The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns

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The most successful public-television miniseries in American history, the 11-hour Civil War didn't just captivate a nation, reteaching to us our history in narrative terms; it actually also invented a new film language taken from its creator. When people describe documentaries using the "Ken Burns approach," its style is understood: voice-over narrators reading letters and documents dramatically and stating the writer's name at their conclusion, fresh live footage of places juxtaposed with still images (photographs, paintings, maps, prints), anecdotal interviews, and romantic musical scores taken from the era he depicts. The Civil War uses all of these devices to evoke atmosphere and resurrect an event that many knew only from stale history books. While Burns is a historian, a researcher, and a documentarian, he's above all a gifted storyteller, and it's his narrative powers that give this chronicle its beauty, overwhelming emotion, and devastating horror. Using the words of old letters, eloquently read by a variety of celebrities, the stories of historians like Shelby Foote and rare, stained photos, Burns allows us not only to relearn and finally understand our history, but also to feel and experience it. --Dave McCoy

On the DVD
The DVD features on The Civil War provide a wealth of insight, creative philosophy, historical perspective, and educational enjoyment. Twelve years after its premiere broadcast, the film was given a digital facelift, sharpening image clarity, correcting color, and enriching its soundtrack with a remastered 5.1-channel mix, as demonstrated in the "Civil War Reconstruction" featurette. In interviews from 2002, producer-director Ken Burns, historian Shelby Foote, journalist George Will, author Stanley Crouch, and composer-musicians Jay Ungar and Molly Mason reflect upon The Civil War's enduring significance. And Burns's eloquent commentary--selectively included on each disc and totaling five hours--illuminates the historical importance and creative impulse behind crucial chapters of the film. Fifty-seven onscreen biography cards detail important North, South, and civilian figures, and two 1990 featurettes—"Making History" and "A Conversation with Ken Burns"--provide a more personal perspective on the creation of this extraordinary film. Useful for both personal and academic study, these features stand as a fitting supplement to one of the greatest documentaries ever produced. --Jeff Shannon

Product description

Hailed as a film masterpiece and landmark in historical storytelling, Ken Burns's epic documentary brings to life America's most destructive-- and defining--conflict. With digitally enhanced images and new stereo sound, here is the saga of celebrated generals and ordinary soldiers, a heroic and transcendent president and a country that had to divide itself in two in order to become one.

Customer Reviews:

Magnificent achievement.......2007-09-15

Ken Burns' the Civil War is definitely the best civil war documentary, probably the best war documentary and possibly the best documentary I've ever seen, period. There are 9 episodes of just over an hour long. The main body of narrative is made up of letters, articles, memoirs, novels and diaries from the period. Leading historians contribute stories of their own; Shelby Foote in particular - a southern gentlemen judging from his dialect - is full of laugh-out-loud anecdotes and fresh insights. My favourite is the story of the southern politician who, on the eve of the conflict, was so confident the war would be over quickly, that he offered to mop up every single drop of blood with his pocket handkerchief. Shelby Foote is sure that there's a PhD for anybody who can calculate how many pocket handkerchiefs it would have taken to mop up the blood shed during the war.
The narrative is brought to life by photographs from the period - some beautiful, some startling, some terrible, but all fascinating. These are worth the admission price alone. There is also modern day film footage of the key places of the war.
What is truly remarkable, however, is how this vividly this period is brought to life without a SINGLE RECONSTRUCTION. The viewer is encouraged to use his/her own imagination.
And I haven't even mentioned the actors who do the voices: Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Irons, Derek Jacobi, Sam Waterston, Jason Robards to name just a few.
I've seen a few documentaries about the American civil war, but Mr. Ken Burns has rendered them all obsolete. This is a shimmering beauty in the genre.

DVD never recieved.......2007-08-26

This was a gift and never recieved seller refunded money, no hassle. Thank you for standing behind transaction.

First Class.......2007-07-26

This is the finest program that I have ever seen on television in my life. The music and interviews just add to the excellence. This is a must have for any history buff. Treat yourself to this gem. You won't be sorry.

Delightful.......2007-06-26

This documentary is the one that touches me the most. Ken Burns is a master. The prescence of vintage photos, letters, and the narrations left me in awe.
The most touching part (to me) is the letter a soldier writes his beloved wife, in which he shares his immenent demise on the field of battle, his love for her, etc., etc.
You will be moved and you will know how it is important to remember the past.
In my opinion it's the greatest documentary ever. I won't spoil it any further for you. It's a "must have".

The Civil War The Documentary.......2007-04-28

PBS's "The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns" is Ken Burns mammoth documentary on The War Between The States from 1861 - 1865. It went into minute detail about the beginnings of the election of Abraham Lincoln, secession of the southern states, anti-slavery movement in the north, John Brown, issues of states rights, and the attack on Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Then it goes into the first year of the war where the Union was losing badly, but it also told about how the South was hurting badly too. It goes into the most important battle of the war, Battle of Gettysburg, the Emancipation Proclamation, the firing of several Union generals, Jefferson Davis's fight with the governors of southern states concerning funds, material and troops. The New York Draft Riots, Sherman's March to the Sea, the burning of Atlanta are also discussed in detail. There is extensive information on all the important figures, like Lincoln, Davis, Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Thomas 'Stonewall' Jackson, General James Longstreet, ect; the list is endless. As you can tell this is a very extensive, detailed, documentary that is meticulously intricate methodology...all a nice way of saying this is a long, very long movie. It is 11 hours in 9 parts, each disc is one year with two episodes per disc except for disc one, which only has one episode. There are the actors who sort of play the characters, or more accurately read letters from real people. The best of the fine and distinguished list is Sam Waterston as Lincoln, whom Waterston had previously played in a play. Morgan Freeman reads Frederick Douglass and all other the African-American roles; Jason Robards as Ulysses S. Grant; M. Emmet Walsh as all the soldiers, all excellent in their readings. There are hundreds of pictures from the era, soldiers hanging out, just normal things that you'd expect, but a long way from some private filming a gun battle in Baghdad on his cell phone, but it drives home the point. It is an effective documentary that talks about everything that was relevant to the Civil War. My problem with the movie is it's length. Maybe it is OK when spaced out as one episode per night, but I tried to watch it in a week, and quickly burned out. Still, I can not deny it is a great documentary, highly recommended.

Average customer rating:

Magnificent achievement
DVD never recieved
First Class
Delightful
The Civil War The Documentary

The Civil War: A Film by Ken Burns
Starring: Sam Waterston , Laurence Fishburne , Ed Bearss , Pamela Reed , and Joe Mattys
Director: Ken Burns
Manufacturer: Pbs Paramount
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

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ASIN: B0002KPI2S
Release Date: 2004-09-28

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Customer Reviews:

Magnificent achievement.......2007-09-15

DVD never recieved.......2007-08-26

This was a gift and never recieved seller refunded money, no hassle. Thank you for standing behind transaction.

First Class.......2007-07-26

Delightful.......2007-06-26

The Civil War The Documentary.......2007-04-28

Average customer rating:

A true masterpiece, regardless of historical reservations!
Great piece of work; good start for beginning historians.
Great but misleading
A great collection, drama and great narration, and some good history as well.
excellent introduction, but only as a starting point

The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns
Starring: Sam Waterston , Laurence Fishburne , Ed Bearss , Pamela Reed , and Joe Mattys
Director: Ken Burns
Manufacturer: Pbs Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Documentary | Genres | DVD | Video

Documentary | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

Military & War | Boxed Sets | Stores | DVD | Video

( C ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

All | PBS | Specialty Stores | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

ASIN: B000068UY9
Release Date: 2002-09-17

Amazon.com essential video

Description

Customer Reviews:

A true masterpiece, regardless of historical reservations!.......2007-08-26

Regardless of historical reservations and allegations of bias from both North and South, I regard this work of Ken Burns as a true masterpiece. I bought my first set on VHS several years ago at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and played it through a dozen or more times. I went to the expense of having this set transferred to new tapes for my VHS player here in England. Having heard in 2002 that it was available on DVD and that the whole series had been digitally enhanced, I purchased the same and I can vouch for its much improved picture quality. I have played the DVD series several times, too, and I never tire of it (nor of the separate music CD, which is one of all-time my favourites).

Why do I love the series? Well, despite (as I have said) historical reservations on my part and allegations of bias from both North and South (as I have read), Mr Burns has gathered together over many years the most remarkable collection of old still pictures, interviews with such as the superb Shelby Foote, extremely beautiful modern scenery film footage and stills, inimitable commentary by David McCullough, and, most especially, ancient film footage of such as the reunion of veterans at Gettysburg in 1938 (the last mentioned brings tears to my eyes to this day). Mr Burns has made a wonderful whole of wonderful parts and has done a wonderfully impressive technical job.

And my historical reservations? Well, I am British and, in a British tradition dating from well before the American 'Civil War' or 'The War for Southern Independence,' I am a Southern sympathiser. I feel 'at home' when visiting such as Virginia to this day and I regret very much the loss of much of what went with the dreadful wind from the North of 1861 - 1865. I have many Yankee friends but we mostly steer clear of discussion of the Northern aggression under the appalling law-bender Lincoln and the religious hypocrites at his back. I tend, therefore, not to believe any medium that portrays the old Southerners as other than victims. This magnificent video or DVD set does not do this: it makes an attempt at balance - maybe successfully, maybe not.

Thankfully, the South has 'risen' again in a manner of speaking, but it's a shame that more than a century and so many lives were lost by succeeding and successive generations of Dixie's people.

Having got that off my British chest, I urge those who have not seen the PBS TV series, the VHS videos or the DVD set to rush out and get them/it. Of course, you don't need to rush out: just order the lot from my friends at Amazon!

Great piece of work; good start for beginning historians........2007-04-27

This series is THE definitive documentary on the American Civil War - it's the first of it's kind in style and content and powerfully evocative of the spirit of the time. However, there are some inconsistencies which become apparent to the attentive viewer. For example, statements made throughout the film representing North and South waiver between certainty of Northern perserverance and widespread dissension regarding Lincoln's leadership - points which are not in agreement and do not make a cohesive statement about the momentum of the Union. And as 'CenterMan' states in his review, this documentary has a decidedly 'Eastern' tilt and emphasis, probably because Burns is himself a New Englander. The Western states and territories played an extremely important part in the war both militarily and economically, but this is not touched on. To back up another of 'CenterMan's points, the armies of the West, and ESPECIALLY the Generals of the West, were utterly essential to the evolution of the war and warefare in general by the North, from an Eastern generals' stalemate to a frontiersmens' sweep. Most all of the generals who were made famous by the Civil War, both North and South, earned their stripes and first practiced their military trade serving together as field officers in the Mexican-American War twenty years prior, and in fact the North's superior use of artillery throughout the war was largely the result of methods first tried and learned by Yankee gunners and officers at Vera Cruz and Mexico City. Both Sherman and Grant, who made broad sweeping movements using entire army groups and army corps became familiar with these tactics in the wide open expanses of the Mexico and then the Indian territories, and used them to devastating effect against the flash and elan of the Confederates. Also, the political and financial importance of California, Utah, and Oregon, which supplied desperately needed cash and gold to the Union in spite of a large seccessionist element, is completely overlooked by Burns. This seems to point out a kind of misperception among many Easterners, both then and now, that the United States is centered on and revolves around their section of the country. It is a serious misperception and is a major reason the rift between North and South reached the breadth and depth that it did. Burns focuses on the traditional military and socially emotional issues of the war, which are shown anew, but he does not cover the cornerstones of demographics (the huge disparity in population growth between North and South, in birthrates and immigration) agriculture, finance, or industry, (in particular steel and the railroads), both before and during the war, which are essential to a broad understanding of the Civil War. Ultimately this documentary is an excellent introductory showpiece and is thoroughly engrossing, and should hopefully inspire students of the subject to probe deeper into it. It is an excellent piece of art and is worth seeing and owning.

Great but misleading.......2006-12-05

Very entertaining, a masterpiece really. However, it perpetuates the myth that the abolition of slavery was at the heart of the war. So many facts run counter to this notion. For example, until well into the war, the North made it clear that it would welcome the South back into the Union with slavery intact. When Lincoln emancipated the slaves, he specifically did so only in the rebel states, leaving out the slave states that were loyal to the Union. This clearly indicates that this was a war tactic, pretty much the same one the British employed in the Revolutionary War. (If Britain had won that war, would they have justified it later on the basis of abolishing slavery?) Then, during Reconstruction, slavery was basically reimposed in the South in all but name, and the North did nothing about it. Why? Because the North had already achieved what it really wanted: reunification. I.e., slavery was no problem as long as the country stayed together, with Washington in firm control of all of the country's territory. If you think about it, what else could Lincoln have done when the South seceded? Letting those states go would have set a lousy precedent for all of the other states and probably would have fatally weakened the country ("give us what we want, or we'll secede like the South did"). In fact, Jefferson Davis himself faced this issue in the Confederacy: how do you keep a set of states together after endorsing the idea that any state has the right to secede basically whenever it wants? It's less romantic, but it makes much more sense to think of Union at the core of the war, not slavery.

A great collection, drama and great narration, and some good history as well........2006-10-28

I watched this series when it first came out in 1990 on PBS, and was mezmerized by it, also studing U.S history at that time and having read a rather large Civil War book for a class project as well. Now on weekends our PBS station has been reruning some episodes, and it sparked me to look it up here on amazon to see what prices were, which have come down tremendously, so I bought a set. Now reflecting back 16 years later, this show is good for base history, but it also has the narration, music and organizations of a Drama. I enjoyed the battle history and seeing the maps as the battles played out, but the narration got tiresome around tape 5. And I know Shelby Foote is a smart man, and knows a lot about the civil war, but I just got so sick of his "quotes" of generals etc, no historical value in any of the quotes, and they got tiresome really quick for me. But,Overall, you can't beat this collection for civil war history, and the price is now very reasonable on VHS. 4 stars from this reviewer overall, but 5 stars as a production, and unmatched to this date by any other series on PBS, or TV in general.

excellent introduction, but only as a starting point.......2006-07-05

This is a superb film, combining the emotion evoked from images and selected narratives (wonderfully read by great actors) as well as some analysis by prominent scholars or writers. So far as it goes, Burns has exploited the attributes of the film medium to what I believe is the maximum extent: you leave this experience with a good idea of what went on and how it changed the country. It is moving, horrible, and beautiful all at once.

That being said, I believe that Burns was also very conscious of what the film medium could accomplish less well, i.e. the deeper scholarly treatment that can only be plumbed from the concentration and effort that books demand. That is where some of the reviewers here went wrong IMHO, as they expected more than a film can reasonably deliver. This is not a university lecture and there is not enough space to explore all the details as they might deserve. Nonetheless, I did not find any glaring inaccuracies or unacceptable biases - it was a good critical bit of work.

What you get with Burns is a taste of the Civil War, some clear ideas, and feelings about what happened. For real depth of understanding, the viewer will have to go elsewhere, and that is fine. After all, this is a life long labor of love for some of us Civil War buffs.

I watched this while my son (7) played next to me, and every so often he would look up and ask questions about what was portrayed - it was a nice bonding medium, got him thinking a bit, and engraved certain images into his mind. Just what I wanted, while I went over the outlines of hte Civil War again.

Warmly recommended as an outstanding starting point.

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