Review: The War

By: Erik Swift

October 2007

DVD Features Video: 1.85:1 Audio:Dolby Digital 5.1 Dolby Digital 2.0 Making The War Featurette Commentary by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick Exclusive Deleted Scenes Additional Interviews Biographies Photo Gallery Educational Resources Original Airdates: September 2007 DVD released on 10/02/2007 by PBS Home Video Running time of 840 minutes Director: Ken Burns

Ken Burns’ “The War” is his latest ambitious attempt to chronicle a massive event. The film’s focus on four American towns (Sacramento, Luverne, Mobile and Waterbury) and the effects of World War II upon their residents is a brilliant structural concept. Ignoring the reality TV and DVD extra norm – having historians filling in the gaps – is a smart move by Burns and co-director Lynn Novick, and snagging the old-timers is gratifying and fresh. The youngest veterans are now in their early eighties, and last year’s 65^th anniversary service at Pearl Harbor proved there aren’t many left. Burns and Novick score by giving those faces to the Myspace generation, and marvelous anecdotes parallel a country’s descent into “The War.”

 Best illustrating the tagline of the sprawling six-DVD set, that in extraordinary times there are no ordinary lives, is Burns’ most natural subject Dwain Luce. The easy-going Alabama native keeps his statements simple and honest (crediting the Germans when they deserve it) and often adds his region’s humorous charm into his recollections. Others’ comments epitomize the horrors of war (Bill Lansford, a Marine who bluntly ends two episodes, is one nasty guy anyone would want on their side in an alley), its comedy (Abe Leopold’s love for the inherent beauty of chocolate-flavored roast beef) and its toll (the letters of Corardo “Babe” Ciarlo to his family). America’s warts are unflinchingly presented via footage from the internment camps that citizens of Japanese ancestry were herded into, and racial tensions within the military and on Mobile’s crowded streets. Segments also highlight industries erupting out of the crisis (factories pumping out B-52s almost hourly), stories of incredible valor (any moment Bataan and prison camp survivor Glenn Frazier is on-screen) and countless tragedies (one third of North Africa’s first round of American veterans would suffer psychiatric disorders from combat; 45 soldiers from Red Oak, Iowa would die or go missing in the same campaign).

 Burns’ recurrent use of diaries makes little-known tales shine, whether providing insightful criticisms from Mobile’s Eugene Sledge on the shores of Peleliu or an eye into the waning innocence of Sacramento’s Sascha Weinzheimer, a nine-year-old whose family found themselves in a Manila prison camp soon after the Japanese invasion of the Philippines. Perhaps the documentary filmmaker’s coup is getting Joe Medicine Crow, 94, a Native American Crow Indian whose story ends the “FUBAR” episode. The noted author, historian and lecturer nearly became the last Crow warrior chief with his service in Europe, and his priceless account is pure treasure mined by Burns and Novick.

 Problems do exist. Breezing through towering figures (Hitler, Patton, MacArthur) that deserve deeper profiles turns “The War” into a fifteen-hour Cliff Notes session…but still manages to be so long no one should be blamed for thinking Roosevelt was president when it started. This is the catch-22 when cramming World War II into seven episodes, but it doesn’t come close to the frequent, awful use of Norah Jones’ “American Anthem” throughout “The War.” The soundtrack uses tunes to keep viewers in the era; this jolting contemporary exception reverses any mood and should have only ended the film. It brings “The War” to a screeching halt every time she’s heard.

 Visually, both the color and black-and-white negatives look amazing but the sound effects are too clean and almost Michael Bay-ish. However, its footage is easy to view because the quality is astoundingly good. Be glad to see grainy and scratched 8- or 16-mm film – that it made it this far, from Russia and the Pacific to Europe and Africa and back, is a gift. The DVD set handsomely keeps six discs in a book, and the extras on the final DVD have several not to miss. “Operation Cobra” notes the worst friendly fire incident of World War II, while “Returning Fathers” benefits from Tom Hanks’ gentle narration. The segment about Weinzheimer’s return to the mainland wraps her family’s happy ending with a bow, and of the additional interviews, watch Barbara Covington encounter the unseen wounds of war. The extra words of Luverne’s Quentin Aanenson, a quiet speaker with a steel backbone, are also worth your time. After fifteen hours, feel free to skip the making-of documentary on the first DVD.

 Overall, “The War” tastes great while being slightly less filling than 1990’s “The Civil War,” briefly the highest-rated program on PBS. Additionally, hearing veterans’ and civilians’ reasons for backing their country is invigorating given today’s present conflicts for the United States. Their unwavering support to squash those that mess with their homeland could not come from another source. Hired historians don’t cry – they can’t - and the beauty of “The War” is that it captures people who do, those who served their country when it needed them most and whose emotions still run deep for opponents, friends and family members decades later. Lansford succinctly states, “We weren’t heroes, we were just guys who were there and we did what we were supposed to do.” From Pearl Harbor to Pearl Olsen, their stories are heard in “The War.”

Reviewer’s Opinion: RENT IT!!