Ken Burns Presents: The War

After a grueling six years of research and compilation of information, Director Ken Burns finally completed his long awaited documentary on World War II. Titled The War the film is a deconstruction of the impact that the second world war had on America, beginning with what draw the country into the war, and encompassing everything up to the after effects of the country immediately following that war. In order to make this documentary as authentic as possible, Burns and his team undertook the painstakingly difficult task of perusing tens of thousands of hours of war-time footage, and combined that with interviews both from the time, and completed first-hand by this films creators. What it culminated in has been a complete over view of exactly how the war affected America, both in the positive and negative, and the events that would eventually be the cornerstones of U.S. involvement in the overseas war.

Nearly the entire 7 part documentary is in chronological order, depicting events that drew the U.S. into the war, followed my moments that shaped the outcome, and eventually the reasons that the U.S. was able to prevail. Rather than go the simple route of giving viewers a history lesson, Burns didn’t rely only on what happened on foreign soil, but the impact that each stage of the war was having on the people back home. This includes an in-depth focus on several U.S. cities (Sacramento, California and Mobile, Alabama are two) that help to show what was going on around the company as nearly everyone was drawn into the war effort. At one point or another, everyone either was related to, or knew someone, that was fighting in the war, and this common bond helped bring a country together to help provide the goods needed to fight a war. Many interviewees give their thoughts about working in the factories, fighting in Europe, and how the everyday life of nearly everyone living at home was changed through rations and collections to aid the war effort.

One of the best things that this documentary has to offer is the human touch in the presentation and recounting of the years the war encompassed. Burns doesn’t try to give a play-by-play about the war, but rather gives a representation of what occurred, and how it changed the lives of everyone in the U.S. forever. When tragedy befell servicemen overseas, everyone back home felt it, and this documentary sheds light on the experiences both of those doing the fighting, and those directly affected by those efforts. At no time does it feel like he is preaching or trying to present an agenda, but rather we are presented with an extremely well-crafted film that gives us a look at World War II that we have never seen before. Unlike any film about WWII that might focus on a specific entity or battle, this film gives a deep and in-depth look at the “every-man” who had to experience it at that time. The realism depicted in the film leaves the viewer wanting to know more, and as the documentary continues, you find yourself completely absorbed in the story-telling.

Ken Burns really made a name for himself with award winning documentaries about the Civil War and the history of Baseball, but with this one, I feel he has truly out-done himself. To put it in the simplest of terms, he has really created a masterpiece about the American experience of World War II. To accentuate the information being provided, he elicited the help of many famous narrators, including Eli Wallach, Samuel L. Jackson, Tom Hanks, Alan Arkin, Josh Lucas, and Bobby Cannavale. Added to that was a great soundtrack that really sets the mood, combining some original music and songs performed by Norah Jones to really set a mood and tone for the film. What Burns has compiled here, is a great production from the eyes and mouths of the people who lived and fought through the war, and he does so without compromising the stories that he was unable to tell. In a war that took the lives of nearly 60 million people around the world, this gives a stoic perspective that could become quite a history lesson for those that don’t know a lot about WWII. Spread across seven episodes and 6 DVD’s in the released set, this is definitely a program for both the war enthusiast as well as those who want to learn exactly what the American experience during those years comprised.