Open Thread: Duncan & Burns

by: Dean Barker

Tue Sep 29, 2009 at 06:01:07 AM EDT

Adding: what a contrast, btw, this ode to Teddy Roosevelt and the spirit of Good Government is to the tea party crowd and, sadly, our own way of (non)funding state parks.

This is an Open Thread.

Ken Burns Weighs In

by: Jennifer Daler

Mon Oct 06, 2008 at 12:12:07 PM EDT

The last paragraph says it all,

We in New Hampshire bear some responsibility, I suppose. Thinking we had the old McCain, we gave him a decisive victory in our primary that permitted him to vanquish those challengers. But he betrayed us. If you have to say you're a maverick in your ads, it's clear you're not. The real maverick turns out to be Barack Obama, who bucked his party's establishment and whose once-lonely positions have been adopted by nearly everyone including even the Bush administration. Nearly everyone, that is, except John McCain. So what happened to him?
That's what Granite State citizens have been asking the last few months. The answer is enough to turn us blue.

especially the last sentence.

Forget Billy Shaheen: Burns and Obama Speak the Same Language

by: Dean Barker

Tue Dec 18, 2007 at 22:21:57 PM EST

But the even bigger story riding on top of this is why the Walpole documentarian decided to speak out.  He says we need "a leader who calls upon on each and every one of us to heed the better angels of our nature and not - and not - our basest fears."  Clearly this is a reference to the Senator Clinton's terrible, awful, not very good last week, courtesy of Billy Shaheen.

Looking beyond that, though, I see in Burns someone who speaks Obama's language. And I mean that quite literally.  Here's Ken talking about his WWII doc, a little over a year ago:

World War II was the last time America was united behind a common goal, what Burns called "the greatest collective effort in the history of our country." Common sacrifice is lacking today, he said.

"We now have a military class in this country that suffers apart and alone, whereas there wasn't a family on any street in America that wasn't in some way touched by the war," he said, adding that during World War II, everyone had to do without and had to deal with rationing and shortages.

"When 9/11 happened, what were you asked to do? Nothing. Go shopping. That's what we were told," Burns said. "Go shopping. It's ridiculous. Nobody said, 'This is a war borne of oil. Turn your thermostats down five degrees.'"

The sacrifices made by previous generations have never been easy. But America is a great nation precisely because Americans have been willing to stand up when it was hard; to serve on stages both great and small; to rise above moments of great challenge and terrible trial.

One of those moments took place on September 11, 2001. Whether you lived in Manhattan or here in Mount Vernon, you felt the pain and loss of that day not just as an individual, but as an American. That's why we lined up to give blood. That's why we held vigils and flew flags. That's why we rallied behind our President. We had a chance to step into the currents of history. We were ready to answer a new call for our country. But the call never came. Instead, we were asked to go shopping, and to prove our patriotism by supporting a war in Iraq that should never have been authorized, and never been waged.

We have lost precious time. Our nation is less secure and less respected in the world. Our energy dependence has risen, and so has the specter of climate change.

The War

by: elwood

Sun Sep 23, 2007 at 19:34:30 PM EDT

The press has been talking about 1,000 WWII vets dying every day, and I gather that was a key factor in Burns' decision to take on this project. But the flip side of that is all the WWII vets still with us. If you want to understand them a little better, and be able to talk to them a little more easily, this might be worth watching.

(I think anything his group puts out is worth watching.)

The Attack on Ken Burns

by: Mike Caulfield

Sat Apr 21, 2007 at 10:35:26 AM EDT

But sometime later I heard the full idea: to tell the story of the war through people from four specific communities chosen to stand in for the broad American experience: Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala.; Sacramento, Calif.; and Luverne, Minn.

Now THAT had my interest. It seemed the perfect concept, playing to the particular strengths of the style Ken Burns pioneered.

As the Iraq War progressed, the import of the film became even more apparent. Ken's film, whether he had intended it or not, would be a subtly subversive piece. As we went through a war where we were told not to notice the coffins, told to keep our eyes closed and shop hard, a war that people barely noticed, Ken Burns was working on a film about what a nation truly at war looks like.

Burns was documenting what people from all strata of society sacrificed in WWII, while in the oil-fueled war of the present we were being told to shop, to buy SUVs, and to look away from the coffins.

And now, on the eve of this film's release, what is the big controversy about the film?

Notable Quotes from the past week

by: Mike Caulfield

Sun Nov 26, 2006 at 10:52:06 AM EST

Ken Burns comments on WWII vs. the "War on Terror":

Asked about the contrast between today's home front and World War II, Burns called the latter, "the greatest collective effort in the history of our country."

Common sacrifice is lacking today, he said.

"We now have a military class in this country that suffers apart and alone, whereas there wasn't a family on any street in America that wasn't in some way touched by the war," he said.

"When 9/11 happened what were you asked to do? Nothing. Go shopping. That's what we were told," Burns said. "Go shopping. It's ridiculous. Nobody said, 'This is a war born of oil, turn your thermostats down five degrees.'"

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