Johnstown Flood narrated by Richard Dreyfuss
Johnstown Floodplays this 1889 disaster for all the drama and  suspense of a horror movie. As he describes the factors leading up to the  collapse of a dam on a Pennsylvania river, narrator Richard Dreyfuss has an almost  ghoulish relish. The flood itself--in which a wall of water 50 feet tall  destroyed the town of Johnstown and everything in the vicinity--is  chock-full of shocking and engrossing details: personal testimonies  describe an entire roundhouse of locomotives being swept away; a mother  tells about setting her children afloat on driftwood from the top of her  rapidly submerging house. When the debris carried by rushing water reaches  a heavy stone bridge, the cataclysm only worsens, leading to a devastating  fire. If most documentaries aspire to the cool objectivity ofThe New  York Times,Johnstown Flooddives into the sensationalism of  tabloid journalism, and the results are enticing, unsettling, and  thoroughly entertaining.--Bret Fetzer