Ken Burns discussing His Latest Revolutionary War Film Series: ‘We Won’t Work on a More Important Film’

The veteran filmmaker has evolved into beyond being a historical storyteller; his name is a franchise, a one-man industrial complex. When he has documentary series heading for the television, everyone seeks an interview.

Burns has done “countless podcast appearances”, he says, nearing the end of his extensive publicity circuit comprising numerous locations, numerous film showings and hundreds of interviews. “I think there are 340.1m podcasts, one for every American, and I’ve done half of them.”

Thankfully the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, equally articulate in interviews as he is prolific while filmmaking. At seventy-two has traveled from Monticello to mainstream media outlets to discuss a career-defining series: his Revolutionary War documentary, a comprehensive multi-part historical examination that consumed ten years of his career and arrived recently on public television.

Timeless Filmmaking Method

Like slow cooking in today’s rapid-consumption era, The American Revolution intentionally classic, evoking memories of The World at War than the era of streaming docs audio documentaries.

For the documentarian, whose professional life documenting American historical narratives including baseball, country music, jazz and national parks, the nation’s founding is not just another subject but foundational. “I recently told collaborator Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns reflects by phone from New York.

Comprehensive Scholarly Work

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt plus scripting partner Geoffrey Ward drew upon numerous historical volumes plus archival documents. Dozens of historians, representing diverse viewpoints, offered expert analysis in conjunction with distinguished researchers covering various specialties such as enslavement studies, Native American history and the British empire.

Characteristic Narrative Method

The film’s approach will feel familiar to devotees of The Civil War. The unique approach incorporated slow pans and zooms across still photos, extensive employment of contemporary scores and actors interpreting primary sources.

Those projects established Burns established his reputation; years later, now the doyen of documentaries, he can attract any actor he chooses. Participating with Burns at a New York gathering, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “When Ken Burns calls, you say ‘Yes.’”

All-Star Cast

The lengthy creation process proved beneficial in terms of flexibility. Sessions happened in recording spaces, on location and remotely via Zoom, an approach adopted during the pandemic. The director describes collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours in Atlanta to perform his role portraying the founding father prior to departing to other professional obligations.

Brolin is joined by Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, accomplished dramatic artists, British and American talent, skilled dramatic performers, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep.

Burns adds: “Truly, this might be the most exceptional group ever assembled for any movie or television show. Their contributions are remarkable. Selection wasn’t based on fame. It irritated me when questioned, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I go, ‘These are actors.’ They are among the world’s best performers and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Nuanced Narrative

However, the lack of surviving participants, photography and newsreels compelled the production to lean heavily on the written word, weaving together the first-person voices of nearly 200 individual historic figures. This methodology permitted to show spectators not just the famous founders of the founders along with multiple crucial to understanding, many of whom lack visual representation.

The filmmaker also explored his particular enthusiasm for territorial understanding. “Maps fascinate me,” he notes, “featuring increased geographical representation in this project compared to previous works I’ve done combined.”

Worldwide Consequences

The team filmed at nearly a hundred historical locations in various American regions and British sites to document environmental context and partnered extensively with re-enactors. Various aspects converge to tell a story more bloody, multifaceted and world-changing than the one taught in schools.

The film maintains, transcended provincial conflict concerning territory, taxes and political voice. Conversely, the project presents a blood-soaked struggle that finally engaged more than two dozen nations and unexpectedly manifested described as “mankind’s greatest hopes”.

Civil War Reality

Early dissatisfaction and objections leveled at London by far-flung British subjects throughout multiple disputatious regions soon descended into a vicious internal war, dividing communities and households and turning communities into battlegrounds. During the second installment, academic Alan Taylor comments: “The primary misunderstanding regarding the Revolutionary War involves believing it represented that unified Americans. It leaves out the reality that colonists battled fellow colonists.”

Sophisticated Interpretation

For him, the independence account that “for most of us is overwhelmed by emotionalism and nostalgia and lacks depth and doesn’t have the respect actual events, and all the participants and the incredible violence of it.

It was, he contends, an uprising that declared the revolutionary principle of the unalienable rights of people; a bloody domestic struggle, separating rebels and supporters; and a global war, the fourth in a series of wars between imperial nations for the “prize of North America”.

Uncertain Historical Outcomes

The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the