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Ken Burns' rush to capture voices of a fading generation in 'The War' By Gary Strauss, USA TODAY
Director Ken Burns had long spurned suggestions to make a World War II documentary. On the eve of Sunday's premiere of The War on PBS, he's glad he changed his mind.
Nearly seven years in the making, the seven-episode, 14½-hour, $13 million effort is his most personal and gratifying work, a tribute to a generation whose veterans are dying at a rate of more than 1,000 a day. "This has been the most challenging project I've ever done, but also the most rewarding," says Burns, 54. "It was born with a sense of urgency. We realized the clock was ticking and a narrow window would close very shortly." Indeed, five of the 44 men and women in The War have died. The rush to document memories of the World War II generation isn't the only challenge Burns faced. He's aware that The War might be viewed as a political commentary at a time when the nation is enmeshed in a polarizing conflict in Iraq. FIND MORE STORIES IN: World War II | PBS | War | Latino | Robert Deutsch | Ken Burns | Waterbury | Lynn Novick | Quentin Aanenson
The film's focus on the last "good war" and the sacrifice, unity and patriotism it inspired does contrast sharply with Americans' attitudes about Iraq. But Burns insists The War, which was conceived before 9/11, isn't a political statement. About 75% of those in the film were interviewed before the 2003 Iraq invasion. "There's not a political bone in this film," he says. "It's about the reality of war." Burns says screenings have been met with enthusiasm, including among West Point, Air Force and Naval Academy students. "These are intelligent kids who know what they're heading for," he says. "We showed them brutal footage. We were anxious. But many thanked us and loved the honesty." Burns says he understands The War may draw comparisons to Iraq, but he notes how the homefront isn't the same. "Instead of the shared sacrifices World War II demanded that created community and made us spiritually richer, we're so lacking today," he says. "We aren't asked to give up anything. We're narcissistic free agents. Surfing the Internet alone. Watching TV alone. Driving alone. There's too much Pluribus and not enough Unum." Through archival film and photographs, The War harks back to a more cohesive nation. Battles and the fallout on the homefront unfold through perspectives of small-town vets, friends and families in Waterbury, Conn., Mobile, Ala., Sacramento and Luverne, a tiny farm town in southwest Minnesota. Burns, a triple Emmy winner, set the standard for long-form documentaries, using still photos and narratives to electrify history in films such as The Civil War Yet his enthusiasm for bringing to life stories of a generation he admires is tempered by the harshest criticism of his three-decade career. Hispanic activists threatened boycotts against corporate sponsors because The War initially had no Latinos. Burns added 28 minutes to include combat stories of two Hispanics and a Native American. Critics still plan to protest Sunday at PBS stations in California. "The controversy raised awareness in powerful ways," says Burns, who bristles at the complaints and says he never intended to make an all-inclusive, definitive war film. A welcome in Waterbury A recent Waterbury screening drew laughter, tears, shock and two standing ovations from an audience of 2,300. The gritty factory town that provided warriors and war materiel from brass uniform buttons to artillery shell casings also gave Burns a hero's welcome, with a parade, veterans' celebration and governor's proclamation for an annual Connecticut Ken Burns Day. Waterbury residents provided Burns, co-director Lynn Novick and their Florentine Films crew some of the 600 interviews made for The War. Novick says she was struck by the stoic modesty of veterans and moved by those who had long bottled their emotions, reluctant to reveal horrors they'd experienced. Some, such as Waterbury's Ray Leopold, recounted events for the last time. Surrounded by Germans at 1944's Battle of the Bulge, the medic tended to wounded comrades and foes alike. Later, he helped liberate a concentration camp filled with fellow Jews. "I saw red. I needed to get my hands around a German's throat," Leopold told USA TODAY two days before he died in July at age 92. Luverne-born fighter pilot Quentin Aanenson provides The War insight into the dark hopelessness of battle. As stress mounted as friends died and he narrowly escaped death, he wrote a letter to his future wife, Jackie, dripping with such despair he never mailed it. "Nobody back home would understand the overwhelming trauma of combat," says Aanenson, 86. Sascha Weinzheimer, 74, held by the Japanese at age 8 with her family after Japan's takeover of the Philippines, recalls overwhelming hunger and fear. "To me, The War isn't a history lesson," she says. "It's about intimate stories and personal experiences in a horrible era." Listening to painful pasts made it impossible for Burns to maintain the clinical detachment he had managed on past films, in which most subjects lived only in photographs, letters and books. "This is the story of our fathers and grandfathers. There's an inescapable immediacy," he says. "It's possible to sit next to someone who was in battle. I feel privileged to have been part of their lives and the intimacies they shared." Burns, who calls himself an emotional archaeologist, says he was touched by the stories told by veterans and loved ones who cried over buddies lost and the horrors they experienced. Their impact lingers. Driving to Luverne in July, Burns broke down after learning Leopold had died. "It hurts because they were so generous," he says. Burns almost didn't give himself a chance to meet them. For a decade after 1990's release of Civil War, he rejected suggestions to do another film about conflict. "After immersing ourselves in blood and guts for 51/2 years, we said, 'No more.' " Besides, World War II had been heavily chronicled by books, films and TV; Burns thought there was little new material to mine. Reluctance melts away Burns reconsidered during the making of Jazz in 2001. That year his father, Robert, an officer stationed in postwar France, died. Burns also came upon studies showing that most high school graduates knew little about the world's deadliest war. Sensing an urgency to preserve veterans' stories, Burns shed his reluctance The War intentionally omitted the typical World War II discourses on top commanders, strategy and weapons that dominate most period pieces. The producers wanted intimate, personal stories. "From the beginning, the main thing we wanted to do was from a different perspective: firsthand testimony on what people went through," Novick says. They initially focused on Waterbury, rich in historical material but thin on surviving veterans. Burns and Novick had to widen perspective. Novick read With the Old Breed, an intimate combat account by Alabaman Eugene Sledge, who fought in the Pacific. "As soon as I read it I thought, 'This is exactly the kind of story we want,' " she says. Sledge died in 2001. His family eventually led Burns' team to Mobile, a sleepy port city turned military shipyard with a sizable black population transformed by the war. Sacramento provided a West Coast presence and Japanese-Americans who overcame war-time discrimination and were some of World War II's most decorated fighters. Luverne was pinpointed by native Aanenson, whose autobiographical documentary, A Fighter Pilot's Story, aired on PBS in 1994. Luverne also provides The War a treasure-trove of insightful Middle America sentiment through Rock County Star Herald editor Al McIntosh. Sprinkled throughout The War, McIntosh's columns, read by actor Tom Hanks, provide a running narrative of small-town USA. "It's war as people experienced it," says War screenwriter Geoffrey Ward, a Burns collaborator since 1984 and co-author of companion book The War: An Intimate History. Burns hopes The War inspires viewers to talk with relatives about their war experience and bolster a PBS effort with the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project to collect stories for the library's archive. He also says he wants the film to have the educational influence of The Civil War, which is still used in schools 17 years after its release: "I hope we can say the same thing about The War 17 years from now." Share your thoughts about Ken Burns and The War below. Or email the author at gstrauss@usatoday.com.
Conversation guidelines: USA TODAY welcomes your thoughts, stories and information related to this article.
Please stay on topic and be respectful of others. Keep the conversation appropriate for interested readers across the map.
Comments: (61) Showing: 
Ed in NM wrote:
2h 59m ago
I
can already tell the film will be a tear-jerker. As one person above
stated "a terrible era". We are so far removed from those days that the
stories fade and our understanding of sacrifice is lessened. We need
these stories and the images to bring war to reality. We need both
sides of the stories of war, the good and the bad, as a reminder why it
should not be waged. History must be reviewed so that it must not be
repeated. There will be evil and the insane that will want to wage it
and we must head it off before the next "terrible era" is upon us.
Story Saver wrote:
3h 56m ago
I
welcome the "buzz" being created by Ken Burns' documentary. I am a
professional personal historian who has documented the stories of WW II
vets through video interviews and I have found each vet's story to be
profoundly moving and significant both for them and their relatives as
well as for the sake of history.
I strongly urge anyone who has a vet in their family to encourage them to have their story recorded. Rarely do vets call me themselves; they are from a humble generation. It's really up to family members to make the request. Many families tell me that they are surprise that their family member opened up to me. While I do think I am a skilled interviewer, I think that as vets get older, they realize the importance of having their story preserved. Whether you have an interview done by a professional or you conduct it yourself, you will never regret that you got that life story recorded.
bpolisson wrote:
4h ago
Say
what you will, these are my heroes! They really put it on the line to
defend us. No Viet Cong were stalking us here at home but the Axis
powers were! I can't even begin to fathom what these guys went through!
VetNam wrote:
4h 28m ago
101warhorse wrote: 1h 38m ago
But I truly believe that today's Army is the greatest Army we have ever had. THey are not mindless robots, or mindless killers. They are highly trained, well equipped, deeply motivated to the USA , technically and tactically unbeatable! Our military deserves to protect a society MUCH better than the one they do today. They deserve a society willing to sacrifice to a Cause, willing to put Ideals above their own petty, politically correct whinings. ************ So true, thanks for sharing your thoughts and for your service!
maxx wrote:
4h 44m ago
Like
so many other men his age, my grandfather served in the Marine Corps
during WWII. He fought in the Pacific and again, like so many others,
never talked much about his service. Family members always said he was
a different person after the war. I can't even begin to imagine what he
and so many others went through. There are even times that I feel
guilty driving a Japanese car, knowing he would not approve. Today's
generation needs to know of the sacrifices the Greatest Generation (men
and women) made so that we are blessed with freedom to this day. Thank
you Ken Burns for your efforts to educate and preserve this all
important part of history.
milesfan58 wrote:
5h 26m ago
Ken
Burns is a genius; the creative heart and soul of documentary
filmmaking primarily because of his honesty; I can't wait to not only
see this project but purchase it
JamesDR wrote:
6h 15m ago
My
uncle was a navigator on the 17's and I grew up looking at his photos
and listening to stories. My father in law served in the Pacifc, aboard
ship and did so at the age of 17 till he was about 25 ( He left when
they quit putting you in the brig for fights and started deducting from
pay.) A great generation for sure, and sad they are leaving us. We are
now in the process of generating a new generation. I am taking nothing
from Korea or Viet Nam, but the fight our young men and women now take
on is as serious as WW II ever was. I salute them all.
101warhorse wrote:
6h 18m ago
My
father was a Captain and assigned to the 101st Aiborne Division during
WWII, as I was during the first Gulf War. I was proud to ask my chain
of command for permission to wear his rank and patch on MY uniform and
I wore his Captain's bars on MY uniform with great family pride.
Today one of my most prized possessions is a framed set of those old silver Captain's bars, between a photo of him in France, and me in Iraq. His generation was the greatest to be sure as the entire generation gave it's all to the calling of our Country. Today's generation doesn't have the personal Will, or Courage or dedication to ANYTHING but themselves to sacrifice like the World War Two generation did. But I truly believe that today's Army is the greatest Army we have ever had. THey are not mindless robots, or mindless killers. They are highly trained, well equipped, deeply motivated to the USA , technically and tactically unbeatable! Our military deserves to protect a society MUCH better than the one they do today. They deserve a society willing to sacrifice to a Cause, willing to put Ideals above their own petty, politically correct whinings. My Father's military had a society worthy of protecting, worthy if necessary of dying for. I don't believe MY military has a society worthy of the same! Wake Up America 
Stonewall123 wrote:
7h 6m ago
I
am very proud that one of my Uncles was a navigator on a bomber that
flew missions over Germany. I am just as proud that my other Uncle was
in the Navy during the last half of the war against Japan. And I was
honored when on Dec. 07, 2001 I was at a birthday party for a friend
and shook hands with a veteran that was also celebrating an
anniversary. 60 years earlier he was aboard the USS Arizona when it was
bombed in Pearl Harbor. And this year I was equally honored to shake
hands with one of the first soldiers landing on Normandy on June 6,1944
D- Day. As I said earlier, they are and always will be THE GREATEST
GENERATION.
yaderhey wrote:
7h 12m ago
I
was privileged to grow up around WWII vets (WWI, Korea too). I also was
fortunate to serve my first couple of years in the Air Force with a
smsgt that started as a a tail gunner on a b-17. My next door neighbor
survived Normandy, family and friends were in Europe and the Pacific.
These were the people that made this country grow to what it was, before the corporations and "globalization" started destroying it. It's unfortunate that the current "me" generation won't have the benefit of knowing them - knowing their history - knowing what it was to be a unified country. I, for one, will watch this documentaty and remember the greatest generation and their accomplishments. The good feeling will last until I see the current generation slouching down the street, pants around their ankles and hats on sideways. |
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