ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
"I saw . . .''
Those words are the power behind "The War,'' a new documentary by
Ken Burns that gives voice to Americans who lived World War II. He was
in St. Louis this week to promote his seven-part, 14-hour series that
premières on PBS on Sept. 23.
The film owes its soul to the simple, quiet eloquence of graying foot
soldiers and the loved ones left behind. More than 60 years have
passed, but these veterans are still grasping at explaining the
inexplicable — the man-made cataclysm that engulfed the globe from 1939
to 1945, killing 50 million men, women and children.
The strength of "The War'' is in what Burns calls its "bottoms-up" view
of the big picture, from America's front porches to the war's front
lines. This film is not about well-known generals or their strategies.
"This is not a textbook, it is more like an epic poem. An Iliad in
which you get to know several dozen characters,'' Burns said.
There is a disarming intensity about Burns. At 53, he still has a
boyish look, sporting the same bowl-shape haircut and beard that have
made him perhaps the most recognizable historian in the country.
As with most boomers, Burns has a personal connection to the war. His
father, now deceased, served with the post-war American occupation
forces. Burns cites two reasons for this documentary: World War II
veterans are dying, and younger generations don't know enough about the
war.
"We are losing 1,000 veterans a day in the United States,'' Burns said.
"I'm in the memory business, and each person who passes away … we are
all diminished. It's almost as if an entire library has burned down.
"The second reason is that our children think we fought with the
Germans against the Russians in the second world war. Too many
graduating high school seniors believe that."
In a companion project, local PBS affiliates, including KETC (Channel 9), are collecting oral histories of World War II vets.
Burns says that his film could not have been made 10 years ago because
World War II vets have only recently been willing to share their
experiences.
"They are of a generation whose ethos was about getting on with their
lives, and so they did. And though many were haunted — there were many
more cases of post-traumatic stress syndrome from the second world war
than Korea and Vietnam and Iraq put together — they kept silent,''
Burns said.
"I found that now that I've been out on the road with this, people come
up and say, 'Yeah, my dad was in the Battle of the Bulge, but he
wouldn't tell anything but this funny story. And, suddenly, when I saw
that scene on the Bulge I understood what he'd been through.''
"The War" focuses on four towns — Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala.;
Luverne, Minn., and Sacramento, Calif. Burns and crew spent five years
combing local historical archives and talking to veterans groups, while
also researching national archives in the United States, Japan and
Germany.
"We were trying to answer a simple question: What was it like to be in
that war? In fact, we call it 'The War' to honor what the people who
were in it call it to this day. We were looking for universal human
experiences,'' Burns said.
Though viewers may draw parallels with the current wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan, Burns says the documentary has no political agenda.
"If through some strange alchemy we could import a soldier from the
Peloponnesian War, he would tell you the same thing: 'I was scared. I
was bored. I was cold. I was hot. My officers didn't know what they
were doing. They didn't give us the right equipment.' This is true of
all wars.''
Burns has added footage to appease members of the Hispanic community
who complained about a lack of representation, though he contends that
the documentary was never intended to be a textbook on the war.
"But we knew that the argument could drag on, so we took the high
road,'' Burns said. "We did it in good faith and made some beautiful
scenes that I can't wait to share. But it is indicative of a sort of
fractured polity that we have today.''
The film pulls no punches in describing the horrors of war, and Burns
warns that it is not intended for young children. PBS will air warnings
about content and provide beeped versions for concerned local stations.
"We say that to win the war, young men would use language they wouldn't
have used at home in front of their wives or their mothers or their
girlfriends,'' Burns said. "We agree, and we know the country
understands and we just hope the FCC does, as well.''
mleonard@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8260
