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Ken Burns is now considered more than a documentarian; he is a brand, a one-man industrial complex. With each new documentary series heading for the PBS network, everyone seeks an interview.

The filmmaker completed “more fucking podcasts than I ever thought possible”, he says, nearing the end of nine-month promotional tour comprising numerous locations, 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.”

Fortunately Burns possesses boundless energy, as loquacious behind the mic as he is prolific in the editing room. The veteran director has gone everywhere from historical sites to popular podcasts to promote a career-defining series: his Revolutionary War documentary, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that occupied the past decade of his life and premiered currently on public television.

Timeless Filmmaking Method

Similar to traditional cooking in an age of fast food, The American Revolution intentionally classic, more redolent of The World at War as opposed to modern digital documentaries and podcast series.

For the documentarian, whose entire filmography exploring national heritage including baseball, country music, jazz and national parks, its origin story represents more than another topic but essential. “As I mentioned to directing partner Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: we won’t work on a more important film Burns contemplates during a telephone interview.

Massive Research Effort

Burns and his collaborators and screenwriter Geoffrey Ward utilized thousands of books plus archival documents. Dozens of historians, representing diverse viewpoints, contributed scholarly insights along with leading scholars from a range of other fields like African American history, first nations scholarship and the British empire.

Distinctive Filmmaking Approach

The documentary’s methodology will seem recognizable to fans of historical documentaries. The characteristic technique incorporated methodical photographic exploration over historical images, generous use of period music and actors interpreting primary sources.

That was the moment Burns built his legacy; decades afterwards, currently the elder statesman of documentary filmmaking, he can apparently summon virtually any performer. Participating with Burns at a recent event, the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda observed: “Nobody declines an invitation from Ken Burns.”

Remarkable Ensemble

The decade-long production schedule provided advantages in terms of flexibility. Filming occurred in studios, in relevant places using online technology, a method utilized during the pandemic. Burns recounts the experience with performer Josh Brolin, who scheduled a brief window in Atlanta to voice his character as the revolutionary leader prior to departing to other professional obligations.

The cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, respected performing veterans, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, multiple generations of actors, celebrated film and stage performers, British and American talent, versatile character actors, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, plus additional notable names.

The filmmaker continues: “Truly, this might be the most exceptional group recruited for any project. Their work is exceptional. Selection wasn’t based on fame. I got so angry when somebody said, regarding the famous participants. I responded, ‘These are performers.’ They represent global acting excellence and they animate historical material.”

Nuanced Narrative

However, no contemporary observers remain, photography and newsreels forced Burns and his team to lean heavily on primary texts, integrating the first-person voices of multiple revolutionary participants. This methodology permitted to introduce audiences not just the famous founders of the revolution along with multiple essential to the narrative, several participants never even had a portrait painted.

Burns additionally pursued his particular enthusiasm for geography and cartography. “I have great affection for cartography,” he notes, “featuring increased geographical representation in this film than in all the other films across my complete filmography.”

Global Significance

The team filmed across multiple important places across North America and British sites to capture the landscape’s character and worked extensively with historical interpreters. Various aspects converge to tell a story more brutal, complicated and internationally important than the one taught in schools.

The film maintains, was no mere parochial quarrel over land, taxation and representation. Instead the film portrays a violent confrontation that eventually involved numerous countries and surprisingly represented what it calls “the noble aspirations of humankind”.

Brother Against Brother

What had begun as a jumble of grievances directed toward Britain by colonial residents in 13 fractious colonies quickly evolved into a brutal civil conflict, dividing communities and households and neighbour against neighbour. In episode two, 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 it was a civil war among Americans.”

Sophisticated Interpretation

For him, the revolution is a story that “for most of us suffers from excessive romance and nostalgia and lacks depth and fails to properly acknowledge for what actually took place, every individual involved and the incredible violence of it.

Taylor maintains, a revolution that proclaimed the transformative concept of inherent human rights; a bloody domestic struggle, separating rebels and supporters; and a global war, another installment in a sequence of wars between imperial nations for the “prize of North America”.

Unpredictable Historical Moments

Burns additionally aimed {to rediscover the