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Ken Burns - The War

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NutmegCT

NutmegCT

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To me this is the absolute best series on the entire WW2 experience yet made.

Burns has mixed personal comments from living veterans and their families, with fantastic period film (color and b&w), both overseas and domestic.

As an aside, I'm fascinated that Roosevelt actually ordered color films be made of military life (both at the front and back in camp), and distributed to local theaters.

One thing that really strikes me: the entire country appeared to be quite involved in the war; everyone was asked to "sacrifice". Wages frozen, automobile production switched to military production, food and other necessities rationed, income tax increased and broadened, war bond drives, collections of surplus goods and materials, "USE IT UP, WEAR IT OUT, MAKE IT DO, OR DO WITHOUT".

Quite a difference from today. I ask my neighbors about the latest Iraq news, and I hear "we're too busy to listen to that depressing stuff".

I think this Ken Burns series does an excellent job in showing how every citizen could become "involved".

Tom
 
I've been watching it too. Decent film, worth watching. I wish they'd advertised it like they did the "Civil War" series, but I'll catch up on the rebroadcasts.

Another good one to see is a British show called "1940s House" (Netflix has it). The concept was to take a modern family and stick them in a typical urban-England house during the blitz. They were pretty carefully governed by the show's management on what they could and couldn't do, what they could buy, how much, etc.
 
NutmegCT said:
To me this is the absolute best series on the entire WW2 experience yet made....

One thing that really strikes me: the entire country appeared to be quite involved in the war; everyone was asked to "sacrifice"...
Click to expand...
A while back I watch a movie made in 1946 called 'The Best Years of Our Lives'. It was a story about the difficulties three veterans had readjusting to civilian live after the war. Some things just do not change.

But the thing that jumped out at me was from a scene where Homer, a sailor who had lost both hands was confronted by a man that stated it was a shame he lost his hands for nothing. That the US did not have to go to war. Wow, I thought. Here is a film made in '46 and felt it necessary to put in an antiwar scene. For this to happen there must have been a lot of people who thought that way.

Perhaps there is a part of WWII history that is not being told. As in the film 'The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance' where an editor who hears the real story says "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend."

Not trying to be political, just trying to understand the period.
 
Ray - "Best Years" is one of my all-time favorite films. Over 60 years ago a major director (William Wyler) told a story of three guys trying to figure out where they "fit in" after returning from years in a war. I'll always remember that scene where the three are sitting together in the nose of a B-17, flying over the USA, trying to get to their hometown. The script was meant to have a double meaning: was the excitement and responsibility of the war their "best years"? or did they give up their best years when they joined the military? Great movie.

The Homer character was quite a story itself. The Navy guy loses his hands in an explosion, and really tries to return to being "normal". But the world he finds back home won't let him be "normal". Take a look at that "lost his hands for nothing" scene again. I think the scene represents the uncertainty and fear felt by people after the war, when the news (and government) began to report the problems with the Soviet Union.

Homer asks why the other guy feels the USA got "pushed" into war. The guy says "No, the Germans and the Japs had nothing against us. They just wanted to fight the Limies and the Reds." Difficult to accept when you remember the event called Pearl Harbor. And the scene actually ends with the guy getting punched and thrown through a window.

You're right - there were certainly folks who remained against the war all the way from 1940 to 1945. But the great majority of folks seemed quite involved and supportive. The costs of the war, both in dollars and in daily life, were paid by those at home as well as those at the front.

Just my 2¢.

Tom
 
I've been watching. Everything Ken Burns has done so far has been excellent. He really gets down to the nitty-gritty of how big world events affects the the average Joe.

Funny thing about Nutmeg mentioning the rationing stamps. A couple of years ago I asked my aunt (she's 83 now) if she had any stuff like old pictures or other info from the family, as I was interested in the family history. Well, she brought over a treasure chest full of stuff, and in there were a whole mess of unused WWII ration stamps for various grocery items. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif She said I could have all the stuff she brought over. Neato... /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/banana.gif
 
I watch most WW2 docs....

But this one I do not like , hate is too strong a word...

Big thing is too many dead bodies and body pieces,
Yes I know its war , yes I know millions died,
But I do not want to see it , well at least as much as is being shown,

The shock value wears off quick , then you just have the grosses you out value,

It would give my nightmares , whats it going to do to younger viewers ?

Sorry not for me....
 
"all the way from 1940 to 1945". FYI, the war started in 1939, not 1940 or after Pearl Harbor.

Also, too many things are sanitized in our politically correct and sensitive world; war should never be. When it needs to be done, then it needs to be done, but unless you have been there (and unlike some of you I haven't - if I wore a hat then it would be off to you), or if you have lived through it like older members of our families, for example during the daily bombings of the London Blitz, then it must not be forgotten and definitely not made more palitable. We mustn't forget the sacrifices made by all of the Allies while going up against the Axis powers.
 
Burns' treatment is just fine with me. Wars kill people. They come about from jealousy, greed, lust for power over others... and finally an unwillingness to be subjugated to those circumstances. Ken Burns does no disservice to the world by showing the result of a clash of ideals, especially when the footage is historical fact. I fear as a nation we're too soft.
 
Amen.

Tom
 
I'm currently reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's "No Ordinary Time". No particular tie-in with the broadcast of Burns' film, rather a serendip: Herself brought the book home. But it has an interesting effect as info on an overlapping of events.

I too hope to get the DVDs.
 
I like the first-person accounts.
 
I really like the series so far, I have missed a little of each show but the accounts are great, I like the little seen footage as opposed to the over used footage most movie makers used. Ken Burns has done a fine job again
 
.....That IS just why young people SHOULD view it, one of the reasons Burns did this film is beceause most young people he discoverd thought we fought the Russians and NOT the Germans!!!
 
Luckily, all we had to do was *outspend* the Soviet Union. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif
 
Just caught a couple of interviews with Ken Burns discussing the making of the series...very interesting!!! Esp. when doing research he found that an alarming number of todays' youth thought that we were Germany's allies!!!!!
How can we, as a society, tolerate such dismal public ignorance???? Has public education sunk that dismally low??? Have history lessons become a thing of the past?? If so, we are doomed to repeat a whole bunch of mistakes!!
 
bugimike said:
Just caught a couple of interviews with Ken Burns discussing the making of the series...very interesting!!! Esp. when doing research he found that an alarming number of todays' youth thought that we were Germany's allies!!!!!
How can we, as a society, tolerate such dismal public ignorance???? Has public education sunk that dismally low??? Have history lessons become a thing of the past?? If so, we are doomed to repeat a whole bunch of mistakes!!
Click to expand...

You said it!
 
OH BOY! I wanted to comment Soooooooooooooo Baddddd! BUT for the sake of obiding by forum rules and bieng "politically correct" I will refrain.
Ken Burns has done an EXCELLENT JOB. With these documentarys is all I can say.

All we can do is hope and pray that, SOMEDAY Jealousy, Greed, And Lust for Power over others will be exponged from all Sociatys and war will be NO MORE forever.

As far as the todays youth go, welcome to the me me me me generation.

I`m afraid, having someone elses adjenda and ideology stuffed down thier throats and not bieng taught how to formulate thier OWN opinions will be the end of our way of life as we know it.
 
bugimike said:
Just caught a couple of interviews with Ken Burns discussing the making of the series...very interesting!!! Esp. when doing research he found that an alarming number of todays' youth thought that we were Germany's allies!!!!!
How can we, as a society, tolerate such dismal public ignorance???? Has public education sunk that dismally low??? Have history lessons become a thing of the past?? If so, we are doomed to repeat a whole bunch of mistakes!!
Click to expand...

Documentaries like the new Burns one tell a very important story to those who choose not to know history. The violence depicted in Burns's movie should remind everyone of how bad things can get when our politicians fail. And boy, did the facist dictators screw things up!

Mike, I'm terribly afraid you just described the history of humankind in your statement, above. In fact, society has not "sunk" anywhere. Things are better now than ever before. But, many folks believe "things" are worse now mainly because of the mass media: everything is reported instantaneously, and repeated endlessly. But I can tell you: generally, at least the western world is a lot better place to live today than at any time in the past!

There's nothing new about large numbers of people choosing to remain ignorant, it's always been a sad but true fact. In fact, literacy rates are significantly higher today than in practically any time in the past. However, the "knucklehead" rate in the general population remains fairly constant through the ages: they will always be among us.

And, the problem in education today is NOT the schools: they're better than ever and improving. The problem is deadbeat PARENTS! Sadly, that's far more difficult to correct. Teachers should not be tasked with imparting moral values to kids, period. That's a parent's job.

Hopefully, the Burns documentary will raise awareness among people who are ignorant of the past. At least that's a good place to start.
 
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