🔗 Share this article

Ken Burns is now considered beyond being a historical storyteller; his name is a franchise, a prolific creative force. When he has documentary series premiering on the small screen, everyone seeks his attention.

The filmmaker completed “more fucking podcasts than I ever thought possible”, he says, nearing the end of his marathon promotional journey that included 40 cities, 80 screenings and hundreds of interviews. “I think there are 340.1m podcasts, one for every American, and I’ve done half of them.”

Thankfully Burns possesses boundless energy, as expressive in conversation as he is prolific while filmmaking. The veteran director has gone everywhere from prestigious venues to popular podcasts to promote his latest monumental work: his Revolutionary War documentary, a comprehensive multi-part historical examination that dominated ten years of his career and arrived this week through the public broadcasting service.

Classic Documentary Style

Similar to traditional cooking in today’s rapid-consumption era, this documentary series proudly conventional, evoking memories of traditional war documentaries as opposed to modern streaming docs audio documentaries.

However, for the filmmaker, whose entire filmography documenting American historical narratives covering diverse cultural topics, its origin story represents more than another topic but fundamental. “As I mentioned to directing partner Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: we won’t work on a more important film Burns reflects from his New York base.

Massive Research Effort

The filmmaking team and screenwriter Geoffrey Ward referenced numerous historical volumes plus archival documents. Multiple academic experts, covering various ideological backgrounds, provided on-air commentary together with prominent academics covering various specialties including slavery, first nations scholarship plus colonial history.

Characteristic Narrative Method

The style of the series will feel familiar to fans of historical documentaries. The unique approach incorporated slow pans and zooms over historical images, abundant historical musical selections and actors voicing historical documents.

This period represented Burns built his legacy; a generation later, presently the respected veteran of historical films, he seems able to recruit virtually any performer. Appearing alongside Burns at a recent event, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”

Remarkable Ensemble

The extended filming period provided advantages in terms of flexibility. Filming occurred at professional facilities, on location and remotely via Zoom, a tool embraced during the pandemic. The director describes collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours during his travels to perform his role as George Washington prior to departing to subsequent commitments.

Brolin is joined by Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, established Hollywood talent, diverse creative professionals, household names and rising talent, accomplished dramatic artists, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Tobias Menzies, versatile character actors, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, and many others.

Burns adds: “Honestly, this could represent the finest ensemble ever assembled for any movie or television show. Their work is exceptional. Selection wasn’t based on fame. It irritated me when questioned, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I go, ‘These are actors.’ They are among the world’s best performers and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Historical Complexity

However, the lack of surviving participants, visual documentation forced Burns and his team to lean heavily on historical documents, weaving together personal accounts of multiple revolutionary participants. This methodology permitted to present viewers not only to the “bold-faced names” of that era along with multiple crucial to understanding, many of whom remain visually unknown.

Burns additionally pursued his personal passion for geography and cartography. “Maps fascinate me,” he observes, “and there are more maps in this project compared to previous works I’ve done combined.”

Global Significance

The team filmed at numerous significant sites throughout the continent plus English locations to capture the landscape’s character and partnered extensively with living history participants. All these elements combine to tell a story more bloody, multifaceted and world-changing than the one taught in schools.

The documentary argues, transcended provincial conflict concerning territory, taxes and political voice. Conversely, the project presents a brutal conflict that finally engaged more than two dozen nations and unexpectedly manifested what it calls “mankind’s greatest hopes”.

Civil War Reality

What had begun as a jumble of grievances leveled at London by far-flung British subjects throughout multiple disputatious regions quickly evolved into a vicious internal war, pitting family members against each other and turning communities into battlegrounds. In episode two, scholar Alan Taylor notes: “The main misapprehension concerning independence struggle involves believing it represented a consolidating event for colonists. It leaves out the reality that it was a civil war among Americans.”

Historical Complexity

For him, the independence account that “typically is overwhelmed by emotionalism and wistful remembrance and is incredibly superficial and insufficiently honors for what actually took place, every individual involved and the incredible violence of it.

The historian argues, a movement that announced the transformative concept of inherent human rights; a vicious internal conflict, separating rebels and supporters; and a worldwide engagement, another installment in a sequence of struggles among European powers for dominance in the New World.

Uncertain Historical Outcomes

Burns also wanted {to rediscover the