Posted on 09/23/2007 8:54:51 AM PDT by submarinerswife
Edited on 09/23/2007 9:01:27 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
Premeires tonight at 8pm on PBS. 7 part series
True, I'm being a little biased, as I live in Waterbury, CT, but still...it's a good method.
It’s his stylistic signature. Most of the time hearing personal recollections from various points of view is more instructive then constant ‘Voice of God’ narration.
Eyewitness counts just as much as documentation.
It gets to be more than stylistic if you distort events and place undo emphasis on certain events and not others. The personal recollections do not necessarily represent the majority view or even actual events. For example, one would think, based on Burns’s portrayal of events, that the USMC did all of the fighting on Guadacanal. In fact, one third of the casusalties were suffered by US Army personnel.
There is no ‘complete’ view of a subject this titanic. At some point you have to pick and choose. If it wasn’t Guadacanal it would have been another aspect.
Just as “Band of Brothers” focused on the 101st Airborne.
If you want the complete scope of WWII, then go with “The World at War.”
Nonsense. Over 16 million Americans served in uniform during WWII. They each had a different perspective of the war. Eyewitness accounts can provide a slice of what was happening, but certainly not give you the grand sweep and context of what was happening. Portraying MacArthur as some sort of coward and incompetent because a few GIs disliked him is not good "documentation." I served a year in Vietnam, but I certainly don't believe that my perspective on events is all that meaningful in terms of the total overview of the war.
Burns uses these individual experiences and perceptions [hopefully they have been vetted for their authenticity] to butress his view of the war. So far, I prefer "Victory at Sea" as a documentary on the war without all of this PC multicultural diversity crap Burns is pushing.
Or if you want an in-depth analysis of military tactics of the major battles, go with “Battlefield.”
History is always a story told by the historian. I was lucky my granduncle finally told me about WW I. There was a Look or Life magazine article with some pictures of troops lining up to get on ships to go over there. He said, “Cannon fodder.” Which he might know since he was one of them.
Sorry, I think we agree except I don’t equate the editing on the Japanese internment and the Black effort.
The Japanese Americans were wronged but not in concentration camps.
The Black Americans were entirely noble in their sacrifice of the day in the hopes for a better America for their children.
Based on what I have seen so far, there have been better series on WWII including the British The World at War and our Victory at Sea. The US role has been highlighted, but fleeting mentions of the Battle of Kursk, where the Russians lost almost twice as many battle deaths as we did during the entire war, don't put the war into the correct context. I agree it was a titanic struggle that film and historians can't really do justice to. But to call Burns' collection of anecdotes to be a "documentary" about WWII is changing the meaning of the word documentary.
I don’t believe there were any latinos or hispanics in WWII. Weren’t they invented after the war? I believe they were Americans before and during the war.
My next door neigbor was a member of the "Fighting 69th" during WWI. He lost a leg. He told some great stories from the perspective of the combat soldier. My father and four of his brothers served in WWII. Unlike the Civil War series, there are plenty of WWII veterans who can counter/correct Burns' version of history. I am sure that we will be hearing some of those as the series goes along.
All who served were noble, even those who were drafted. They were fighting a war of survival.
Thanks for the post I’ve been looking for. That’s all I need to know.
We were fortunate to have grown up with those who served in WW II and were willing to talk some. That generation is disappearing rapidly and nothing will be left except what we have now. When I was a kid there were still Civil War stories about relatives being told. Just a few years ago one of the old men in the orchestra, who had served in the Navy, in the Pacific and Atlantic in WW II, asked me in all seriousness if our conductor was Japanese: it mattered to him.
Victory at Sea was not bad either. Plus the soundtrack is great.
Victory at Sea was not bad either. Plus the soundtrack is great.
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