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Ken Burns has evolved into beyond being a historical storyteller; he is a brand, a one-man industrial complex. When he has documentary series premiering on the small screen, everyone seeks an interview.

He participated in “countless podcast appearances”, he remarks, nearing the end of nine-month promotional tour comprising numerous locations, dozens of preview events and hundreds of interviews. “There seems to be a podcast for every citizen, and I believe I’ve appeared on most 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: this historical epic, an extensive six-episode, twelve-hour film project that dominated ten years of his career and premiered recently on public television.

Defiantly Traditional Approach

Comparable to methodical preparation amidst instant gratification culture, The American Revolution is defiantly traditional, reminiscent of traditional war documentaries than the era of online content new media formats.

For the documentarian, whose professional life exploring national heritage spanning various American subjects, its origin story represents more than another topic but essential. “I said this to my co-director Sarah Botstein during our discussions, and she shared this view: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns contemplates by phone from New York.

Comprehensive Scholarly Work

Burns and his collaborators along with writer Geoffrey Ward utilized countless written sources plus archival documents. Dozens of historians, covering various ideological backgrounds, contributed scholarly insights in conjunction with distinguished researchers representing multiple disciplines including slavery, first nations scholarship and the British empire.

Distinctive Filmmaking Approach

The film’s approach will seem recognizable to devotees of The Civil War. The characteristic technique featured methodical photographic exploration across still photos, generous use of period music with performers interpreting primary sources.

Those projects established Burns established his reputation; decades afterwards, now the doyen of documentaries, he seems able to recruit virtually any performer. Collaborating with the filmmaker at a recent event, the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda observed: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”

Extraordinary Talent

The decade-long production schedule provided advantages concerning availability. Recordings took place at professional facilities, on location and remotely via Zoom, a tool embraced amid COVID restrictions. Burns explains working with Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours during his travels to perform his role portraying the founding father prior to departing to his next engagement.

The cast includes Kenneth Branagh, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, established Hollywood talent, emerging and established stars, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, accomplished dramatic artists, international acting community, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, small and big screen veterans, and many others.

Burns emphasizes: “Honestly, this could represent the finest ensemble gathered for any production. Their contributions are remarkable. Their celebrity status wasn’t the criteria. It irritated me when questioned, about the prominent cast. I go, ‘These are actors.’ They represent global acting excellence and they vitalize these narratives.”

Historical Complexity

Nevertheless, no contemporary observers remain, visual documentation forced Burns and his team to depend substantially on the written word, integrating individual perspectives of multiple revolutionary participants. This allowed them to introduce audiences not only to the “bold-faced names” of the revolution along with multiple who are seminal to the story”, several participants remain visually unknown.

Burns also indulged his personal passion for maps and spatial representation. “I love maps,” he observes, “and there are more maps in this project compared to previous works throughout my entire career.”

Worldwide Consequences

The team filmed at numerous significant sites in various American regions plus English locations to document environmental context and worked extensively with living history participants. These components unite to tell a story more bloody, multifaceted and world-changing versus conventional understanding.

The film maintains, represented more than local dispute over land, taxation and representation. Rather, the series depicts a brutal conflict that eventually involved more than two dozen nations and surprisingly represented described as “mankind’s greatest hopes”.

Brother Against Brother

What had begun as a jumble of grievances aimed at the crown by American colonists in 13 fractious colonies rapidly became a vicious internal war, pitting family members against each other and neighbour against neighbour. In episode two, the historian Alan Taylor observes: “The main misapprehension concerning independence struggle is that it was something a consolidating event for colonists. This ignores the truth that it was a civil war among Americans.”

Nuanced Understanding

According to his perspective, the revolutionary narrative that “typically is drowning in sentimentality and wistful remembrance and lacks depth and fails to properly acknowledge for what actually took place, all contributors and the extensive brutality.

It was, he contends, an uprising that declared the world-changing idea of inherent human rights; a bloody domestic struggle, pitting Patriots against Loyalists; and a worldwide engagement, another installment in a sequence of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for the “prize of North America”.

Contingent Historical Events

Burns also wanted {to rediscover the