Review: Henry David Thoreau Documentary (2026)
I wish my townsmen to consider that, no matter whatever the human law may be, a government which deliberately enacts injustice and persists in it will become the laughingstock of the world. I say break the law. Let your life be a counter-friction to stop the machine.
—Henry David Thoreau, April, 1851, in response to the passing of the Fugitive Slave Act, and to the capture of freed man Thomas Sims in Boston and his forcible return to Southern slavery
Nowadays men wear a foolscap and call it a liberty cap.
—Thoreau, July 4, 1854, in response to the Kansas-Nebraska Act, allowing slavery to be a state-by-state decision
The documentary is astounding. Thoreau is voiced beautifully by Jeff Goldblum, Ralph Waldo Emerson by Ted Danson, and Thoreau's female relatives, all abolitionists and powerful people in their own right, by Meryl Streep. George Clooney is the narrator. It's directed by brothers Erik Ewers (who also edited it) and Christopher Loren Ewers, and produced by the inimitable Ken Burns and Don Henley--yes, "The Boys of Summer" Don Henley, I verified that during the directors' AMA on Reddit. The script was written by David Blistein, who also wrote Ken Burns' documentary about the Mayo Clinic.
The footage of Concord, Massachusetts made me homesick; my worksite as a mental health house manager post-grad-school was right on the Concord-Lexington town line, and I recognized so many things. I'll never forget the restorative afternoon I spent at Walden Pond, just watching the sky reflected in the water. I'll dig out my photographs and scan them.
In the Reddit AMA, I asked:
"Now that you have spent so much time with Thoreau, do you have an opinion on how Transcendentalism could evolve in the 21st century as a helpful philosophy?"
Erik answered:
Erik & Christopher Loren Ewers, Co-Directors: Erik here. Great question. I will say I am certainly not an expert on the subject. I am about to present the film next Friday at the Harvard Divinity School, as a special guest of their new Transcendentalist curriculum! There's one way—to bring it to the forefront of education. For me, we asked so many scholars to define transcendentalism, and every single one of them found it hard to answer! In Thoreau's time, there was Emerson and his book, "Nature," which earned him the title of the Father of Transcendentalism. But what we discovered making the film is that Thoreau took Emerson's views on the subject and ran with it in the way he thought it best worked for him—ultimately to Emerson's disappointment. After much thought, I see Transcendentalism as a spark of divinity in each and every one of us; whether it be religious or not, and it allows us to understand that there are higher laws of living life that extend far beyond religious, educational or political doctrine; that we are obliged to follow that higher calling, and by doing so, it provides a life filled with morality, appreciation, and peace. I can now see how nature is so closely connected with it. I can see how Buddhism, Hinduism, and Christianity can all connect with it. I can see how that spark can make you a kind and compassionate person to all. Hahaha... like the scholars, I get lost in it myself. I hope it evolves in the hearts and minds of viewers, if at the very least a curiosity worth exploring to see how it can affect your life in wonderful ways.
Books. Wonderful, wonderful books:
- Nature and Selected Essays (Penguin Edition) by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Transcendentalism Collection: Thoreau's Walden, Civil Disobedience & Walking, and Emerson's Nature, The American Scholar & Self-Reliance
- Walden and Civil Disobedience (Penguin Edition) by Henry David Thoreau
- The Maine Woods by Henry David Thoreau
- A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (Penguin Edition) by Henry David Thoreau
- The Journals of Henry David Thoreau 1837-1861
- Henry David Thoreau's Kalendar: Charts and Observations of Natural Phenomena with Kristen Case
- The Illustrated Walden: Bicentennial Edition by Henry David Thoreau
