From the Archive: Shelby Foote Interviews
Interview with Ken Burns
Additional Interviews: George Will, Stanley Crouch, Shelby Foote and Jay Ungar & Molly Mason
Commentary by Ken Burns
Biography Cards
Battlefield Maps
Civil War Challenge
Interview with Ken Burns
Additional Interviews: George Will, Stanley Crouch, Shelby Foote and Jay Ungar & Molly Mason
Commentary by Ken Burns
Biography Cards
Battlefield Maps
Civil War Challenge
Editorial Reviews
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