Prohibition makes a good story: When the U.S. banned the manufacture and sale of alcohol beginning in January 1920, it opened up an era of moonshining, rumrunning, speakeasies, and authorities nodding at lawbreakers. The Prohibition Era, a three-hour movie made for cable broadcast, is ostensibly a documentary about the time. But don't expect a painstakingly researched, thoroughly documented, Ken Burns-style treatment of the issue. There are facts here, certainly, including interviews with federal revenue agents, file footage of bootleg whiskey being destroyed, and the like. But there are also examples of file footage and stock photos being used for spot illustration, and dramatic reenactments shot in grimy, artificially aged film stock (with voiceover work by an out-of-breath Ed Asner), which continue the disturbing recent trend of documentarians not acknowledging when they're showing dramatic reenactments. This is docutainment, for better or worse. And once recognized as such, it works okay; after all, Prohibition doesn't necessarily merit the reverent handling of, say, the Civil War. A reasonably well-educated person probably won't learn anything new about this particular historical period, but some of the personalities covered are colorful, and their circumstances downright romantic. And everyone loves an outlaw. The Prohibition Era should be fun for non-fiction junkies and alkies alike.