War, what is it good for?
It's good for Ken Burns, we know that much. The documentary filmmaker behind the hugely popular Civil War documentary series is preparing to delve into war yet again with a new PBS documentary about World War II. Burns originaly didn't want to do another war documentary, but decided the story needed to be told while there were still people alive who fought in the war.
The War will air starting on September 17 and will be the first new series created by Burns after he inked a deal to have his work shown exclusively on PBS until 2022. The 14-hour documentary does include some swearing from soldiers who describe their time serving during the war, which means two versions of the series might be offered to stations who want to avoid any FCC problems. I would hope stations opt to show the uncensored version, since a few curse words seems perfectly appropriate when describing one's personal war experiences.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-14-2007 @ 4:43PM
Charles said...
Oh, may it not be as boring as "The Civil War". Please let it be not as boring. It's like Burn's said to himself, "How do I take one of this country's biggest wars and make it NOT interesting? And can I make it with Dixie playing on the soundtrack every half hour? Because that would annoy people, too!"
I know I'm in the minority, but I did not appreciate those documentaries. Hopefully, his WWII ones will strike me differently.
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1-14-2007 @ 5:19PM
RTMS said...
I find his reason to do the doco- before the people who participated are dead, somewhat weird. Given that many of these people are dead or are so old they can't truely recall events, I think he's going to have a hard time confirming things and makeing this doco to stand up.
The best doco on WW2 of course is The World at War, which had the participation of many people who were still in their right mind and could confirm events. I just don't see this doing well at all.
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1-14-2007 @ 8:09PM
Adam Chance said...
I have yet to meet a single historian who has had a nice thing to say about Mr. Burns
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