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The acclaimed documentarian has evolved into beyond being a documentarian; he is a brand, an unparalleled production entity. Whenever he releases documentary series arriving on the PBS network, everyone seeks an interview.

Burns has done “an astonishing number of podcasts”, he notes, nearing the end of his marathon promotional journey comprising numerous locations, dozens of preview events plus countless media sessions. “I think there are 340.1m podcasts, one for every American, and I’ve done half of them.”

Fortunately Burns possesses boundless energy, equally articulate in interviews as he is productive in the editing room. The 72-year-old has appeared at locations ranging from Monticello to mainstream media outlets to promote his latest monumental work: The American Revolution, a comprehensive multi-part historical examination that occupied a substantial portion of his recent years and arrived this week on PBS.

Defiantly Traditional Approach

Like slow cooking in an age of fast food, Burns’ latest project is defiantly traditional, more redolent of historical documentary classics rather than contemporary online content new media formats.

For the documentarian, whose professional life documenting American historical narratives spanning various American subjects, the revolutionary period is not just another subject but fundamental. “I recently told collaborator Sarah Botstein during our discussions, and she shared this view: we won’t work on a more important film Burns contemplates from his New York base.

Massive Research Effort

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt along with writer Geoffrey Ward drew upon thousands of books plus archival documents. Numerous scholars, representing diverse viewpoints, provided on-air commentary along with leading scholars from a range of other fields such as enslavement studies, Native American history plus colonial history.

Distinctive Filmmaking Approach

The style of the series will seem recognizable to viewers of Burns’ earlier work. Its distinctive style incorporated gradual camera movements through archival photographs, generous use of period music with performers voicing historical documents.

Those projects established the filmmaker cemented his status; a generation later, currently the elder statesman of documentary filmmaking, he can apparently summon numerous talented actors. Collaborating with the filmmaker at a New York gathering, the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda observed: “A call from Ken Burns commands immediate acceptance.”

All-Star Cast

The extended filming period proved beneficial regarding scheduling. Filming occurred in recording spaces, on location and remotely via Zoom, an approach adopted amid COVID restrictions. The director describes the experience with performer Josh Brolin, who found a few free hours while in Georgia to record his lines portraying the founding father before flying off to his next engagement.

Brolin is joined by multiple distinguished artists, Jeff Daniels, Morgan Freeman, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Keaton, Tracy Letts, British and American talent, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep.

Burns emphasizes: “Honestly, this could represent the finest ensemble recruited for any project. They do an extraordinary service. Selection wasn’t based on fame. It irritated me when questioned, ‘So why the celebrities?’. I explained, ‘These are artists.’ They are among the world’s best performers and they can bring this stuff alive.”

Nuanced Narrative

However, the lack of surviving participants, visual documentation required the filmmakers to rely extensively on historical documents, weaving together individual perspectives of multiple revolutionary participants. This methodology permitted to show spectators beyond the prominent leaders of the revolution plus numerous additional crucial to understanding, several participants lack visual representation.

Burns additionally pursued his individual interest for maps and spatial representation. “I have great affection for cartography,” he observes, “with greater cartographic content in this film than in all the other films across my complete filmography.”

Global Significance

Filmmakers captured footage at numerous significant sites in various American regions and British sites to document environmental context and worked extensively with living history participants. All these elements combine to tell a story more brutal, complicated and internationally important than the one taught in schools.

The revolution, it contends, represented more than local dispute about property, revenue and governance. Instead the film portrays a blood-soaked struggle that eventually involved more than two dozen nations and improbably came to embody described as “the noble aspirations of humankind”.

Internal Conflict Truth

Early dissatisfaction and objections leveled at London by far-flung British subjects in 13 fractious colonies quickly evolved into a brutal civil conflict, setting brother against brother and turning communities into battlegrounds. During the second installment, the historian Alan Taylor observes: “The greatest misconception regarding the Revolutionary War involves believing it represented that unified Americans. This ignores the truth that it was a civil war among Americans.”

Historical Complexity

For him, the revolution is a story that “typically is drowning in sentimentality and wistful remembrance and remains shallow and doesn’t have the respect actual events, every individual involved and the incredible violence of it.

Taylor maintains, a revolution that proclaimed the revolutionary principle of inherent human rights; a vicious internal conflict, separating rebels and supporters; plus an international conflict, the fourth in a series of conflicts between Britain, France and Spain for dominance in the New World.

Uncertain Historical Outcomes

The filmmaker also sought {to rediscover the