|
|
|
Movie Reviews
Thomas Doherty
Contributing Editor
Individuals who wish to propose films for review in the Journal should communicate with Thomas Doherty, American Studies Department, Brandeis University, 415 South St., Waltham, MA 02454–9110; doherty@brandeis.edu.
| The War. Dir. by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick. Prod. by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein. Florentine Films, 2007. 900 mins. (pbs Home Video, http://www.shoppbs.org/)
|
| Ken Burns defines his purpose in a statement at the beginning of each episode of this colossal if flawed masterpiece: "The Second World War was fought in thousands of places, too many for any one accounting. This is the story of four American towns and how their citizens experienced that war." He presents seven episodes, totaling about fifteen hours, that deftly combine images from public and private archives, and intersperse interviews with not just veterans, but also war workers and families at home. The key to how you evaluate The War is whether you accept Burns's aim and accord dominate weight to the visual narrative. If you do those things, you will toast The War. If you do not, you can manufacture limitless criticism. |
1
|
|
In this medium, imagery vastly trumps text. If anyone questioned Burns's mastery of this format after The Civil War (2002), this production emphatically affirms that he remains one of the masters of documentary imagery. The research that uncovered both the moving and the still images is by itself a triumph. The most jaded connoisseur of the vast treasury of public images from World War II will find that each episode bulges with fresh material, including an amazing amount in color (predominantly from the Pacific theater because the U.S. Navy's big ships could provide refrigeration for the color film stock). Burns takes familiar film sequences and cuts them in novel ways; or, from now-standard stills, he pinpoints an element such as a set of eyes with its own powerful message. The soundtrack and the music likewise reach the first order. |
2
|
|
The historical authenticity of documentaries always poses a vexing challenge. The production reflects a palpable effort to employ event-related images, but those familiar with the film archive, or experts in military paraphernalia, can easily pick out numerous sequences that inject images from different times and places. To give just one example, mingled into a poignant montage of casualties at Anzio, Italy, are images of marines in the Pacific. Burns strives, however, to capture not the literal reality, but the more elusive subjective reality of the war. Unintentionally, Burns provides evidence that even a zealot for pristine authenticity can be tripped up. He employs the familiar but still stunning film of the battleship Arizona blowing up at Pearl Harbor. Through an error in its initial printing that reversed the negative, however, three generations of Americans have been gazing at a mirror image of the cameraman's view. Likewise, in the Battle of the Bulge segment, Burns employs a frequently used set of German newsreel images—which we now know were staged—prominently featuring destroyed and burning American vehicles. |
3
|
|
The greatest and enduring achievement of The War is that it transmits with tremendous force and reasonable accuracy the subjective feel of the experience, the foremost of which is the blood cost. In every episode, both general and specific narratives of actions are massively interspersed with vivid images of the dead and wounded. Particularly striking are numerous sequences of graves registration teams at work. Ordinary prose cannot touch the power of these images in conveying the most horrible element of the feel of the war. |
. . . |
There are about 995 more words in this article.
Please log in (or, if you are not yet an
authorized user, please go to the
User Setup page) to gain full access rights. Or if you're already logged in register your subscription.
|
