Echoes from the White House is very much a niche historical documentary, offering as it does a guided tour through the history of the most famous governmental building in the U.S. It's a topic that's likely to be of great interest to relatively few viewers, though at the same time it's certainly watchable even if the topic doesn't exactly leap out at you.

Narrated by Martin Sheen, PBS' documentary starts two hundred years ago and follows the varied fortunes of the titular White House up to the present day. Various actors voice the thoughts of various people, preserved in letters and documents, who were involved in some way with the White House itself or its inhabitants. We hear from ordinary people, like servants who worked in the house, as well as the presidents and their wives themselves, giving us a glimpse of what life was like at various points over those two centuries. Much of the footage is of the modern-day White House, of course, but Echoes from the White House also makes reasonably good use of archival photographs, paintings, and sketches to illustrate the historical events that are mentioned in the course of the documentary.

There's nothing in the 56-minute program that is truly fascinating (unless you are particularly interested in historical information about past presidents), but it's mildly interesting as a whole. What the documentary does best is to evoke a sense of character about the White House itself, in part by showing how it has changed over its two centuries of existence. Rather than being a governmental showpiece, it's a "working" building, and the film shows how various presidents have added to it, changing its appearance considerably in some cases.

Even as relatively short as it is, Echoes from the White House could probably have been even shorter. Still, it's not excessively long as it is, and should offer a moderately entertaining viewing session for anyone who's interested in the material to begin with.

The DVD

Video

Echoes from the White House appears in its original television aspect ratio of 1.33:1, and looks reasonably good. The modern filmed material looks satisfactory, with good colors and a generally clean presentation; the archival material is obviously not always in as good condition, but overall it's perfectly fine.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 audio track is rather flat-sounding, but it's adequate for the purposes of the program. The dialogue and narration is clear and easy to understand.

Extras

There are no special features.

Final thoughts

Echoes from the White House is a minor bit of documentary fluff; it's watchable, and presents some moderately interesting facts about a corner of U.S. history that most viewers probably haven't given much thought to. With the program itself only running an hour, and no special features, this isn't a disc I'd recommend as a purchase, but it's probably worth a rental if you're interested in the subject matter.