Scope of Burns' 'War' made possible by telling story over many hours
Posted: Aug. 12, 2007
Tim Cuprisin
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When Ken Burns first conquered public TV with "The Civil War" 17 years ago, there was no History Channel.
Today, in addition to that channel, there are history documentaries
of varying quality on various cable outlets. Does that leave room for
another lengthy film from the documentarian, this one 14 1/2 hours long
and focusing on World War II?
"That doesn't mean that there isn't room for something entirely different," says Burns.
Obviously, after investing years in "The War," which will debut
Sept. 23 on PBS, Burns is gung-ho on the project, which tells the story
of America's war through the inhabitants, living and dead, of four
communities around the country.
"Have you seen a documentary that's both the European and the Pacific front simultaneously?" he asks.
There is also the scope of this film, a scope made possible by telling the story over many, many hours.
"Here, there is intimacy with context. You know what's going on in
the larger war, but you also know what's happening with people whose
addresses you know, and they're not famous people in our celebrity
culture. They're so-called ordinary people. That's, I think, the key to
this film."
The obvious question comes with any 14 1/2 -hour film. Does it have to be that long?
"You'd think having made 11 1/2 hours of 'The Civil War,' 18 1/2
hours of 'Baseball,' 14 hours of 'The West,' 14 1/2 hours of 'The War,'
17 hours in 'Jazz,' the biggest complaint would be 'too long, too
boring.' In fact, the only complaint is what I've left out."
Burns refers to complaints this year that he didn't focus on the involvement of Hispanic-Americans in "The War."
"I found myself involved in the classic media battle in the spring,
and just decided to rise above it and take the high road," he explains.
"I didn't have to compromise the vision of the film I locked a year
and a half ago, and I could just add a couple stories of Hispanic
veterans. And my revenge is that these stories are as good as anything
in the regular film."
Those segments will air before the credits, but at the end of the episode.
"I'd also added a Native American scene, which had been a story I'd wanted to tell for the past 20 years."
You can hear the conversation with Burns, including his next
projects and his explanation of "the Ken Burns effect," in the latest
Inside TV & Radio podcast at www.jsonline.com/links/cuprisin.
CHANNEL SURFING: Tickets go on sale at noon Friday at www.pabsttheater.orgor
(414) 286-3663 for the Nov. 1 Milwaukee stop on the first live tour of
finalists from NBC's "Last Comic Standing" at the Pabst.
• Former CNN anchor Aaron Brown has been named Arizona State University's first Walter Cronkite Professor of Journalism.
• Priscilla Presley visits CNN's Larry King at 8 p.m. Wednesday on the eve of the 30th anniversary of Elvis Presley's death.
A SPEEDY RETURN: Robin Roberts is due back on ABC's "Good Morning America" today, a little more than a week after breast cancer surgery.
The ABC morning news show airs in Milwaukee from 7 to 9 a.m. on Channel 12.
Reach Tim Cuprisin at (414) 224-2397 or tcuprisin@journalsentinel.com. Read his blog at blogs.jsonline.com/cuprisin.
From the Aug. 13, 2007 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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