Debate about “The War” Continues
Without question Ken Burns has returned World War II to the headlines for the duration of his seven-part PBS series “The War.” I’ve tried to gather a cross-section of reactions across the Internet for your consideration. Please feel free to provide others via comments.
Ken Burns’ The War as Seen Through Teen Eyes - This article from the Christian Science Monitor includes the reactions of four teenagers to watching the first episode of the series.
Old Soldiers Never Lie - An article by Beverly Gage for The Slate subtitled, “Ken Burns’ The War Tells Great Stories, But Is It Great History?” This is a hotly debated point about the series and Gage takes a reasonably well-balanced approach to the controvery with good commentary on Burns’ abilities as a cinematographic story teller.
PBS Conflicted Over Adult Language in Ken Burns - This is an older article from back in August and since I more or less swore when I read it, you don’t have to guess what I think about attempts at white-washing. People cuss. Men at war cuss alot. Period.
Ken Burns’ The War: SNAFU from Episode One - A not so flattering look at what many regard as Burns’ myopic take on a massive subject. (I’ve run across this viewpoint a great deal.)
These links just touch the tip of the iceberg of the debate about the quality of what Burns has done in this documentary. I continue to say the work must be taken on its own merit and does not purport to be an exhaustive treatment of the subject. But since there are four more installments to go, I suspect we’ll be visiting this topic again.
September 27th, 2007 at 1:09 am
About the Slate article. I think it’s supposed to be a bit absurd that a someone remembers great racial harmony in a time when their probably wasn’t any. I’m not sure thats about memory or rose colored classes from that time until now. The documentary doesn’t and shouldn’t beat us over the head. We know that people remember some things with rose colored glasses or with skewed perceptions-or at least we should.
A documentary of this sort is about seeing things through the eyes of those who survived. That memory is often flawed but none the less valuable.
September 27th, 2007 at 9:25 am
Yes! Exactly! This is about capturing memories. I’ve certainly experienced the phenomenon in my life when old friends and I will talk about high school days and remember the same event in completely different ways. The critics are landing on all the wrong points with this documentary. I can assure them from my graduate school years that there are plenty of weighty, encyclopedic tomes out there that will give them a WWII blow-by-blow.
February 14th, 2009 at 8:46 am
Generally I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this post really forced me to do so! really nice post.