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The acclaimed documentarian has become beyond being a historical storyteller; he represents an institution, an unparalleled production entity. With each new project arriving on the small screen, everyone seeks an interview.

He participated in “more fucking podcasts than I ever thought possible”, he says, wrapping up of his marathon promotional journey comprising four dozen cities, dozens of preview events plus countless media sessions. “With podcasts numbering in the hundreds of millions, I feel I’ve participated in a substantial portion.”

Thankfully Burns is a force of nature, equally articulate in interviews as he is accomplished while filmmaking. The veteran director has gone everywhere from prestigious venues to The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss his latest monumental work: his Revolutionary War documentary, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that occupied the past decade of his life and debuted this week on PBS.

Defiantly Traditional Approach

Comparable to methodical preparation in an age of fast food, this documentary series is defiantly traditional, reminiscent of historical documentary classics as opposed to modern digital documentaries and podcast series.

For the documentarian, whose professional life chronicling strands of US history covering diverse cultural topics, the revolutionary period is not just another subject but fundamental. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein the other day, and she agreed: this represents our most significant project Burns contemplates from his New York base.

Comprehensive Scholarly Work

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt plus scripting partner Geoffrey Ward referenced countless written sources plus archival documents. Dozens of historians, representing diverse viewpoints, contributed scholarly insights along with leading scholars from a range of other fields like African American history, Native American history plus colonial history.

Signature Documentary Style

The film’s approach will seem recognizable to fans of historical documentaries. The unique approach included gradual camera movements over historical images, generous use of period music and actors reading diaries, letters and speeches.

Those projects established Burns built his legacy; a generation later, now the doyen of documentaries, he can apparently summon any actor he chooses. Participating with Burns at a New York gathering, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”

Remarkable Ensemble

The lengthy creation process provided advantages concerning availability. Filming occurred at professional facilities, at historical sites and remotely via Zoom, an approach adopted during the pandemic. Burns explains the experience with performer Josh Brolin, who scheduled a brief window during his travels to perform his role portraying the founding father before flying off to subsequent commitments.

Brolin is joined by Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, established Hollywood talent, diverse creative professionals, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, celebrated film and stage performers, British and American talent, skilled dramatic performers, television and film stars, and many others.

The filmmaker continues: “Truly, this might be the most exceptional group recruited for any project. Their contributions are remarkable. Their celebrity status wasn’t the criteria. It irritated me when questioned, about the prominent cast. I explained, ‘These are artists.’ They’re the finest actors in the world and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Nuanced Narrative

Nevertheless, the absence of living witnesses, photography and newsreels forced Burns and his team to depend substantially on the written word, weaving together individual perspectives of nearly 200 individual historic figures. This methodology permitted to show spectators beyond the prominent leaders of that era plus numerous additional crucial to understanding, numerous individuals remain visually unknown.

Burns additionally pursued his individual interest for maps and spatial representation. “I love maps,” he notes, “and there are more maps throughout this series versus earlier productions throughout my entire career.”

International Impact

Filmmakers captured footage at nearly a hundred historical locations throughout the continent and British sites to preserve geographical atmosphere and worked extensively with re-enactors. All these elements combine to present a narrative more violent, complex and globally significant versus conventional understanding.

The documentary argues, was no mere parochial quarrel over land, taxation and representation. Conversely, the project presents a violent confrontation that finally engaged multiple global powers and improbably came to embody described as “the noble aspirations of humankind”.

Brother Against Brother

What had begun as a jumble of grievances aimed at the crown by American colonists in 13 fractious colonies quickly evolved into a bloody domestic struggle, setting brother against brother and neighbour against neighbour. During the second installment, academic Alan Taylor comments: “The primary misunderstanding regarding the Revolutionary War centers on assuming it constituted a consolidating event for colonists. This ignores the truth that Americans fought each other.”

Sophisticated Interpretation

For him, the revolution is a story that “typically suffers from excessive romance and idealization and remains shallow and fails to properly acknowledge actual events, all contributors and the widespread bloodshed.”

It was, he contends, an uprising that declared the world-changing idea of fundamental personal liberties; a bloody domestic struggle, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; and a global war, another installment in a sequence of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for the “prize of North America”.

Contingent Historical Events

The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the