PBS' illuminating look at the Amish
In this image released by PBS, two children play in the snow in a scene from "The Amish: American Experience," a film that offers a revealing look at the Amish community of about 250,000 centered primarily in rural Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. The film premieres on PBS stations on Feb. 28, 2012 at 8 p.m. Credit: AP
DOCUFILM "The Amish"
WHEN | WHERE Tuesday night at 8 on "American Experience," PBS/13
WHY TO WATCH Curiosity about this throwback culture runs rampant, but getting inside is virtually impossible. "The Amish" takes us there.
WHAT IT'S ABOUT You've seen them upstate or in Pennsylvania Dutch country near Lancaster, Pa. -- horse-drawn black buggies rolling down rural roads, black-garbed bearded men, bonneted women, neat white houses with clothes drying on the line. They're a tourist attraction of 19th century self-reliance that shuns modern conveniences like electricity, telephones and automobiles.
Of course, the Amish see us, too, as we gawk at them. "I guess it's the simple life and the cute kids in the buggy and the cow in the pasture," says one man who let "Amish" director David Belton record his voice. (No on-camera interviews, close-ups or names here.) "Is it any different, say, than going to Disney World or Yellowstone Park? Is it any different from than for the tourists? Are they yearning for something? Are they seekers?"
Documentary writer-director Belton (PBS' "God in America") is intrigued by that. We may scoff at what the Amish don't have, but do we want what they do have? Close-knit families? Responsible communities? Unbending reverence for God?
Belton doesn't ask directly. He simply illuminates the life, using audio testimony from Amish enclaves in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, where I grew up, where hitching posts dot the Wal-Mart parking lot. Voices of Amish men, women and kids describe their daily routines, their dreams and their dilemmas, as cameras eye an eerie beauty in their misty farmlands and chyrons type facts about their numbers, history, traditions. Outside observers weigh in, and a crucial perspective comes from Amish who've left the life behind -- a move made crushing by the community's all-encompassing character.
MY SAY "The Amish" unreels across its two hours with a serenity and grace that reflects its subjects. The film's viewpoint is doggedly levelheaded and evenhanded, making no judgments, in the way the Amish refrain from judging even the man who opened fire in one of their schoolhouses near Lancaster in 2006, killing five girls. The Amish leave that judgment up to God. Belton leaves his up to us.
BOTTOM LINE It's a fascinating retreat from our frenzied world -- which you just might view differently upon re-entry.
GRADE A-
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