🔗 Share this article

The veteran filmmaker has become beyond being a filmmaker; he represents an institution, a one-man industrial complex. Whenever he releases documentary series arriving on the television, everybody wants a part of him.

Burns has done “an astonishing number of podcasts”, he notes, approaching the conclusion of nine-month promotional tour comprising 40 cities, numerous film showings plus countless media sessions. “There seems to be a podcast for every citizen, and I believe I’ve appeared on most of them.”

Happily the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, as expressive in conversation as he is productive while filmmaking. At seventy-two has gone everywhere from historical sites to popular podcasts to promote one of his most ambitious projects: his Revolutionary War documentary, an extensive six-episode, twelve-hour film project that occupied a substantial portion of his recent years and debuted this week on PBS.

Defiantly Traditional Approach

Like slow cooking in today’s rapid-consumption era, The American Revolution is defiantly traditional, evoking memories of historical documentary classics as opposed to modern online content new media formats.

However, for the filmmaker, whose entire filmography chronicling strands of US history covering diverse cultural topics, the revolutionary period is not just another subject but foundational. “I recently told collaborator Sarah Botstein recently, and she concurred: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns states by phone from New York.

Extensive Historical Investigation

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt plus scripting partner Geoffrey Ward drew upon countless written sources plus archival documents. Multiple academic experts, spanning age and perspective, offered expert analysis along with leading scholars representing multiple disciplines including slavery, indigenous peoples’ narratives and the British empire.

Signature Documentary Style

The documentary’s methodology will seem recognizable to fans of historical documentaries. The unique approach featured gradual camera movements over historical images, generous use of period music with performers voicing historical documents.

This period represented the filmmaker cemented his status; decades afterwards, now the doyen of documentaries, he seems able to recruit virtually any performer. Participating with Burns at a recent event, acclaimed writer Lin-Manuel Miranda commented: “Nobody declines an invitation from Ken Burns.”

All-Star Cast

The extended filming period provided advantages regarding scheduling. Filming occurred at professional facilities, in relevant places using online technology, a tool embraced during the pandemic. The director describes collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours in Atlanta to record his lines portraying the founding father before flying off to his next engagement.

Brolin is joined by Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, established Hollywood talent, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, multiple generations of actors, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Keaton, Tracy Letts, international acting community, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, television and film stars, plus additional notable names.

Burns emphasizes: “Honestly, this could represent the finest ensemble recruited for any project. Their work is exceptional. Their celebrity status wasn’t the criteria. I got so angry when somebody said, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I responded, ‘These are performers.’ They’re the finest actors in the world and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Nuanced Narrative

However, no contemporary observers remain, visual documentation compelled the production to lean heavily on primary texts, weaving together individual perspectives of numerous historical characters. This methodology permitted to present viewers beyond the prominent leaders of the founders plus numerous additional essential to the narrative, numerous individuals remain visually unknown.

The filmmaker also explored his personal passion for territorial understanding. “I love maps,” he notes, “and there are more maps in this project compared to previous works throughout my entire career.”

Worldwide Consequences

Filmmakers captured footage at nearly a hundred historical locations across North America and British sites to document environmental context and worked extensively with re-enactors. All these elements combine to depict events more violent, complex and globally significant than the one taught in schools.

The revolution, it contends, represented more than local dispute concerning territory, taxes and political voice. Instead the film portrays a blood-soaked struggle that finally engaged numerous countries and surprisingly represented described as “humanity’s highest ideals”.

Civil War Reality

What had begun as a jumble of grievances leveled at London by far-flung British subjects across thirteen rebellious territories soon descended into a brutal civil conflict, pitting family members against each other and neighbour against neighbour. During the second installment, the historian Alan Taylor observes: “The primary misunderstanding regarding the Revolutionary War centers on assuming it constituted a consolidating event for colonists. It leaves out the reality that colonists battled fellow colonists.”

Sophisticated Interpretation

According to his perspective, the revolutionary narrative that “for most of us is overwhelmed by emotionalism and nostalgia and is incredibly superficial and fails to properly acknowledge the historical reality, and all the participants and the widespread bloodshed.”

The historian argues, an uprising that declared the revolutionary principle of fundamental personal liberties; a brutal civil war, pitting Patriots against Loyalists; and a worldwide engagement, another installment in a sequence of wars between imperial nations for the “prize of North America”.

Uncertain Historical Outcomes

Burns also wanted {to rediscover the