Sounds like he went with a pacifist viewpoint.
Magnificent Failure
I spent 15 hours last week with Ken Burn's "The War." I loved it. I just didn't like it. It is mandatory viewing, however. My Boston Herald review, with others linked below:
THE WAR: B
Ken Burns' much-heralded epic documentary "The War" is a magnificent failure. Stirring, tragic and stunning. Informative and insightful. And a failure.
We'll start with the failure part.
To narrow the vastness of Americas World War II experience, Burns zeroed in on four towns. Mobile, Ala., Sacramento, Calif., Waterbury, Conn., and Luverne, Minn. Then he acknowledged his mistake by cherry-picking from a few others. Burns cut himself off from a choice of the best stories. He'd have done better to let people and history, not places, be his guide. His gimmick, with its exhaustive scene-setting, doesn't work.
Burns wanted to make a film about ordinary people, and he did. The great leaders who guided their fates, and the obstacles they surmounted, barely get lip service.
It's a critical omission. A 15-hour effort like this won't be repeated soon. With a school curriculum ready, it will shape understanding of this war for generations.
"The War" doesn't celebrate triumph over adversity, or the kind of wartime greatness Burns explored intimately in his epic "The Civil War." It is a death-obsessed dirge, dwelling on the ugliest parts of war, more interested in folly than success. It is a film about the meat grinder and the dutiful submission of good citizens.
The narration is often banal. The artful string music is often a distraction. Interviews are inexpertly conducted: To judge by often awkward answers, the most common question was the unhelpful "How did you feel?"
But there is magnificence. Never-before-aired footage, expertly edited, offers unparalleled views of combat and a new intimacy with familiar battles. The stories of the common people often stab to the heart.
It would be hard for any teller to botch this odyssey. Magnificent failure may be too harsh a label for "The War." Let's say, as a success, it's OK. And it is mandatory viewing. You'll watch it, you'll learn from it, you'll be inspired by it, you'll be haunted by it. It just could have been so much more.
Series premiere Sunday night at 8 on WGBH (Ch. 2)
Subsequent episodes of The War" air Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Oct. 1 and Oct. 2 at 8 p.m. on WGBH (Ch. 2).
Jules Crittenden blogs at www.julescrittenden.com, where he is carrying a paid ad for 'The War.'
Another version, longer with more particulars, at Pajamas:
Homer sang the Iliad. Josephus wrote the Jewish War. Norman women stitched the Bayeux Tapestry and Snorri Sturluson committed the Norse war sagas to verse. Shakespeare wrote Henry V.
All masterpieces of war. Now comes Ken Burns' long-awaited, much-heralded World War II epic, "The War." Stirring, poignant, tragic, stunning and shocking. Informative and insightful. A magnificent failure.
My adversaries at the Boston Globe: "In the end its about killing. That's what war is." That's the message from Burns. But that's not the whole story. There is heroism, and there is bold leadership. Then, there is winning. What Globe walks away with, "There is no such thing as a good war." Maybe, but there's such a thing as a bad one. That's the one that, in cases of political cowardice and/or military ineptitude, you lose.
New York Times, not a fan. "What So Proudly We Hailed" wants it to be about the entire war. How come just Yank death? Japs, Krauts, Ivans not heard from. Fair point. I would love to see Burns do that treatment, WWII A-Z, and thought about that from the moment I saw "1941-1945? on the cover. I had no objection with his decision to look at it from an American perspective, but this just underscores how limited in vision is Burn's 15-hour epic. With 15 hours and some editing discipline, he could have accomplished either or both of these goals. Heck, make it 18 hours if you need to.
Wall Street Journal: "Unyielding Glumness." I'm with Rabinowitz on that. Like I said, it's a dirge. Throwing in a little triumph, adversity overcome, resourcefulness, deft generalship and political leadership, etc., might have balanced that out a little.
A couple of raves:
Detroit Free Press, "Flesh and Blood History"
Houston Chronicle, "Ken Burns' own private War"
Shameless Hagiography:
USA Today, "Burns Deserves Thanks of a Grateful Nation." Get a grip, Bianco. Burns made a movie about storming the beaches. He didn't storm them.
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