🔗 Share this article

The acclaimed documentarian is now considered more than a documentarian; he is a brand, a one-man industrial complex. When he has documentary series premiering on the PBS network, all desire a part of him.

Burns has done “countless podcast appearances”, he says, approaching the conclusion of nine-month promotional tour featuring four dozen cities, numerous film showings and hundreds of interviews. “There seems to be a podcast for every citizen, and I believe I’ve appeared on most of them.”

Thankfully Burns is a force of nature, equally articulate in interviews as he is accomplished in the editing room. The 72-year-old has gone everywhere from Monticello to popular podcasts to talk about a career-defining series: The American Revolution, a comprehensive multi-part historical examination that consumed the past decade of his life and debuted recently on public television.

Timeless Filmmaking Method

Like slow cooking amidst instant gratification culture, The American Revolution proudly conventional, reminiscent of historical documentary classics rather than contemporary online content and podcast series.

However, for the filmmaker, who has built a career chronicling strands of US history spanning various American subjects, its origin story is not just another subject but foundational. “As I mentioned to directing partner Sarah Botstein recently, and she concurred: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns reflects during a telephone interview.

Comprehensive Scholarly Work

The filmmaking team plus scripting partner Geoffrey Ward utilized countless written sources plus archival documents. Dozens of historians, representing diverse viewpoints, provided on-air commentary along with leading scholars covering various specialties such as enslavement studies, indigenous peoples’ narratives plus colonial history.

Characteristic Narrative Method

The film’s approach will seem recognizable to devotees of The Civil War. The characteristic technique included methodical photographic exploration over historical images, generous use of period music with performers voicing historical documents.

Those projects established the filmmaker cemented his status; years later, presently the respected veteran of historical films, he seems able to recruit any actor he chooses. Collaborating with the filmmaker at a New York gathering, acclaimed writer Lin-Manuel Miranda commented: “Nobody declines an invitation from Ken Burns.”

All-Star Cast

The lengthy creation process proved beneficial concerning availability. Recordings took place in recording spaces, on location through digital platforms, a method utilized during the pandemic. The director describes collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who made time during his travels to perform his role portraying the founding father prior to departing to subsequent commitments.

Brolin is joined by Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, household names and rising talent, accomplished dramatic artists, international acting community, skilled dramatic performers, small and big screen veterans, and many others.

Burns adds: “Frankly, this may be the best single cast ever assembled for any movie or television show. Their contributions are remarkable. Selection wasn’t based on fame. I became frustrated when someone asked, about the prominent cast. I responded, ‘These are performers.’ They represent global acting excellence and they animate historical material.”

Historical Complexity

Nevertheless, the absence of living witnesses, modern media required the filmmakers to rely extensively on primary texts, combining individual perspectives of numerous historical characters. This methodology permitted to show spectators beyond the prominent leaders of that era along with multiple essential to the narrative, many of whom lack visual representation.

The filmmaker also explored his individual interest for maps and spatial representation. “I have great affection for cartography,” he observes, “and there are more maps in this project compared to previous works across my complete filmography.”

Global Significance

The production crew recorded across multiple important places across North America plus English locations to document environmental context and collaborated substantially with re-enactors. All these elements combine to tell a story more violent, complex and globally significant than the one taught in schools.

The film maintains, transcended provincial conflict over land, taxation and representation. Rather, the series depicts a brutal conflict that eventually involved more than two dozen nations and unexpectedly manifested termed “the noble aspirations of humankind”.

Brother Against Brother

Initial complaints and protests leveled at London by far-flung British subjects across thirteen rebellious territories soon descended into a brutal civil conflict, setting brother against brother and turning communities into battlegrounds. During the second installment, academic Alan Taylor comments: “The greatest misconception regarding the Revolutionary War is that it was something a consolidating event for colonists. It leaves out the reality that it was a civil war among Americans.”

Historical Complexity

In his view, the revolution is a story that “for most of us is drowning in sentimentality and idealization and lacks depth and fails to properly acknowledge the historical reality, and all the participants and the extensive brutality.

The historian argues, a revolution that proclaimed the revolutionary principle of inherent human rights; a brutal civil war, separating rebels and supporters; plus an international conflict, another installment in a sequence of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for the “prize of North America”.

Uncertain Historical Outcomes

The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the