Ken Burns on His Revolutionary War Documentary: ‘This Is Our Most Crucial Work’

The acclaimed documentarian has evolved into not just a documentarian; he is a brand, a one-man industrial complex. With each new documentary series arriving on the PBS network, all desire his attention.

He participated in “countless podcast appearances”, he says, wrapping up of his extensive publicity circuit featuring 40 cities, dozens of preview events plus countless media sessions. “There seems to be a podcast for every citizen, and I believe I’ve appeared on most of them.”

Thankfully the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, as expressive in conversation as he is accomplished in the editing room. The veteran director has appeared at locations ranging from Monticello to The Joe Rogan Experience to promote his latest monumental work: The American Revolution, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that consumed the past decade of his life and debuted currently on public television.

Classic Documentary Style

Similar to traditional cooking in an age of fast food, The American Revolution is defiantly traditional, more redolent of traditional war documentaries rather than contemporary streaming docs audio documentaries.

For the documentarian, who has built a career chronicling strands of US history including baseball, country music, jazz and national parks, its origin story transcends ordinary historical coverage but foundational. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: we won’t work on a more important film Burns contemplates during a telephone interview.

Extensive Historical Investigation

The filmmaking team along with writer Geoffrey Ward drew upon numerous historical volumes plus archival documents. Dozens of historians, covering various ideological backgrounds, contributed scholarly insights along with leading scholars covering various specialties including slavery, Native American history and the British empire.

Characteristic Narrative Method

The documentary’s methodology will appear similar to fans of historical documentaries. The characteristic technique incorporated slow pans and zooms across still photos, abundant historical musical selections and actors reading diaries, letters and speeches.

This period represented Burns established his reputation; decades afterwards, now the doyen of documentaries, he seems able to recruit any actor he chooses. Appearing alongside Burns at a New York gathering, the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda observed: “When Ken Burns calls, you say ‘Yes.’”

Remarkable Ensemble

The extended filming period proved beneficial concerning availability. Filming occurred in recording spaces, on location and remotely via Zoom, a tool embraced during the pandemic. Burns recounts collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who made time in Atlanta to record his lines as the revolutionary leader before flying off to other professional obligations.

Additional performers feature Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, established Hollywood talent, diverse creative professionals, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, celebrated film and stage performers, international acting community, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, small and big screen veterans, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep.

Burns adds: “Frankly, this may be the best single cast ever assembled for any movie or television show. Their work is exceptional. Selection wasn’t based on fame. I got so angry when somebody said, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I go, ‘These are actors.’ They represent global acting excellence and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Nuanced Narrative

However, no contemporary observers remain, visual documentation forced Burns and his team to rely extensively on the written word, weaving together personal accounts of nearly 200 individual historic figures. This allowed them to show spectators not just the famous founders of the founders along with multiple crucial to understanding, many of whom remain visually unknown.

Burns additionally pursued his particular enthusiasm for maps and spatial representation. “Maps fascinate me,” he notes, “with greater cartographic content throughout this series versus earlier productions I’ve done combined.”

International Impact

The production crew recorded at numerous significant sites in various American regions plus English locations to capture the landscape’s character and partnered extensively with historical interpreters. These components unite to tell a story more violent, complex and globally significant compared to standard education.

The documentary argues, was no mere parochial quarrel about property, revenue and governance. Rather, the series depicts a brutal conflict that ultimately drew in numerous countries and improbably came to embody what it calls “mankind’s greatest hopes”.

Civil War Reality

What had begun as a jumble of grievances aimed at the crown by American colonists across thirteen rebellious territories quickly evolved into a vicious internal war, pitting family members against each other and neighbour against neighbour. In episode two, the historian Alan Taylor observes: “The primary misunderstanding concerning independence struggle involves believing it represented a unifying experience for colonists. This omits the fact that it was a civil war among Americans.”

Sophisticated Interpretation

For him, the revolution is a story that “for most of us is overwhelmed by emotionalism and idealization and is incredibly superficial and fails to properly acknowledge for what actually took place, and all the participants and the extensive brutality.

Taylor maintains, a movement that announced the transformative concept of inherent human rights; a vicious internal conflict, pitting Patriots against Loyalists; and a worldwide engagement, the fourth in a series of wars between imperial nations for control of the continent.

Contingent Historical Events

The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the