Burns film another national event

Ken Burns’ latest documentary, “The War,” about the American experience of World War II, was undertaken with a special urgency, he said last week — 1,000 U.S. veterans of the “Greatest Generation” are dying each week. “We realized the clock was ticking and there was a narrow window that would close very shortly,” the filmmaker said.
If early reviews are any indication, Burns has performed a national service with this 14-hour history, which took him five years to make and captures not only the stark brutality of war but also the lives of families waiting anxiously on the home front. “The War” starts at 7 p.m. today on KPTS, Channel 8 in Wichita. It sounds like essential viewing for Americans.
Posted by Randy Scholfield

5 Comments

  1. Joe Williams
    Posted September 23, 2007 at 1:15 am | Permalink

    I’ll wait until the DVD release. I can’t commit for two weeks to watch it all. But I do want to watch it.

  2. political_mom
    Posted September 23, 2007 at 6:53 am | Permalink

    Thanks for reminding me. I did really wish to see this.

  3. Kev
    Posted September 23, 2007 at 9:30 am | Permalink

    I watch it but I think that there has been lots of doctoring of history when we refer to “the greatest generation”. What made them great? That they fought a war for 4 years which, if you look at lifespans, was about 6% of their lifetimes? Or that they went thorugh a Great Depression that was largely caused by their own excesses (ie “the roaring twenties”)? If you look at history back then, the United States was a bastion of intolerance and hate. It was all but legal to kill Negros and kill your neighbour for that matter. And, if you were old and sick and unable to work, you were left on the street to die of starvation. There was nothing “great” about what went on in the 1925-1955 period in this country. We fought a facist nation while we were a facist nation ourselves.

  4. Ben
    Posted September 23, 2007 at 10:51 am | Permalink

    One thing that bugged me a bit: in the discussion with Burns on the NewsHour he said they made a slightly ‘cleaner’ version available to stations worried that the FCC would sanction them about foul language. Earth to FCC – this is about WAR! REAL WAR! I am certain that my good Catholic father-in-law used rather strong language when he was in combat with the marines. I’m sure my navy father and army nurse mother did as well.

    Anyone who watches this movie (and Saving Private ryan before) should expect such language. FCC – BACK OFF!

  5. political_mom
    Posted September 23, 2007 at 9:34 pm | Permalink

    Kev, I don’t think you have a clue. Really, for a liberal, no.

    For all those who scream about socialism, many who went on to get degrees did so on the government’s dime. Apparently during that time, the Govt understood that you had to help people get their feet underneath them.

    During WW2, when women went to work for the cause, the government provided women with daycare and meals to take home to their families.

    Yes America was still racist, and women had fought for the right to vote only a few years earlier. But we grew.

    Every generation will go through things that will define them. And for these folks, the war and the depression is it. You really should stop and listen to the things these people went through. You’ll get a healthy respect for many of them.