Not for Ourselves Alone: The Story of Elizabeth Cady Stanton & Susan B. Anthony (1999)

I love this movie so much

Sorry, this movie sucks

A Masterpiece!

The biggest problem with this movie is it’s a little better than you think it might be, which somehow makes it worse. As in, it takes itself a bit too seriously, which makes most of the movie feel kind of dull.

An excellent historical view of two of the most influential women who fought side by side through thick and thin to give all women the legal and social freedoms they have today.. The only reason this does not get 10 stars is the annoying constantly overly loud music. Ken Burns usually has strong quality documentaries.. But it seems this one borrowed the sound track from the Civil War series and repeated it to death. Ruined a great piece of music for me and almost made me quit watching...Part of me wishes they would redo this and take out 3/4 of the background music. End of rant. There is substantial historical information on the hardships, struggles and social inequities of women in the 1800s.

This is yet another expertly crafted documentary by Ken Burns. Its style is clearly like his other films and it practically screams 'QUALITY' as you watch. The film is specifically about two of the greats of the women's suffrage movement--Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These two women were contemporaries of each other and battled many decades for women. Yet, as you watch the film and see how similar they are in their views, you also see how dissimilar they were as people. Stanton was a chubby housewife--a mother of seven who looked very grandmotherly. Anthony, in contrast, was a Quaker--and a rather severe-looking one at that. She never married and seemed as if ALL her life revolved around the movement. Now this does NOT mean that Stanton wasn't devoted--she just found she was able to do the impossible--balance and family and leadership of the movement. Then, in their latter years, their relationship with the movement would change--but they remained friends and full of fire. Two very remarkable women, that's for sure and although the film is quite long, it's rewarding and interesting throughout. Well made and quite compelling.By the way, this is not meant as a dig against her, but I wonder if Susan B. Anthony ever smiled. I say this because is EVERY photo of her they used in the documentary he has the most grim and humorless look I can ever recall seeing. Unfortunately, documentaries rarely give insights into these aspects of personality of the particulars and I'd love to know if this was or wasn't indicative of her general demeanor.

Superb documentary dealing with the lives of Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. These 2 women were born into entirely different lives yet bonded for the work to be done to achieve women's equality.We never realized how the work of Anthony and Stanton led to women owning property and the right to keep children when a divorce occurred.Obviously, Stanton was much more of a fighter and militant than Anthony. The latter was certainly used for her organizational abilities and the fact that she had the time, since she never married and could go on speaking tours. Anthony did not want anything to come into the way that would prevent women from attaining suffrage. Too bad that these gallant women died without ever realizing their fulfilled dream of women's suffrage.This excellent series makes you think if there were some sort of lesbian relationship between these 2 outstanding women.

This mini-series is a bit challenging for those who don't remember some of the "routine" of the CIVIL_WAR (Ken Burns mini-series)documentary PBS episodes. For all of us who were impressed by the coordination of music with period still photography and enthusiastic people to give a personal "spin" on the history being recounted, this is a great tool to make history come alive. The two women have been under-appreciated and this well-timed presentation goes a long way to bringing them out of the shadows into the limelight. Kudos to the producers and backers of this educational documentary that gets it right - - women's voting mattered in a land that claims to be "home of the brave" !