Monday, September 24, 2007

What I Saw in The War

Last night I watched the first installment of the new Ken Burns documentary called The War. The War is Burns’ attempt at telling the story of the United State’s involvement in World War II.

Let me first say that I went into the series with two biases: 1) Ken Burns is a brilliant maker of television documentaries, and 2) having studied WWII for 35 years myself, and knowing that WWII must be the most documented event (if you can call it a single event) in history, I didn’t believe Burns could actually bring much of anything new to the table.

After having watched the first two hours last night, nothing I saw last night changed my thinking.

The War is certainly well done and Burns’ talent comes through. But he isn’t saying anything that anyone who has ever watched the History Channel for any length of time doesn’t already know. In fact, even his presentation isn’t all that different from what I consider to be the best WWII documentary series ever made: The BBC’s The World at War, which was made over 30 years ago and first shown here in the U.S. in the mid 1970s on PBS.

The Difference between The War and The World at War seems to be one of scope. Burns focuses on the American experience in the war while The World at War looked at it from the perspective of all the major participants with only a slight British-cetric slant. Otherwise, the two series are remarkably similar. Personal interviews are interlaced with vintage footage with dubbed-in sound (most actual WWII footage had no sound attached to it). Even the maps of strategic movements are somewhat similar.

Burns, however, pays more attention to the American home front than you normally see in WWII documentaries, and I find that interesting. American civilians had the unique benefit of being able to view the war from afar. While the residents of most of the participating counties felt the direct effects of war (invading armies, bombs falling from the sky, etc), here in the U.S. life went on in relative security but the war still impacted almost everyone in some way, be it the shortage of consumer goods or the loss of loved ones overseas.

I was pleased to see that The War was somewhat harsh on General Douglas Macarthur’s handling of the Philippines in 1941/1942. Macarthur’s skills as a commander have been greatly overstated in popular culture. While I think he was a good administrator, and did a great job in occupied Japan after the war, his performance in the Pacific theater in WWII and later in Korea was mediocre at best, and downright stupid in his worst moments. I was glad Burns called him out on the Bataan disaster. I wonder if Burns will be as honest about the war’s other inflated American icon, George Patton.

I do think that documentaries like Burns’ contribute to something else that gets a little inflated: America’s role in the war. Yes, the U.S. played a huge part in the war, particularly in the Pacific. But I think when we see these shows, we start thinking that the U.S. won the war, exclusive of other nations. Many other countries contributed, and suffered, much more than did the U.S. in defeating the Axis in WWII. In fact, Germany had, in effect, already lost the war in Europe before the U.S. entered the conflict. In my opinion, Hitler effectively defeated himself in the summer of 1941 when he botched the invasion of the Soviet Union. After 1941, there was really only one outcome possible and it didn’t include Nazi victory. The U.S. certainly made the eventual Allied victory there much easier, but it was the Soviet Union the bore the brunt of destroying the German army. Had the Soviet Union been defeated in 1941, there would not have been any possibility of a successful D-Day at Normandy or anywhere else.

I’m a little unsure why the critics are heaping so much praise on The War since it’s not really all that out of the ordinary for WWII documentaries. I even heard one critic declare it to be better than Burns’ real masterpiece, The Civil War. Still, for what it is, The War is a good piece of work (based on the limited amount I’ve seen). Certainly if you aren’t well versed in WWII or you don’t watch the History Channel, you are bound to learn a lot.

5 comments:

JeromeProphet said...

Most excellent post.

I caught part one last night, and had similar impressions. I did want to add that Burns has made certain to make this version of World War II as politically correct as possible.

For example, one would think that one forth of those boys serving in uniform were latinos, when in fact this was actually at the insistence of a threatened boycott by latino America veteran's organizations.

Or the careful way that Burns put the horrors of the Japanese treatment of U.S. P.O.W.s next to his attempted comparison of how Japanese in the U.S. were placed in internment camps - what a joke - there was no comparison. The Japanese are universally hated by every nation they invaded and occupied throughout Asia, and no amount of pressure from the children of internment victims will change that.

Other than that I'd say it was a good start.

JP

Dave said...

JP,

I have to disagree with you on one point. I didn’t see Burns trying to conjure up any moral equivalence between the internment of Japenses Americans and Japanese war atrocities. They were historically separate things and Burns treats them that way. There was no glossing over the harsh treated Americans received at the hands Japanese (see Bataan Death March, The).

However, you likely won’t see much in this series about Japanese atrocities in, say, China anymore than you're going to see the brutality exacted by both sides in the Eastern European theatre (Germans vs. Soviets). The worst the war had to offer took place in those places but since they didn’t involve Americans, Burns is likely going to stay away from those topics as his focus is on the American experience in the war. The internment of Japanese Americans was very much part of that experience and I have no problem with it being included.

Anonymous said...

Dave,

You're right. The internment story definitely needed to be included. As you say this is a film centered upon the American experience of WWII.

And racism was THE way of life in the U.S. before, during, and after the war. In fact it played a significant role in starting the war - on all sides.

I'm not suggesting Burns should have left the Japanese-American's internment story out as that would have been an unbelievable oversight.

However, it wasn't a coincidence that the segment that dealt with the internment (and there were several as he was using the montage style of presentation)was at the end of the segment that dealt with the Bataan Death March.

It's like he's saying, "Sure the Japanese ruthlessly slaughtered, tortured, and mistreated our troops who had surrendered **BUT** look how evil America was!

My god there's no comparison to be made. The Japanese had refined their approach in their attrocities in China. What would have landed a G.I. in prison as a war criminal (and I'm not saying we didn't commit war crimes in WWII) would have resulted in a promotion in the Japanese Imperial Army.

We probably won't see much about the rape of Beijing either - with the brutal murder of thirty million civilians at the hands of the barbaric Japanese military.

I'd doubt that this tame version of WWII would even have half a chance of being aired in Japan - they just don't want to deal with it.

The film is very much an attempt to cover different versions of the same war - based upon ethnicity and race in the U.S. This is good, but it shouldn't be an attempt at white washing the sins of the Japanese, or Germans.

And you're right we won't see but a few minutes of the Eastern Front - if we're lucky to get that at all - and that's where the very worst of WWII took place.

JP

Anonymous said...

I got the impression the movie is making Saddam and Bin Laden into other Hitlers and reminding folks THAT'S why we need to stay and fight in Iraq.

It kind of ticks me off.

JeromeProphet said...

I reviewed the first section again.

I have my facts wrong, and Dave must have been tempted to set me straight, however, as far as the Japanese campaign in China I noted about five seconds of additional coverage.

Burns is telling his story - of the American war - and there really is no way to do justice to all aspects of the war in such a short series.

Despite my concerns I highly recommend everyone take the time to view this excellent documentary series.