Huey Long.

• Author: Rothenberg, Robert S.

Direct Cinema Limited / 88 minutes $34.95

Ken Burns, riding on the wings of critical acclaim and huge audiences for his Public Broadcasting System series, "The Civil War" and "Baseball," has been acknowledged widely as the king of the documentary makers. Before these multi-episode blockbusters, though, he had a string of solid, engrossing films that are attracting renewed attention as his reputation spreads. This in-depth portrait of Huey Long, the politician who roared out of the backwoods of Louisiana during the Depression era and shook that state and the nation, is an outstanding example.

As is Burns' formulaic style, the screen is filled with "talking heads" commenting and reminiscing about the subject, interlaced with archival film footage and still photographs. The finished product is a multi-dimensional look at one of the most fascinating figures of the 1920s and 1930s.

Parlaying populist demagoguery, ruthlessness, and shrewd political insights, Long won the Louisiana gubernatorial election in 1928, then moved on to the Senate, but kept firm control of the...