User Reviews

"The American Experience" is always a good, well made and interesting show and "The Boys of '36" is worth seeing. However, it clearly is one of the weakest installments for the series for many reasons...the chief one being that the show never really explains WHY this is an important event that should be remembered. The show SEEMS to imply that this gold medal winning rowing team somehow showed the world something...though it really didn't. Buried underneath the show's hoopla for this team and its brief mention of Jesse Owens is one fact about the 1936 Summer Olympics...the Germans DID win it and out-medaled everyone. Sure, Owens took a few medals and the rowers also brought home one...but in the scheme of things, so what?! The Germans STILL had 27 more medals than the runner up (the USA), so I cannot see how this is a particularly important topic and of course other countries and athletes won medals. If you can ignore this, the film is still well made and modestly entertaining....but not much more.

After reading the book The Boys in the Boat - and learning so much about the boats them selves - how they are made and the history of the boat builders - there is still one of the original skulls in the UW boat house. The book tells the story of the men who came from the poverty of the 30's and the work they did to get on the team, stay on the team, and their lives were not easy. This team was laughed at by the east coast rowers and they thought the UW team never had a chance. This documentary dealt with many issues these men worked through. And going to the '36 Olympics was an amazing thing for these men. Also the book gave the background of what Hitler was doing in Germany in the preparation for the games - that is fascinating and there isn't enough time to tel the whole story in a 60 documentary. I highly recommend the book and this film.