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102 of 126 people found the following review helpful:
The Necessary War, September 24, 2007
My late father (Canadian WWII author George G. Blackburn) would have appreciated this -- but he couldn't be with me, last night, as I watched the first episode of this latest `masterpiece' from Ken Burns. I tried my best to see it through my father's eyes. [He was the longest-surviving "Forward Observation Officer" (FOO) on any front in WWII. FOO's, always with front-line troops, lasted an average of 23 hours before being killed or wounded; George Blackburn lasted ten months from just after D-Day until VE-Day (Victory in Europe).]
My father appreciated ALL of Ken Burns' work (especially the "Baseball" series -- Dad was a star pitcher when he was young: he left me his VHS tapes of that one).
My father, who almost made it to age 90, lived long enough to author a best-selling WWII trilogy for Canada's largest publishing house. He would have been greatly impressed, I believe, with Ken Burns' latest accomplishment.
"Episode One -- A NECESSARY WAR" aired last evening (on our closest PBS station -- "Prairie Public Television" of North Dakota - which gets most of its funding from this Manitoba city of 700,000). I found myself enthralled by Ken Burns' approach to "THE WAR."
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We're taken in quick sequence to four places: a small town in Connecticut - close to New York City - "Waterbury." Next we visit the Midwest, (a town just to the south of us, here in Manitoba) -- Luverne, Minnesota; then, off to the heart of the South -- Mobile, Alabama; and finally, out to the west coast -- standing in for all of California - SACRAMENTO (a city of "110 thousand that feels like a small town").
The opening thoughts --from Luverne MN - are narrated by a familiar voice (from "Saving Private Ryan") -- Tom Hanks:
"Much of the world was already at war in the Fall of 1941 . . . " (and)
"There was a saying (in this small town where everybody knew everyone else's business) that, "If you don't want everyone to know about it . . . don't do it."
In our first glimpse at Mobile, we're introduced to one WWII veteran, now in his 80s, "John Gray who (because of the color of his skin) would soon be asked to fight a war for `Freedom' - though his own country's definition of that word, didn't include HIM."
Then back to the Midwest for a few minutes: "Sam Hynes," a surprisingly young-looking WWII veteran from Minnesota who was "barely 17 in 1941," recalls how,
"You could, all of a sudden, choose to be an adult (just) by signing your name; and suddenly (I see myself as) a fighter pilot - an "Ace" . . . or a submarine commander going into Tokyo Bay: It is the opportunity to be someone more exciting than the kid you are."
[To inject a personal note (since my lovely, new daughter-in-law "Eriko" hails from Osaka Japan), I was deeply moved by the interviews with Japanese-Americans, now in their 80s, who'd been singled out as enemy aliens, requiring internment.
We see and hear "Asako Tokuno" -- born in America, whose parents were born in Japan, as she fights back tears, recalling what it was like (on a day's notice) to be sent off to remote internment camps.
We're told how this grim process flowed from a simple, innocuous-sounding "executive order" from President Roosevelt's office: "(First,) designate military areas - then exclude anyone who might pose a military threat." On the strength of which, "110 thousand Japanese-Americans were forced out of their homes, with only the possessions they could carry, and moved inland."
But it's the interviews with those "old soldiers" (Navy, Airmen and Marines too), that really hit home: Some of these men being interviewed, were still in their teens when they volunteered for military service; they're still comparatively young-looking today. But you hear some of their stories on this great program - and you wonder how did they survived at all.
"Glen Frazier" with the infantry in the Phillipines, (the largest, eventual surrender of Americans in U.S. military history) was among those few who survived the infamous "Bataan Death March." A good-looking man in his old age, he quietly sums up the experience in a sentence or two.
After a march in which he saw his comrades (and Filipino civilians including women) "beheaded, buried alive" (etc.) -- a march on which between 6,000 and 11,000 died ("no one knows for certain the correct number") -- Mr. Frazier, says, matter-of-factly,
"I marched without sleep for six days and seven nights . . . no water and no food. They say you can't do that. But I did. (At the end of the march) my tongue wouldn't go back into my mouth."
Ken Burns' approach is so well-balanced and suddenly, inter-cut gracefully with such horrific recollections are the peaceful scenes of small-town America - back where "war bond drives raise one billion dollars in a month."
We learn that "The War" cost the U.S. 304 billion dollars ("more than 3 trillion in today's terms"). Citizens of Sacramento - "in one bond drive alone" raised 16 million "to pay for 96 minutes of the war.")
Statistics are parceled out in small digestible chunks throughout the show - again a remarkable "balance" to keep the show moving along at a pace that an entire family watching this together, would appreciate. (I watched alone but kept thinking that my ten-year-old grandson would find this as riveting as Ken Burns' "THE CIVIL WAR."
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Ken Burns reserves the longest, single interview in Program One until the very end. I didn't catch the name of this "old soldier" when it flashed on the screen (I was busy jotting down a note about him). He is an Hispanic-American who joined the Marines -- after the Navy twice turned him down ("too small").
He tells the story of the death of one of his buddies (on one of the Solomon Islands, which he described as "hell on earth") recounting how his "best friend" died on a night "so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of you" - so dark he didn't realize it was his own best friend who'd taken a single bullet of `friendly fire' -- then moaned and cried out in the darkness, "all night until dawn."
Not knowing who this dying man was, but, like the rest of his buddies, desperately in need of sleep, he muttered under his breath, "Just DIE -- Die, will you? -- let the rest of us get some sleep." He runs out of words to say - allowing the viewer imagine how he felt at the moment he saw his friend's body in the light of day. The episode ends there, with a fade-to-black in silence.
How wished I could have turned to my father to say, "Well . . . what do you think of it, so far?" I believe he'd have said (once again) "Good work, Ken Burns!" But then, I can hear his voice adding, "Bet you Canada (and its WWII efforts) will hardly get a mention." (Hope you're wrong, Dad!)
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46 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
FUBAR, September 30, 2007
After watching the latest episode of "The War" - FUBAR...I now know why my father who served this county during WW II did not like Thanksgiving. All those years of never knowing, and to learn 20 years after his death why he felt the way he did. I'm sure that by the end of the series, I will understand why he felt the same about Christmas. Till the day he died, he refused to talk about being a Army medic in WW II. I have kept all the letters he and my mother wrote each other during this time. I've never been able to read these letters, but now feel it is time to do so.......My prayers and respect for all who served. For those still alive - God Bless.
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97 of 147 people found the following review helpful:
Ken Burns Elevates WWII to "The War", September 4, 2007
There is a saying that goes something like, "Those who don't know their history are condemmed to relive it." Or in a less scolding tone, how do you know where you're going if you don't know where you've been? While few would argue that The United States of America isn't rich with stories and adventures of personal achievement what with the so called winning of the West, the age of industrialization, and our rise to becomming a world superpower being an active part of our mythology. Or is it? Gore Vidal once refered to the citizens of this fair country as "The United States of Amnesia," suggesting many Americans remember very little of their foreground and even less of their background. Yet for anyone old enought to have experienced the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and our long hard struggle to bring World War Two to a peaceful resolution both in the Pacific and Europe, this three and one half year-plus event is most likely sealed in personal memory along with the other milestones of life such as marriages, births and deaths of loved ones. One reason World War II, or as the producers have aptly named their 14 hour overview of this world changing experience, "The War," had such an impact on our citizens is that everyone, and I do mean everyone, took an active part in bringing this world disaster to a successful conclusion. But that was then and this is now and today, the military veterans or living historians of "The War" are dying as are many of the other participants - the wives, friends and relatives of our brave veterans and almost as important, their first hand recollections and memories of this world shapping event are dying as well. Fortunately for all who worry of such things, we have a national historian among us with the ability to keep our history alive especially for those who don't even like history. His name is Ken Burns and he is a film maker with the talents of a master story teller as evidenced by such interesting perspectives on American life as "Baseball" and "Jazz" and most especially "The Civil War." Now or within a few days, we will have Ken Burns and Lynn Novick's living perspective of the Second World War or "The War" to appreciate and enjoy for as long as we care to know more about ourselves both as individuals and collectively as a nation of citizens. I, for one, 'am more than pleased.
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