David McCullough: Painting with Words

In school many of us found history quit boring and slow but some writers have made these events come alive. One such author is David McCullough who has a wide range of works of American History. In this documentary David McCullough: Painting with Words you discover the magic of the process that leads him to create these masterpieces. An accomplished painter, McCullough shares that he simply paints with words the stories that he seeks to tell. In this movie you are taken to his sanctuary where he still uses a Royal typewriter to create the masterpieces that have made him a literary giant. He shares how he found his passion for writing and how he comes up with his subjects. He goes on a journey up some steps that John Adams took and reads from Adam's letters. Great insight into the magic from a writer's mind who admits he has more stories left in him that years of life.

David McCullough, the author of historical books, is shown in this wonderful documentary in a an informal conversation with us, the viewers. Mr. McCullough comes across as one's friend, or neighbor, or someone one could spend sometime with, talking about different things, not only history, which is his forte. His knowledge and common sense are tremendous. Not only that, he even sings for us! Directed with excellent pacing by Mark Herzog, this is television at its best! The writer who gave us "John Adams", "1776" and "Truman", has the uncanny ability to project an approachable aura that he communicates to the audience in an easy and relaxed manner that won this viewer from the start. The 93 minutes flew by and left us wanting for more.

Mr. McCullough's best anecdote was about former president Harry S. Truman. The author was living in Brooklyn, at the time the ex-president was a guest speaker at the legendary St. George Hotel. Mr. McCullough was walking home and saw a crowd in front of the hotel. Asking someone about what was the occasion, he was told Mr. Truman was inside, and like all the others, he waited to catch a glimpse of the famous man. In retrospect, he tells how, even then, he knew he was going to write about Mr. Truman, something that was prophetic on his part.

The novelist, who appears with his wife in the film, prove to be naturals for the camera. Their friendly personalities are the main asset of this documentary, that we highly recommend to fans of Mr. McCullough and people that want to spend some time in the company of friends.

This short film is about the writer, David McCullough--the guy who wrote the Pulitzer Prize winning books, TRUMAN and JOHN ADAMS. While it does talk a bit about his earlier years, it mostly consists of a nice and sweet series of clips where McCullough talks about his career. It's also very nice how he attributes so much of his success to his wife, Rosalee. Additionally, you get to see the weird shack in which he writes (Roald Dahl had a similar office in his yard), clips of him hosting SMITHSONIAN WORLD as well as McCullough singing rather badly...but he's likable that most viewers would be more than happy to listen. Overall, less a full documentary about the guy and more like getting to meet him. Very interesting...particularly if you have read his books, like I have. Well worth seeing.