Ken Burns on His War of Independence Documentary: ‘We Won’t Work on a More Important Film’
The acclaimed documentarian is now considered more than a filmmaker; he represents an institution, a prolific creative force. When he has documentary series arriving on the television, everyone seeks a part of him.
Burns has done “an astonishing number of podcasts”, he remarks, nearing the end of his marathon promotional journey comprising 40 cities, dozens of preview events and hundreds of interviews. “I think there are 340.1m podcasts, one for every American, and I’ve done half of them.”
Thankfully the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, equally articulate in interviews as he is productive while filmmaking. At seventy-two has traveled from historical sites to The Joe Rogan Experience to promote a career-defining series: his Revolutionary War documentary, a comprehensive multi-part historical examination that occupied a substantial portion of his recent years and arrived this week on PBS.
Timeless Filmmaking Method
Comparable to methodical preparation amidst instant gratification culture, The American Revolution is defiantly traditional, reminiscent of traditional war documentaries as opposed to modern streaming docs and podcast series.
However, for the filmmaker, whose entire filmography exploring national heritage spanning various American subjects, the nation’s founding represents more than another topic but essential. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns contemplates during a telephone interview.
Massive Research Effort
Burns and his collaborators plus scripting partner Geoffrey Ward referenced numerous historical volumes and other historical materials. Numerous scholars, representing diverse viewpoints, offered expert analysis along with leading scholars covering various specialties such as enslavement studies, indigenous peoples’ narratives and imperial studies.
Characteristic Narrative Method
The film’s approach will appear similar to fans of historical documentaries. Its distinctive style featured methodical photographic exploration across still photos, abundant historical musical selections featuring talent voicing historical documents.
That was the moment Burns built his legacy; years later, presently the respected veteran of historical films, he can apparently summon any actor he chooses. Collaborating with the filmmaker at a New York gathering, the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda observed: “When Ken Burns calls, you say ‘Yes.’”
Extraordinary Talent
The extended filming period proved beneficial concerning availability. Filming occurred at professional facilities, on location using online technology, a tool embraced throughout the health crisis. The director describes the experience with performer Josh Brolin, who made time in Atlanta to voice his character as George Washington then continuing to subsequent commitments.
The cast includes multiple distinguished artists, Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, diverse creative professionals, multiple generations of actors, accomplished dramatic artists, British and American talent, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep.
The filmmaker continues: “Frankly, this may be the best single cast recruited for any project. Their contributions are remarkable. Selection wasn’t based on fame. I got so angry when somebody said, regarding the famous participants. I explained, ‘These are artists.’ They are among the world’s best performers and they animate historical material.”
Nuanced Narrative
Still, the lack of surviving participants, photography and newsreels required the filmmakers to rely extensively on primary texts, weaving together individual perspectives of numerous historical characters. This methodology permitted to introduce audiences beyond the prominent leaders of the founders plus numerous additional crucial to understanding, several participants lack visual representation.
The filmmaker also explored his particular enthusiasm for territorial understanding. “Maps fascinate me,” he notes, “with greater cartographic content in this project compared to previous works throughout my entire career.”
Global Significance
The production crew recorded across multiple important places throughout the continent and British sites to preserve geographical atmosphere and collaborated substantially with historical interpreters. All these elements combine to tell a story more violent, complex and globally significant than the one taught in schools.
The revolution, it contends, transcended provincial conflict about property, revenue and governance. Conversely, the project presents a blood-soaked struggle that eventually involved multiple global powers and improbably came to embody termed “the noble aspirations of humankind”.
Internal Conflict Truth
Initial complaints and protests leveled at London by far-flung British subjects in 13 fractious colonies soon descended into a bloody domestic struggle, setting brother against brother and turning communities into battlegrounds. In one segment, academic Alan Taylor comments: “The greatest misconception concerning independence struggle involves believing it represented a consolidating event for colonists. It leaves out the reality that Americans fought each other.”
Nuanced Understanding
In his view, the revolutionary narrative that “typically suffers from excessive romance and idealization and is incredibly superficial and insufficiently honors for what actually took place, and all the participants and the widespread bloodshed.”
Taylor maintains, an uprising that declared the world-changing idea of the unalienable rights of people; a brutal civil war, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; and a worldwide engagement, another installment in a sequence of struggles among European powers for dominance in the New World.
Unpredictable Historical Moments
Burns also wanted {to rediscover the
