TV Reviews : ‘Lindbergh’: The Reluctant American Hero

That fine PBS series “The American Experience” has chosen to launch its new season with a profile of the first pilot to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. It’s a good choice: “Lindbergh,” airing at 9 tonight on Channels 28 and 15, is a fascinating look at the life and times of Charles A. Lindbergh, a reluctant American hero.

A mix of archival footage intercut with interviews with his widow and children, journalists and historians, “Lindbergh” is a powerful slice of history, an engrossing study of a complex figure.

The Lone Eagle’s life was filled with contradiction: A private man who tried to fend off a hero-worshiping public, he hated the press for being intrusive yet took actions that inevitably attracted publicity, and disdained power while using his fame to influence world events. He could be abrupt and taciturn, yet--as narrator Stacy Keach’s reading amply demonstrates--was eloquent and passionate in his writing (he won a Pulitzer Prize in 1954 for his autobiography, “The Spirit of St. Louis”).

The larger events of Lindbergh’s life are well-known--the flight that made him the most famous man of his day; the kidnaping and murder of his son in 1932; his Nazi flirtation, anti-Semitism and fascistic beliefs--and they are well-covered here. But producer-director Stephen Ives, on his first solo outing (he was one of the co-producers of “The Civil War”), also gets in the lesser-known details: the effects of Lindbergh’s parents’ divorce; his father’s stoicism and aborted political career; his free-wheeling days as a barnstormer.

His life had all the classic elements of tragedy; there was enough drama to fuel 10 movies of the week. “Lindbergh” is compelling viewing.