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I for really enjoy Burns films, his work on Baseball was legendary and if we get half the effort on his WWII project we are in for another treat

http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

Premiers tonight on PBS

Some video clips

http://www.pbs.org/thewar/video_clips.htm

He's a superb documentary maker. I've enjoyed everything he's done thus far and am really looking forward to this.

Cheers, Neilster

ORIGINAL: Sarge


I for really enjoy Burns films, his work on Baseball was legendary and if we get half the effort on his WWII project we are in for another treat

http://www.pbs.org/thewar/

Premiers tonight on PBS

Of course I will be watching/taping, as I did the whole Baseball series.

I lost interest in modern baseball completely with the Pete Rose/Hall of Fame problem and the fact that modern ballplayers no longer make "4 times the salary of the common fan"(as quoted from Burns' documentary.....)

I hope he never does a series on basketball.
I have issues with the current Indiana Pacers giving up basketball and renting their fine new fieldhouse to a firearms club.

I'm really looking forward to this series. Starts at 8pm ET tonight. It'd be good to see PBS being a ratings winner for primetime, just to prove that folks have not grown tired of quality TV programming.

I was watching football at a friend's (46" HD...) and forgot to tape this. any early reviews of episode 1?

It was good for what it was.. he does great work.. it is NOT the entire WW2 in a complete sense, nor does it claim to be. That would be a rather LONG affair! Instead it is a look at the war from a US perspective. Would be a great teaching tool for those .. youngins' who have little knowledgge.

This is definitely "The War " as viewed from the American perspective. There is frontline footage I've never seen before, and part I ends with a great account of Evans Carlson's 2nd Raider Bn and their "Long March" on Guadalcanal. This episode is too often overlooked, as this unit operated independently from the main force Marine units defending the Henderson Field perimeter.

The homefront focus is on four American towns/cities, in Connecticut, Minnesota, California and Alabama.

To teach kids and undereducated adults how this "Necessary War" affected America, and the world, it will become a standard video-history presentation. Burns strikes a nice balance between generalizations and detail. This in itself is a masterful achievement.

I like the fact Burns didn’t sugarcoat Macarthur actions in the Philippines , outright lying to his troops that relief was on its way, and his lack of urgency to secure the airfields after Pearl .

Keeping his aircraft wing to wing did prove extremely costly.

I am really surprised KG your not a huge WITP fan [&:]

After two episodes, I'm inclined to say it's about what I expected.  The footage is terrific, the veteran's stories are riveting, the accounts of the folks on the home front are very interesting, and it falls painfully short as a narrative of key military events, with some major operations mentioned only in passing.  Considering "The War" isn't trying to be "World at War", this is OK.
 
The show tends to show view events through the prism of race relations, pretty standard for Burns.  The one thing that struck me along this line is the Marine Raider vet talking about how the Raiders were a big melting pot, with any racial/cultural differences not lasting beyond the stress of training and battle.  There is a little irony there in that his story was only added after there was an uproar about the lack of "Hispanic perspective", and Burns added this material to make the show more inclusive. 
 
 

Agreed, I would pay to own a  "Ken Burnes" styled ww2 exhustive documentary.

After seeing two parts now, I don't think I would be able to sit through an exhaustive documentary of all of WWII.
Even though I have seen a few minor errors, they don't detract from the film.
I get the feeling this film says "This is what our generation did. Now, how about you! Will you rise to the challenge?"

But, I dont think we will have to worry about that. Such a film would be far too long.
Personally I have studied WWII for longer than I care to admit and I am still turning up new tidbits I did not know before.

Ken needs to do a film on civil rights, not WWII

Oh, and by the way Babe die…..that was pathetic [8|]

ORIGINAL: Sarge

Ken needs to do a film on civil rights, not WWII

Oh, and by the way Babe die…..that was pathetic [8|]

I'm sure his family thought so.

I want a good eastern front documentary...

ORIGINAL: freeboy

I want a good eastern front documentary...

Wasn't there one done with Burt Lancaster narrating? I don't recall if it was good or not.

And....the Sullivan brothers were from Waterloo, Iowa not Fredericksburg.

"Corporate funding for the war is provided by...."   [X(]
 
These are the first words you hear at the beginning of every episode.[;)] 

ORIGINAL: TheBloodyBucket

ORIGINAL: freeboy

I want a good eastern front documentary...

Wasn't there one done with Burt Lancaster narrating? I don't recall if it was good or not.

Yes. If my memory is correct it was called "Russia's War". Probably at least 20 years ago, maybe longer. Interesting but pretty much written by Soviets in the party sanctioned style. (Don't everyone get all pushed out of shape with that statement. It was common for Soviet writing to following specific party guidelines. Just a common fact of the cold war.) Burt Lancaster was from a family of emigrants from the Soviet Union and thus was an excellent choice for narrator. Not a bad series but did bog down at times when the "Great Patriotic War" theme got a little carried away. Guess you'd have to see this series to really know what I mean. It's worth seeing to get the Soviet point of view.