🔗 Share this article

The veteran filmmaker has become not just a documentarian; he represents an institution, a one-man industrial complex. Whenever he releases project premiering on the PBS network, everybody wants his attention.

Burns has done “countless podcast appearances”, he remarks, nearing the end of his marathon promotional journey comprising four dozen cities, 80 screenings plus countless media sessions. “There seems to be a podcast for every citizen, and I believe I’ve appeared on most of them.”

Thankfully Burns possesses boundless energy, as expressive in conversation as he is productive while filmmaking. The 72-year-old has gone everywhere from historical sites to The Joe Rogan Experience to talk about his latest monumental work: his Revolutionary War documentary, an extensive six-episode, twelve-hour film project that occupied ten years of his career and debuted this week on public television.

Timeless Filmmaking Method

Comparable to methodical preparation in today’s rapid-consumption era, this documentary series is defiantly traditional, reminiscent of The World at War than the era of streaming docs and podcast series.

But for Burns, whose entire filmography exploring national heritage spanning various American subjects, its origin story represents more than another topic but fundamental. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein recently, and she concurred: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns states from his New York base.

Extensive Historical Investigation

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt and screenwriter Geoffrey Ward drew upon countless written sources and primary source materials. Dozens of historians, representing diverse viewpoints, provided on-air commentary in conjunction with distinguished researchers covering various specialties such as enslavement studies, first nations scholarship plus colonial history.

Distinctive Filmmaking Approach

The style of the series will seem recognizable to viewers of Burns’ earlier work. The unique approach featured slow pans and zooms over historical images, generous use of period music and actors reading diaries, letters and speeches.

This period represented Burns established his reputation; years later, now the doyen of documentaries, he seems able to recruit any actor he chooses. Collaborating with the filmmaker during a recent appearance, acclaimed writer Lin-Manuel Miranda commented: “When Ken Burns calls, you say ‘Yes.’”

Extraordinary Talent

The decade-long production schedule also helped in terms of flexibility. Sessions happened in studios, at historical sites and remotely via Zoom, a tool embraced throughout the health crisis. Burns recounts collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours during his travels to perform his role as the revolutionary leader prior to departing to his next engagement.

The cast includes numerous acclaimed actors, established Hollywood talent, diverse creative professionals, household names and rising talent, celebrated film and stage performers, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Tobias Menzies, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, small and big screen veterans, plus additional notable names.

The filmmaker continues: “Truly, this might be the most exceptional group recruited for any project. Their work is exceptional. They’re not picked because they’re celebrities. I became frustrated when someone asked, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I responded, ‘These are performers.’ They are among the world’s best performers and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Multifaceted Story

Nevertheless, the lack of surviving participants, visual documentation required the filmmakers to depend substantially on primary texts, integrating individual perspectives of numerous historical characters. This methodology permitted to show spectators beyond the prominent leaders of the revolution plus numerous additional who are seminal to the story”, several participants remain visually unknown.

Burns additionally pursued his particular enthusiasm for maps and spatial representation. “Maps fascinate me,” he notes, “and there are more maps in this project compared to previous works I’ve done combined.”

International Impact

The team filmed at numerous significant sites in various American regions plus English locations to document environmental context and worked extensively with historical interpreters. These components unite to depict events more violent, complex and globally significant than the one taught in schools.

The revolution, it contends, represented more than local dispute about property, revenue and governance. Conversely, the project presents a blood-soaked struggle that finally engaged numerous countries and improbably came to embody termed “mankind’s greatest hopes”.

Internal Conflict Truth

Initial complaints and protests aimed at the crown by American colonists in 13 fractious colonies soon descended into a vicious internal war, setting brother against brother and turning communities into battlegrounds. During the second installment, scholar Alan Taylor notes: “The greatest misconception about the American Revolution centers on assuming it constituted a unifying experience for colonists. This ignores the truth that colonists battled fellow colonists.”

Historical Complexity

According to his perspective, the revolutionary narrative that “generally is overwhelmed by emotionalism and nostalgia and lacks depth and insufficiently honors actual events, and all the participants and the extensive brutality.

The historian argues, a movement that announced the world-changing idea of fundamental personal liberties; a vicious internal conflict, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; and a worldwide engagement, continuing previous patterns of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for the “prize of North America”.

Contingent Historical Events

Burns also wanted {to rediscover the