Ken Burns = good, very good

Sunday night marked the first installment of the much lauded Ken Burns project, The War. While I tend to avoid overly hyped projects, I figured I'd give it a shot. WOW! I'm not going to bother with a formal review, but it really was that good. Ken Burns is amazing.

The footage was amazing, his storytelling style straightforward, and the characters captivating. What struck me most was how the WWII folks described the day-to-day life of being in a war zone. I guess I'd sort of been brainwashed into viewing WWII as "The Good War" where the noble white hats fought against the forces of evil. Very clear cut. No gray area. As I listened to the vets talk about their daily conduct, though, I was struck by how much they sounded like Vietnam vets. Yes, the guys who fought "The Good War" sounded very much like those who fought in that "other" conflict. One guy admitted that after his unit saw how some U.S. prisoners had been tortured, killed, and mutilated -- well his guys figured out how to dispose of some Japanese prisoners they had at the time and they NEVER TOOK ANOTHER PRISONER after that day! It was chilling to see this great grandpa guy just up and admit that.

No, I'm not saying I enjoyed the segment because it showed American GIs in a bad light. It's just that I saw WWII in a much more "real" way than I ever did in a history book. Sure "Saving Private Ryan" showed WWII was vicious and bloody, but the Burns' interviews made it all more real. I guess war IS hell -- even a noble war such as WWII.

Anyway, I enjoyed the segment and I plan to watch the others, though I'm going to have to rely on my DVR to keep them until I get some free time. The first segment was scheduled to run 2:30, but there was still 30 minutes left when the credits started rolling. What was going on? Well I soon found out.

You may or may not have heard about this and I don't remember all the details, but I'll do the best I can. See, Burns' project was going to air on PBS and I'm sure he got some funding from them or the CPB or some group like that, so Congress figured it could weigh in. As Burns was putting the finishing touches on his project, some members of Congress decided that it needed to be more "balanced". I thought he did a nice job (at least in segment 1) of showing the war's impact on Blacks and Japanese-Americans. Problem was, he didn't specifically mention the Hispanic contribution to America's war effort. Now I'm sure many Hispanics fought for the U.S. in WWII, but is there really a special "Hispanic version of WWII" that a documentary has to have to be viewed as somehow complete? I wouldn't have thought so. Some members of Congress, though, threatened to somehow pull the plug on his documentary unless he inserted a sufficient amount of "Hispanicness" into the project. They "negotiated" and reached a compromise.

Now I'm not trying to join in on the "this P.C. crap is ruining our country" conspiracy, but the compromise took away from segment 1 of The War. Burns had wrapped up the segment on a certain note and (I felt) set the stage for the next segment. Then, after the credits, a new bit started up that rehashed a lot of the stuff in segment 1, but this time with a Hispanic vet telling the story. It just broke the mood that lingered after the conclusion of segment 1 and it was obvious this guy was the "token Hispanic" included to take the heat off Burns. I wasn't offended that a Hispanic vet's story was included, I was offended at the heavy-handed, flow altering way it was done. Maybe I'm being too cynical, but it wasn't just that the extra segment failed to add anything substantive; it actually detracted from the whole thing, in my opinion.

On balance, though, I heartily endorse The War -- at least so far. If you missed segments 1 and 2, I feel sure PBS stations will be reairing them throughout the month. Check it out.