The Renowned Filmmaker on His Latest War of Independence Film Series: ‘We Won’t Work on a More Important Film’

The veteran filmmaker is now considered beyond being a historical storyteller; he is a brand, a one-man industrial complex. Whenever he releases project arriving on the PBS network, all desire a part of him.

The filmmaker completed “countless podcast appearances”, he says, nearing the end of his extensive publicity circuit comprising four dozen cities, 80 screenings and hundreds of interviews. “With podcasts numbering in the hundreds of millions, I feel I’ve participated in a substantial portion.”

Thankfully Burns is a force of nature, as expressive in conversation as he is productive in the editing room. The 72-year-old has appeared at locations ranging from prestigious venues to mainstream media outlets to talk about one of his most ambitious projects: this historical epic, a comprehensive multi-part historical examination that occupied a substantial portion of his recent years and premiered this week on PBS.

Classic Documentary Style

Comparable to methodical preparation in today’s rapid-consumption era, The American Revolution is defiantly traditional, reminiscent of traditional war documentaries rather than contemporary digital documentaries new media formats.

However, for the filmmaker, whose professional life chronicling strands of US history including baseball, country music, jazz and national parks, the nation’s founding transcends ordinary historical coverage but foundational. “As I mentioned to directing partner Sarah Botstein during our discussions, and she shared this view: we won’t work on a more important film Burns states during a telephone interview.

Extensive Historical Investigation

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt along with writer Geoffrey Ward drew upon countless written sources and primary source materials. Dozens of historians, representing diverse viewpoints, contributed scholarly insights together with prominent academics covering various specialties such as enslavement studies, first nations scholarship plus colonial history.

Distinctive Filmmaking Approach

The film’s approach will feel familiar to fans of historical documentaries. The unique approach included slow pans and zooms over historical images, abundant historical musical selections with performers reading diaries, letters and speeches.

This period represented the filmmaker cemented his status; years later, now the doyen of documentaries, he can apparently summon numerous talented actors. Participating with Burns at a New York gathering, renowned playwright Lin-Manuel Miranda noted: “When Ken Burns calls, you say ‘Yes.’”

Extraordinary Talent

The extended filming period proved beneficial concerning availability. Filming occurred in recording spaces, at historical sites through digital platforms, a method utilized during the pandemic. Burns explains collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who made time while in Georgia to record his lines as the revolutionary leader before flying off to subsequent commitments.

Additional performers feature multiple distinguished artists, respected performing veterans, diverse creative professionals, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Keaton, Tracy Letts, international acting community, skilled dramatic performers, television and film stars, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep.

Burns emphasizes: “Truly, this might be the most exceptional group gathered for any production. Their work is exceptional. Selection wasn’t based on fame. I got so angry when somebody said, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I go, ‘These are actors.’ They are among the world’s best performers and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Historical Complexity

Nevertheless, the lack of surviving participants, modern media required the filmmakers to rely extensively on the written word, combining personal accounts of nearly 200 individual historic figures. This methodology permitted to introduce audiences beyond the prominent leaders of the founders along with multiple crucial to understanding, many of whom never even had a portrait painted.

Burns also indulged his personal passion for territorial understanding. “I have great affection for cartography,” he comments, “featuring increased geographical representation throughout this series versus earlier productions throughout my entire career.”

International Impact

Filmmakers captured footage at nearly a hundred historical locations across North America and in London to document environmental context and collaborated substantially with historical interpreters. Various aspects converge to present a narrative more violent, complex and globally significant versus conventional understanding.

The film maintains, was no mere parochial quarrel about property, revenue and governance. Instead the film portrays a brutal conflict that eventually involved multiple global powers and surprisingly represented termed “humanity’s highest ideals”.

Internal Conflict Truth

Early dissatisfaction and objections directed toward Britain by colonial residents throughout multiple disputatious regions rapidly became a brutal civil conflict, dividing communities and households and turning communities into battlegrounds. During the second installment, scholar Alan Taylor notes: “The main misapprehension concerning independence struggle centers on assuming it constituted that unified Americans. This ignores the truth that it was a civil war among Americans.”

Historical Complexity

According to his perspective, the revolution is a story that “for most of us is drowning in sentimentality and wistful remembrance and remains shallow and doesn’t have the respect the historical reality, every individual involved and the extensive brutality.

It was, he contends, a revolution that proclaimed the transformative concept of fundamental personal liberties; a bloody domestic struggle, dividing revolutionaries and royalists; and a worldwide engagement, the fourth in a series of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for control of the continent.

Contingent Historical Events

Burns additionally aimed {to rediscover the