Ken Burns' THE CIVIL WAR : Sept. 17th (1 Viewer)

[Joseph DeMartino]

I don't see what the connection with The Beatles Anthology is, though.

Two highly-anticipated DVD releases? Or maybe the fact that some young whippersnappers think the Beatles were a big hit during the Civil War.
Either way, I'd love to have both. I think The Civil War may be the best single thing ever produced for American television. I've watched my home made tapes more times than I care to admit, and they're wearing badly. Put me down for one, maybe two if I decide to be incredibly generous in the gift-giving department this year.
Regards,
Joe

 

[Jeff Swindoll]

I'd also like to see the West mini come out on DVD. Ken Burns was the executive producer.

 

[Dave Hahn]

I think The Civil War may be the best single thing ever produced for American television.

Very well put Joe, I agree. In one of Burns' series, he states that he was once told, (and I'm paraphrasing), "If you understand the Civil War, the game of Baseball, and the history and richness of Jazz music, you understand America. Thus we have the three masterpieces from Mr Burns, with The Civil War the superior piece. If Harry Potter is the book that started children reading again, then The Civil War is the film that started the general public watching documentaries again.
My favorite part of The Civil War comes at the end of the first segment; a letter, written by a Union soldier to his wife back home is read in its entirety. In it, he expresses his love and longing for her and home, and his reasons for signing up. The simple strength and eloquence of this civilian-soldier in explaining his emotions and motivations is moving and powerful and beyond my crude ability to explain here.

 

[Rob Willey]

I don't see what the connection with The Beatles Anthology is, though.

They were both big back in the 60's.
Rob

 

[oscar_merkx]

Last year I watched Jazz on the BBC2 always around midnight (bummer) and when I discovered that they edited most episodes, I was royally disappointed. Then I discovered that not all episodes were shown either when compared to the USA, thanks to DVD R1 I can finally see the full show.
At the same time, I learned more about American History that I was not familiar with, because of links to the other two major documentaries he did, Civil War and Baseball. So looks like 3 strikes for me when I am going to buy all three DVD boxsets.

 

[James Z]

The Civil War was such a tremendously well done documentary. I can't even express how well done it was. I remember back when it first started to air on PBS, stumbling across it and literally becoming entranced by it. Even being a bit of a history buff and knowing the outcomes of battles, what happened to many of the main players, etc., it was still impossible to shut off the TV and stop watching the thing. This is as automatic a purchase for me as anything in my collection.

 

[Eric Thrall]

I don't see what the connection with The Beatles Anthology is, though.

They are both long documentaries that have been rumored to be "on the way" since the early days of DVD but have never arrived. Both are also excellent pieces of work!

 

[Matt Gordon]

Am I smoking crack or did Ken Burns also come out with a mini on radio? I thought I heard him on Larry King a few years ago talking about it. I remember that he produced it right before "Baseball" because at the end you hear "BASEBALL NEXT" in Morse code.

I haven't heard of that one in a long time. Does anyone know anything about it?

 

[Dave Hahn]

You can put the crack pipe down Matt. A quick check over at IMDB shows that Burns did do a documentary on radio, Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio. Here's a link: Link Removed
I haven't seen this one, and now that you've made me aware of it, I'll keep my eye out for it.

 

[Micah Cohen]

The radio one is very good as well, altho a tip of the hat to everyone who considers THE CIVIL WAR Burns's best -- it most surely is the greatest piece of television programming I've ever seen (and I wish Burns would break out of the mold; I believe his own style is overused now). He also did one on THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE.

Both books, EMPIRE OF THE AIR and THE GREAT BRIDGE (which is written by the guy who so amazingly narrates THE CIVIL WAR, David Mc-howeveryouspellhisname) are great reads, also.

I can't wait to pass my VHS set of TCW on to someone else. A must-buy.

MC

 

[JohnAD]

Yeah, my tapes are on their last legs. It will be nice to see this again .
John.

 

[Brian_L_Kleis]

The Brooklyn Bridge and Empire of the Air (the early radio doc) are both part of the Ken Burn's America set I consider my third part of the big three docs I would love (Civil War and Beatles being the other two...) In the VHS set of tapes, I distinctly remember there were also KBurns docs on Statue of Liberty and Huey Long as well... About 6-7 total in the set, but the couple I have seen (Brooklyn, Empire) reassured me that all the rest are going to be just as great... Wish I could remember all of the titles... (non-too-subtle plea for assistance... anyone?)

Brian

 

[oscar_merkx]

this is taken from Link Removed
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San Francisco Focus: You've said that the thread running through all of your films is the story of the black experience in this country. Do you remember your first awareness of racism?
Ken Burns: Well, it's pretty painful. My mother was close to dying right when the civil rights movement was happening. And I remember I used to stay up and get terrific stomachaches worrying about dogs and fire hoses in Selma, Alabama. I couldn't put it together until I realized that the cancer that was eating away at my country was an easier thing for me to deal with than the cancer that was killing my family. And I think in Baseball, more fully than in The Civil War, I've been able to integrate the African-American narrative.
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SF Focus: You call Baseball a sequel to The Civil War. Why do you see it that way?
Burns: Because I'm telling a history of the country the Civil War made us. Black baseball before it disappeared was the third largest black business in the country. And I wanted to extend to the Negro Leagues not this very facile sense of tragedy or this very facile sense of a minstrel show. Both of them are wrong. And if you think about civil rights, what's the first progress in civil rights since the Civil War? It's not at a lunch counter, it's not on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, it's not in a school in Topeka. It's on April 15, 1947, when Jackie Robinson came up with the Brooklyn Dodgers. So this is the story of race, which caused the Civil War to happen.
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This is a very good interview about most of his documentaries he has made so far.

 

[Jeremy Conrad]

Box Art:

Niiiiiice!

 

[Brian_L_Kleis]

drool, drool, pant, pant...

Oh... my... Lordy.....

I think if the mere sight of a DVD causes an actual physical arousal, it's about time to check into some Betty Ford-type clinic for film addicts....

 

[Bill McCamy]

That, or make them into some sort of garment for your significant other...

 

[Thomas Newton]

My favorite part of The Civil War comes at the end of the first segment; a letter, written by a Union soldier to his wife back home is read in its entirety. In it, he expresses his love and longing for her and home, and his reasons for signing up. The simple strength and eloquence of this civilian-soldier in explaining his emotions and motivations is moving and powerful and beyond my crude ability to explain here.

They read it as they're playing what sounds like Celtic-derived fiddle music ("Ashokan Farewell"), and at the very end, they say that the soldier died in battle the day after he wrote the letter.

 

[oscar_merkx]

from www.thedigitalbits.com
BUT... the bad news is that it looks like Warner and PBS have abandoned the classy keep case packaging they've used for every other Ken Burns title, in favor of the dreaded monstrosity Artisan recently used for The Rambo Trilogy and Frank Herbert's Dune (see picture below). It's flimsy, easily damaged, doesn't stay closed and doesn't even hold the discs securely. I'll be damned if at least one disc isn't always loose and damaged inside this packaging at all times. If it's not too late, I'd like to IMPLORE Warner to change this back to keep cases. Hell, I'd rather The Civil War be released in Snappers than this piece of do-do. I don't know what the industry name for this packaging is, but it's second only to those early, oversized Polygram jewel cases in terms of how much we've come to hate it. And that's after ONLY TWO titles released in it. Blecch!
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So how do we go about changing Warner or PBS packaging design. Perhaps we should contact Ken Burns himself about this. anybody have an idea ?

 

[Patrick McCart]

Nice box art!

How many discs is it?

 

[Jeff Behlendorf]

Yesterday I went to Costco (Van Nuys, CA) and I saw they were selling Ken Burns' "Lewis & Clark" which I hadn't noticed there before. However, attached to it was a bonus disc for a preview of "The Civil War". I would have bought "L&C" even without the bonus disc but suffice to say that when I got home it was the bonus disc I watch first and it has really whetted my anticipation of when it comes out next month. There's almost an hour of various sections they've taken from the series and then there's a short documentary on the process they've gone through to restore the series for the DVD release. The images are so clear and so moving. Sept 17th can't come soon enough. I don't know if this bonus disc was just for Costco customers or what as the disc wasn't shrinkwrapped within the L&C disc but was part of Costco's oversized store protection packaging. Hopefully tonight I'll watch the L&C which I've heard is very good. But it's Ken Burns, how could it be bad?