The works of Ken Burns

Ken Burns is one of this generation's greatest filmmakers - yet many people are probably not familiar with his work because he doesn't make Hollywood blockbusters like George Lucas or Steven Spielburg does.  Ken Burns makes movies about History - specifically American History, and does so in a unique way that draws you in the personal stories of the topic he's covering and releases his documentaries on Public Television.

My favorite Ken Burns documentary is "The Civil War", pictured above, which came out in 1990.  The Civil War is a period of American History that I find fascinating to study, and Burns used extensive interviews with historians, pictures, film, and narratives from the era read by famous actors and actresses.  The film covers the events leading up to the Civil War, and the events immediately afterwards, and discusses many of the major battles.  What makes this version so fascinating to me is the focus on the individuals who were affected by the war.  The last portion of the last episode is sort of an epilogue telling you how the survivors fared after the war. 

His latest project is "The War:  In Extraordinary Times, There Are No Ordinary Lives 1941 - 1945" and will be a documentary focusing on World War II.  What makes this project so different from the Civil War is that we having living participants here to tell the story - so there aren't the historians telling us what happened, we have the people who lived it, experienced, and remember it telling us what happened.  From what I've heard, it focuses on the people of four towns in America and their experiences during the war.  I pre-ordered my copy of the DVD and the soundtrack (with music by Wynton Marsalis) this week from PBS.  Like previous Ken Burns projects, The War will be debuting on PBS stations around the country.  Mr. Burns is a big fan of public television.   I could have gotten it cheaper on Amazon or Barnes & Noble, but I feel good about supporting Public Television, so they will continue to support filmmakers like Ken Burns in creating these incredible projects.

His way of telling a story has become known as the "Ken Burns approach", and involves still photographs, home movies & period film, as well as limited recreations, along with narratives read by talented actors and actresses that come from letters, diaries, and books from the period.

The music also helps to tell the story, a combination of newly created music, and the period music of the time.