of Miranda Hobbes in the HBO series ''Sex and the City'' (1998–2004), she won the 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Supp ...

, and Tim Clark. The film also includes interviews with playwright

Arthur Miller Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...

, novelist and Twain biographer Ron Powers, writer

William Styron William Clark Styron Jr. (June 11, 1925 – November 1, 2006) was an American novelist and essayist who won major literary awards for his work. Styron was best known for his novels, including: * '' Lie Down in Darkness'' (1951), his acclaimed fi ...

, poet

Russell Banks Russell Banks (born March 28, 1940) is an American writer of fiction and poetry. As a novelist, Banks is best known for his "detailed accounts of domestic strife and the daily struggles of ordinary often-marginalized characters". His stories usua ...

, historian John Boyer (executive director of the

Mark Twain House The Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut, was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) and his family from 1874 to 1891. It was designed by Edward Tuckerman Potter and built in the American High Gothic style. Clemens bi ...

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

professor Jocelyn Chadwick, Stanford University English literature professor Shelley Fisher Fishkin, comedian and civil rights activist

Dick Gregory Richard Claxton Gregory (October 12, 1932 – August 19, 2017) was an American comedian, civil rights leader, business owner and entrepreneur, and vegetarian activist. His writings were best sellers. Gregory became popular among the Afric ...

, actor

Hal Holbrook Harold Rowe Holbrook Jr. (February 17, 1925 – January 23, 2021) was an American actor, television director, and screenwriter. He first received critical acclaim in 1954 for a one-man stage show that he developed called '' Mark Twain Tonight!'' ...

, animator and actor Chuck Jones, and Mark Twain scholar

Laura Skandera Trombley Laura Skandera Trombley is an American academic administrator and scholar of Mark Twain. She is the Chair Emerita of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board and was the fifth President of Pitzer College in Claremont, California, and t ...

Critical assessment

Mark Twain Legacy Scholar Barbara Schmidt asserts on her website twainquotes.com that some

artistic license Artistic license (alongside more contextually-specific derivative terms such as poetic license, historical license, dramatic license, and narrative license) refers to deviation from fact or form for artistic purposes. It can include the alterat ...

was taken, resulting in some historical inaccuracies and misrepresentations. She also notes, that some of these errors are the result of the Twain scholarship at time the documentary was made, and that more recent scholarship has revealed some of the factual errors that are in the documentary. Schmidt's website twainquotes.com is widely cited in academic publications on Twain and is highly regarded as an authoritative resource within Twain research. Film critic

Caryn James Caryn A. James (born Caryn A. Fuoroli) is an American film critic, journalist, university lecturer and writer. Biography James is one of at least three children born to James M. Fuoroli Sr. and Joan A. Ford. A native of Providence, Rhode Isla ...

wrote the following in her review in ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'':

"No writer was ever more sardonic about American culture than Twain, and no filmmaker is more earnest than Ken Burns. In ''Mark Twain'' that makes for a maddening collision between Twain's ironic sensibility and Mr. Burns's familiar, sentimental style. Twain is forced into the Burns cookie cutter here, complete with the unironic sound of '' Sweet Betsy from Pike'', fiddled relentlessly in the background."

References

External links

Official site on PBS
* {{Mark Twain 2001 films Films directed by Ken Burns 2000s American documentary television series American documentary films Works about Mark Twain 2000s American films

Voice actors and subject interviews

Critical assessment

See also

References

External links