Ken Burns reflecting on His Latest War of Independence Documentary: ‘We Won’t Work on a More Important Film’

Ken Burns has become more than a filmmaker; he is a brand, a one-man industrial complex. When he has documentary series heading for the PBS network, everybody wants an interview.

He participated in “an astonishing number of podcasts”, he remarks, approaching the conclusion of his extensive publicity circuit comprising 40 cities, 80 screenings and innumerable conversations. “I think there are 340.1m podcasts, one for every American, and I’ve done half of them.”

Fortunately Burns is a force of nature, equally articulate in interviews as he is productive during post-production. The veteran director has gone everywhere from historical sites to The Joe Rogan Experience to promote one of his most ambitious projects: this historical epic, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that occupied ten years of his career and premiered this week through the public broadcasting service.

Classic Documentary Style

Like slow cooking in an age of fast food, The American Revolution is defiantly traditional, reminiscent of historical documentary classics rather than contemporary online content audio documentaries.

However, for the filmmaker, whose entire filmography documenting American historical narratives spanning various American subjects, its origin story is not just another subject but fundamental. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein recently, and she concurred: we won’t work on a more important film Burns states during a telephone interview.

Extensive Historical Investigation

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt plus scripting partner Geoffrey Ward referenced countless written sources and other historical materials. Numerous scholars, spanning age and perspective, contributed scholarly insights in conjunction with distinguished researchers covering various specialties including slavery, indigenous peoples’ narratives plus colonial history.

Characteristic Narrative Method

The documentary’s methodology will seem recognizable to devotees of The Civil War. The unique approach incorporated methodical photographic exploration over historical images, generous use of period music with performers voicing historical documents.

Those projects established the filmmaker cemented his status; a generation later, currently the elder statesman of documentary filmmaking, he seems able to recruit any actor he chooses. Appearing alongside Burns during a recent appearance, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”

All-Star Cast

The lengthy creation process also helped in terms of flexibility. Recordings took place at professional facilities, at historical sites and remotely via Zoom, a method utilized amid COVID restrictions. The director describes collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours during his travels to voice his character as the revolutionary leader prior to departing to other professional obligations.

The cast includes multiple distinguished artists, established Hollywood talent, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, celebrated film and stage performers, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Tobias Menzies, skilled dramatic performers, small and big screen veterans, plus additional notable names.

Burns adds: “Frankly, this may be the best single cast ever assembled for any movie or television show. Their contributions are remarkable. Their celebrity status wasn’t the criteria. I became frustrated when someone asked, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I explained, ‘These are artists.’ They represent global acting excellence and they vitalize these narratives.”

Historical Complexity

Nevertheless, the lack of surviving participants, photography and newsreels required the filmmakers to depend substantially on historical documents, weaving together personal accounts of multiple revolutionary participants. This allowed them to present viewers beyond the prominent leaders of the founders along with multiple crucial to understanding, numerous individuals lack visual representation.

Burns additionally pursued his personal passion for territorial understanding. “I love maps,” he observes, “and there are more maps in this project compared to previous works throughout my entire career.”

Global Significance

The team filmed at nearly a hundred historical locations across North America and British sites to capture the landscape’s character and collaborated substantially with living history participants. These components unite to depict events more violent, complex and globally significant compared to standard education.

The revolution, it contends, represented more than local dispute about property, revenue and governance. Rather, the series depicts a brutal conflict that eventually involved numerous countries and improbably came to embody termed “mankind’s greatest hopes”.

Civil War Reality

Early dissatisfaction and objections leveled at London by far-flung British subjects in 13 fractious colonies soon descended into a vicious internal war, pitting family members against each other and turning communities into battlegrounds. During the second installment, the historian Alan Taylor observes: “The greatest misconception about the American Revolution centers on assuming it constituted that unified Americans. This omits the fact that colonists battled fellow colonists.”

Sophisticated Interpretation

For him, the revolutionary narrative that “typically is overwhelmed by emotionalism and wistful remembrance and remains shallow and doesn’t have the respect the historical reality, all contributors and the widespread bloodshed.”

It was, he contends, a movement that announced the world-changing idea of the unalienable rights of people; a bloody domestic struggle, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; and a global war, the fourth in a series of struggles among European powers for control of the continent.

Unpredictable Historical Moments

Burns also wanted {to rediscover the