The War - by Ken Burns

[sjankis630]

I have been looking forward to this one since I heard about it last year sometime. I was and am a huge fan of his Civil War series, so it is with much anticipation that I was awaiting this one.
First off let me say that I like it a lot so far. I knew the talking heads and the facts along with the pictures were going to be grand. Of course the added benefit of moving pictures here caps it off nicely. I am already loving all of the facts that I either never bothered to learn or wasn't taught about the Second World War. (here in the states where I came up we got thru WWII and then the year seemed to run out before we got to Korea).
Now on to what I miss. The music seems to be really not a large part of this production. I am not particularly moved by the cello playing during the Pacific Theater battles. I don't think it sounds bad, but a little bit abstract and antiseptic. (was it Yo Yo Ma?)
One other thing that they did in the Civil War series that I was hoping they were going to do here, I know I know different series, i wanted to have more of what was going on culturally at home at the time. I didn't realize how much I missed it until the part near the end about the movie Holiday Inn with Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas" for the first time. It helped me to get back into the homefires more in that part.
I am still amazed at just how damaged we were navy wise after Pearl Harbor and just how powerful the Japenese navy was at this time in the world. I appreciated that map showing just how badly the situation was in the Philipians and just how poorly McCarther was leading at the time. I had found out recently just how bad his ego caused problems from Halberstam's The 50s. (again great work with the Japanese internment story and also the "Rangers" causing trouble for the Japanese in the jungles of the Pacific.
Looking forward to the rest of the series. I am out of town for the next two days, but hope my crappy Fios TV DVR (it actually cut off in the first 10 minutes of tonight's broadcast and I had to manually reset the recording) can faithfully record the next two episodes for my return.

[Deleted]

Watching it now - pretty mezmorized and amazed and upset...

[kostgard]

I watched it last night too - amazing stuff. I'm glad this first night focused on the stuff in the South Pacific because a lot of that seems to be glossed over in history class, and most of the focus is on the European front.

I'm also glad they spent a lot of time on what happened to Japanese-Americans (something else that is often glossed over in history class). I felt so sorry for that one lady (the one with the family that ran the flower business) who was clearly still emotional about it today, and the poor guy from Hawaii who was 17 when Pearl Harbor was attacked, went around cleaning up bodies after the attack (he was a Red Cross volunteer), and then found out he couldn't enlist because he was considered an "enemy."

[snarkblossom]

I watched it also and cried my eyes out because my father (now deceased) was on Guadalcanal in the 1st marine division at age 17, very likely in the same group of men as the narrator from Alabama because he landed at the same time, in the same division, doing exactly those things. My father was so traumatized by the experience that he would not even discuss the war until he was very old. Everything he told me was what they showed there, the inadequate rifles, the malaria, the shelling incessantly day and night for days without cover from the air or sea. I just cried because for the first time, thanks to the footage, I realized how terrified he must have been and how horrible the hardships he endured. He was wounded and got two purple hearts and also got malaria there. The account of what they showed was very realistic and was exactly as he related it to me.

[koshergrit]

snarkblossom said:

I watched it also and cried my eyes out because my father (now deceased) was on Guadalcanal in the 1st marine division at age 17, very likely in the same group of men as the narrator from Alabama because he landed at the same time, in the same division, doing exactly those things. My father was so traumatized by the experience that he would not even discuss the war until he was very old. Everything he told me was what they showed there, the inadequate rifles, the malaria, the shelling incessantly day and night for days without cover from the air or sea. I just cried because for the first time, thanks to the footage, I realized how terrified he must have been and how horrible the hardships he endured. He was wounded and got two purple hearts and also got malaria there. The account of what they showed was very realistic and was exactly as he related it to me.

{{{{Snarkblossom}}}} and for {{{{Snarkblossom's father}}}}

[Deleted]

Ditto the South Pacific Kostgard. You never hear much on that, just the European arena.
My Uncle Buddy was on a sub in the WWII Pacific.My mom said he was this happy go lucky little Irishman and that when he came back, he was never the same. He never smiled anymore.

I watched it, and thought it was very good. I'll defo tune in for the other part. The plight of the Japanese Americans being forced from their homes had me in tears. Homes, businesses, everything taken from them.It's hard to believe that actually happened. I heard stories about how many of them chose to kill their pets before leaving because they did not want to just turn them loose and suffer or starve on the streets. Can you imagine that happening to your family?The images and the stories from the war vets put me in a somber mood.Very poignant moments. Here in NJ it continued with New York war stories, which had many of the people who were in the Ken Burn's film

[Smilla]

Can I confess something? After going to hear Burns promote this movie in Portland, OR in July, after thinking it looked really, really great, and after pimping it on the Internets, psychic myself up for it, and buying snacks for the premier—I got bored after four episodes and quit watching. And I love Burns' other documentaries! I just couldn't get into this one. Something about it was so weird to me—can't put my finger on it. It just felt like something was really...missing from the discussion to me.

Anyway I feel like a bad fan (and I bad citizen).