The six-hour, multi-part film series, examines the evolution one of America's popular and enduring music forms from its origin in Appalachia to its current status across the United States and the world. The film is a comprehensive journey through the history of American country music as told by the performing legends of the past and the performing stars of today. Included are record producers, song writers, record executives, fans, country radio DJ's, and others who laid the foundations of country music and those who stand at its apex today.
As described in a film magazine, Philip Noloan (Daly) is a young American who entertains pacifist views about the American entry into World War I because of his selfish desire to maintain his own comfort. His father, to arouse his duty to his country, tells him the tragic story of his ancestor the first Philip Nolan"s (Daly) treason by relating the incidents from the story The Man Without a Country. His father then tells of incidents from the American Civil War where a later ancestor, also named Philip Nolan (Daly), did all he could to wipe the stain of that treason from the family name. At the conclusion, Philip has become so thrilled by the great deeds of his family that he rises to the occasion and offers his services to his country to make the world safe for democracy.
Annie Johnson is a poor orphan working in a shop, when one day a wealthy widow adopts her. She doesn't know she is only adopting her to take revenge on her daughter-in-law Emily. When the widow dies, Annie inherits her estate. Emily is outraged and sues her. Emily finally wins, but Annie has the last laugh when her husband falls in love with Annie and leaves Emily.
The focus of the film is on the seven runners participating in the Rome Marathon. Shots of the marathon are interspersed with interviews and documentary footage of the runners. Running experts who are not involved directly in the race are also interviewed. The experts include American authors Hal Higdon, Jeff Galloway, John Bingham, and Roger Robinson. American runners Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Nina Kuscsik, Kathrine Switzer, Mary Wittenberg, and Rod Dixon are also interviewed. Italian runners Gelindo Bordin, Orlando Pizzolato, and Stefano Baldini are interviewed, as well as former world record holder, Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, British world-record holder Paula Radcliffe, and Norwegian Grete Waitz.
The Puritans revolves around a soldier who returns from a war to discover that his family has returned to a nineteenth-century life-style in a desperate attempt to escape from the "perversions" of the modern world.
The film tells the story of Rice's life from her birth in 1954 to her 2009 departure from office as Secretary of State, and her return to Stanford University. Rice is a key interviewee in the film: she speaks about her roots in racially explosive Birmingham; her short-lived music career; her fascination with Joseph Stalin and Ronald Reagan; her close friendship with George W. Bush; right up to a defense of her record in government. The film gives voice to numerous supporters of Rice, including both Presidents Bush; her stepmother Clara Bailey Rice; Oprah Winfrey (who remarks that "I've never been more proud to say the word W-O-M-A-N than after meeting Condoleezza Rice"); mentor and later critic, Brent Scowcroft; her former fiancé, Rick Upchurch; John McCain who praises her as "a great American"; former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; Dick Cheney; and Arnold Schwarzenegger.