The War

Since my back has limited me to doing nothing, I've been spending lots of time flat on my back watching TV. A co-worker mentioned that the new Ken Burns documentary on World War II called The War was airing on PBS starting on Sunday night. I'm actually watching the Part III as I sit typing this up.

The quality of the film is outstanding. Typical Ken Burns. Good stuff, unique perspective. It's a 4 part film, with each part running about 2 hours each. It tells the story from the perspective of four different U.S communities, one of those being Sacramento, California.

The photographs are many I've seen before, including many famous images, but it also includes some fantastic battle footage taken during the war. Battle scenes from the south pacific, air battles over Europe, tank battles from North Africa. All fascinating. The film focuses on the stories that people from these communities lived through.

This is not a sugar coated pro-American glory film. The tone is somber, the images graphic in many cases. It tries to show the war for what it was.

Not sure if PBS is planning on re-airing the documentary, but I highly recommend it.

More info can be found at: http://www.pbs.org/thewar/?campaign=pbshomefeatures_1_thewarbrakenburnsfilm_2007-09-25