PBS' illuminating look at the Amish

Of course, the Amish see us, too, as we gawk at them. "I guess it's the simple life and the cute kids in the buggy and the cow in the pasture," says one man who let "Amish" director David Belton record his voice. (No on-camera interviews, close-ups or names here.) "Is it any different, say, than going to Disney World or Yellowstone Park? Is it any different from than for the tourists? Are they yearning for something? Are they seekers?"

Documentary writer-director Belton (PBS' "God in America") is intrigued by that. We may scoff at what the Amish don't have, but do we want what they do have? Close-knit families? Responsible communities? Unbending reverence for God?

Belton doesn't ask directly. He simply illuminates the life, using audio testimony from Amish enclaves in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, where I grew up, where hitching posts dot the Wal-Mart parking lot. Voices of Amish men, women and kids describe their daily routines, their dreams and their dilemmas, as cameras eye an eerie beauty in their misty farmlands and chyrons type facts about their numbers, history, traditions. Outside observers weigh in, and a crucial perspective comes from Amish who've left the life behind -- a move made crushing by the community's all-encompassing character.

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