America in WWII - (Page 65) Ken Burns and The‘Good’ War by Tom Huntington heightened to a degree not felt in ordinary life. So war, which is so about. “The historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., just died a couple of obviously repellent and terrifying, also has an aspect to it which is months ago, and he said, many years ago, there’s too much compelling—to some people, attractive. And we wanted to get at pluribus and not enough unum. And he’s absolutely right. I think that essence of what it is. And I think we have.” I’ve devoted most of my professional life to trying to be about One thing that has remained consistent since World War II, Burns unum and no more so than in this film.” says, is the ordinary soldier’s view of battle. War is still war, whether it’s in Iraq or on Tarawa. “We called this film The War,” he says. T’S SOMEWHAT IRONIC, THEN, that the first controversy over “We didn’t call it The Second World War or World War II. Because The War arrived with charges that Burns was not being inclugetting at that experience of what it was like to be in that war, we’re sive enough. Last spring, two groups that represent Hispanic essentially talking about all war. So you could import a soldier from Americans—the American GI Forum and the Hispanic the Iraq War and they would say, ‘Yeah, it’s just like that now.’ You Association of Corporate Responsibility—accused Burns of ignorcould also import a soldier from the Peloponnesian Wars and they ing the contributions Hispanic Americans made to the war effort. would say, ‘Yeah, our officers didn’t know what they were doing. “Part of the problem was that they didn’t want something they They didn’t give us the right equipment. Our spears were shorter knew would become definitive—although how could any film than their spears.’ Whatever it is, it’s all the same.” become definitive about the Second World War?—without their Burns had already started working on his latest film when war inclusion,” says Burns. “I tried to say, ‘Look, we don’t do Irish reached the United States again, on September 11, 2001, with terAmericans, and we don’t do this, and we don’t do that. It’s not rorist attacks that have been compared to about that. We’re after these universal the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Burns human concerns.’ But of course politics and finds the comparison apt, saying that “in art don’t mix. It’s oil and water. They don’t some ways 9/11 is a much more terrifying talk to each other. They couldn’t hear me, so attack.” He goes on to explain that “Pearl I finally thought, well, let me listen to them. Harbor is the most remote place on earth,” So we said, okay, let’s go back and do some while 9/11 made it clear that we can’t count stories. So we found some stories and found on the “two mighty oceans, east and west, also a Native American one which is unbewhich have protected us.” Yet Pearl Harbor lievable, and we’ve just added it to the ends awoke the country as 9/11 did. of a couple of the episodes. And they’re fanBurns found that the World Trade Center tastic. I’ve just been working on them today. The War on PBS attack made his interviews with some of his It’s a way of not leaving the project.” Starting Sunday, September 23, subjects more poignant than they otherwise Early reactions to The War have been The War will air 8-10 P.M. Eastern Time might have been. “I think 9/11 helped to very encouraging, says Burns: “I had a veton PBS stations and PBS High Definition open them up, because they felt such a simieran come up to me in tears after he’d seen Channel, for four nights the first week larity at what was going on,” he says. At the a lot of the film. He said, ‘I’ve waited all of and three nights the second week. same time, there was a sense that in this latmy life for someone to tell it like it really Three episodes will run until 10:30. est war, the country was not coming togethwas. This is the closest I’ve ever seen it.’” See www.pbs.org/thewar and your er. “You can feel a great frustration among Cadets at West Point who saw some scenes local TV listings. that generation for how we’ve handled it, from the series responded with two standing how we’ve squandered the opportunity at unity,” Burns says. ovations, as did an audience in San Francisco a week later. “I just Despite the connections to 9/11 and its consequences, Burns came back from the Cannes Film Festival, where they showed the asserts that his film “does not have an ax to grind or a political entire 141/2 hours of the film,” says Burns. “The French were just bone in its body. It just wants to tell what happened. But audiences weeping, and this film doesn’t deal with the French. We talk about can’t help but think about Iraq or about Abu Ghraib, or torture, the invasion, and we liberate Paris, but it’s not about them. It’s or treatment of prisoners, or weapons. You can’t do it. It doesn’t about us and our perspective, but they saw in our perspective their even matter what your politics are. One hopes that people begin to experience as well. And there was a Czech guy there, and a see how incredibly small politics actually is on the scope of other Norwegian guy there, and a Brit there, and a Russian, and they all things.” Burns believes that art, including documentary filmmakfelt the same way.” ing, has the ability to capture a fuller and far more nuanced picture From pluribus, unum. A of past events than politics and ideology can, and in The War, he says, “I think that’s what we’ve done. Audiences of every different TOM HUNTINGTON is a contributing editor of America in WWII. political stripe have responded so positively to this film.” In addition to frequent feature articles, he writes each issue’s The theme of unity, of cohesion, is something Burns cares Theater of War column on WWII-related films. I OPPOSITE: NATIONAL ARCHIVES. RIGHT: CABLE RISDON Burns (above) acknowledges that the war’s fiercest battles and most horrific losses happened outside the area of America’s participation in World War II. But without American sacrifices, war production, and military involvement—like that of these GIs hanging the Stars and Stripes in Bitche, France, on March 16, 1945 (opposite)—the war would have come to a very different end. OCTOBER 2007 AMERICA IN WWII 65
For optimal viewing of this digital publication, please enable JavaScript and then refresh the page. If you would like to try to load the digital publication without using Flash Player detection, please click here.