Ken Burns on His American Revolution Film Series: ‘We Won’t Work on a More Important Film’
The acclaimed documentarian has evolved into not just a historical storyteller; he is a brand, an unparalleled production entity. Whenever he releases project heading for the PBS network, everyone seeks his attention.
The filmmaker completed “more fucking podcasts than I ever thought possible”, he says, approaching the conclusion of nine-month promotional tour featuring 40 cities, 80 screenings and hundreds of interviews. “I think there are 340.1m podcasts, one for every American, and I’ve done half of them.”
Fortunately the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, equally articulate in interviews as he is productive during post-production. The veteran director has appeared at locations ranging from historical sites to mainstream media outlets to discuss a career-defining series: his Revolutionary War documentary, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that consumed the past decade of his life and debuted currently on public television.
Classic Documentary Style
Similar to traditional cooking in an age of fast food, The American Revolution proudly conventional, more redolent of The World at War as opposed to modern online content audio documentaries.
But for Burns, whose entire filmography documenting American historical narratives covering diverse cultural topics, its origin story is not just another subject but essential. “As I mentioned to directing partner Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns contemplates by phone from New York.
Extensive Historical Investigation
Burns and his collaborators and screenwriter Geoffrey Ward drew upon countless written sources plus archival documents. Numerous scholars, representing diverse viewpoints, contributed scholarly insights in conjunction with distinguished researchers representing multiple disciplines including slavery, Native American history and the British empire.
Distinctive Filmmaking Approach
The film’s approach will appear similar to viewers of Burns’ earlier work. The unique approach included gradual camera movements over historical images, abundant historical musical selections with performers interpreting primary sources.
That was the moment Burns established his reputation; decades afterwards, presently the respected veteran of historical films, he seems able to recruit virtually any performer. Collaborating with the filmmaker at a New York gathering, acclaimed writer Lin-Manuel Miranda commented: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”
Extraordinary Talent
The lengthy creation process also helped regarding scheduling. Sessions happened in studios, in relevant places through digital platforms, an approach adopted during the pandemic. Burns explains working with Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours while in Georgia to record his lines as George Washington prior to departing to other professional obligations.
Brolin is joined by multiple distinguished artists, respected performing veterans, diverse creative professionals, multiple generations of actors, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Keaton, Tracy Letts, British and American talent, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep.
The filmmaker continues: “Truly, this might be the most exceptional group ever assembled for any movie or television show. They do an extraordinary service. Their celebrity status wasn’t the criteria. I got so angry when somebody said, regarding the famous participants. I responded, ‘These are performers.’ They represent global acting excellence and they vitalize these narratives.”
Nuanced Narrative
However, the absence of living witnesses, modern media compelled the production to lean heavily on primary texts, weaving together the first-person voices of multiple revolutionary participants. This allowed them to present viewers not just the famous founders of the founders along with multiple who are seminal to the story”, several participants never even had a portrait painted.
Burns also indulged his individual interest for territorial understanding. “Maps fascinate me,” he comments, “and there are more maps in this film than in all the other films I’ve done combined.”
International Impact
The production crew recorded across multiple important places throughout the continent and British sites to document environmental context and worked extensively with living history participants. Various aspects converge to depict events more bloody, multifaceted and world-changing than the one taught in schools.
The documentary argues, was no mere parochial quarrel about property, revenue and governance. Conversely, the project presents a blood-soaked struggle that ultimately drew in multiple global powers and unexpectedly manifested what it calls “mankind’s greatest hopes”.
Internal Conflict Truth
Early dissatisfaction and objections leveled at London by far-flung British subjects across thirteen rebellious territories soon descended into a bloody domestic struggle, pitting family members against each other and neighbour against neighbour. In episode two, scholar Alan Taylor notes: “The main misapprehension regarding the Revolutionary War involves believing it represented a consolidating event for colonists. It leaves out the reality that colonists battled fellow colonists.”
Historical Complexity
In his view, the independence account that “for most of us suffers from excessive romance and nostalgia and is incredibly superficial and doesn’t have the respect for what actually took place, and all the participants and the incredible violence of it.
The historian argues, an uprising that declared the transformative concept of the unalienable rights of people; a vicious internal conflict, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; and a global war, the fourth in a series of wars between imperial nations for the “prize of North America”.
Unpredictable Historical Moments
The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the