Ken Burns' National Treasure

Ken Burns' documentary masterpiece "The Civil War" is a titanic work of historical filmmaking and among the most moving works of storytelling, either factual or fictional, I've ever seen. Spanning the entire war, as well as a bit before and after, this piece achieves much of its unforgettable impact based on a simple but ingenious premise: tell the story with the raw materials of the events themselves, the thousands of surviving photographs and anecdotes, both attributed and anonymous, that accumulate into a literal "time capsule" passed down from that point in, for all intents and purposes, our distant past.

Never before do I feel that the wrenching experiences of that massive event, significant not only in our nation's but in all of humanity's history, have been recounted so starkly and with so much depth. Until Burns' work, I feel that only the many historians who have swarmed for decades around this awe inspiring subject, grown entranced by its flame which still rages in ghostly form from so long ago, had come to feel touched by the character of that huge and tragic time. But with Burns, who somehow possessed an innate sense of its significance, the Civil War was revived for a common audience, and revealed to be a spectacle of history bursting at the seams with so much grandure and horror, so much richness and repugnance, that any work of fiction could no more than echo it.

What sets Burns' piece apart from most excellent documentaries is that it is deliberately *directed* by Burns with the express intent of animating its effect on the viewer so that emotional and experiential tone and texture are evoked continuously, and the viewer is drawn irresistibly into their lyricism. This is accomplished by a subtle conspiracy of several factors that run as a thread through the entire series: strong, evocative and lucid writing; David McCullough's flawlessly, almost mesmerizingly rendered narration; hundreds of photographs, including scores of portraits which really help to bring the characters in this tale to life; many well selected anecdotes and quotes from a full spectrum of participants; and finally, a haunting soundtrack of period pieces which, again, are perfectly selected and placed to resurrect the long past feel of this era, the "oldness" of it, as well as its deep sorrow.

It is with this combination of eerily "real" elements that an impressive and unforgettable window is formed on a time so drastically removed from our own. But it is Burns' genius, his eye and ear for dramatic flow, that takes a skeleton of facts and "exhibits", and joins them into a narrative essence drenched with emotion, punctuated by waves of fearful excitement as the many battles are recounted, and tragic loss and exhaustion as the terrible toll, the aftermath, is revealed.

This is the giant story of the "birth pangs" of one of the most powerful nations, even then, in the history of humanity; with almost Biblical personages and issues, such as Lincoln, Lee, and the exceptional human and political element of slavery, as well as the threatened survival of the modern world's first great experiment in democracy.

In addition, there was the fact of the grand yet hideous monstrosity of modern warfare at that time, with the almost tragicomical smashing together of oceans of human flesh and hailstorms of burning iron and lead, as shockingly outmoded tactics met and walked a death march with massive modern artillery, deadly accurate riflery, and the armies of tens of thousands that a thriving nation at the forefront of the industrial revolution could muster and maintain. From the early genius of Lee and the excruciating slaughter of Fredericksburg, to the daring and creative tactical mastery of Grant at Vicksburg, and from the mountainous eruption and chaos of Gettysburg, to Grant's tragic bloodletting at Cold Harbor, the unique and monumental military character of the Civil War is brought to life in sharp and frightening resolution.

And finally there is the South's last destructive gasp, the coup de grace of the Rebellion, as the almost saintly Lincoln is assassinated, and then the slow and painful beginnings of the bitter Reconstruction. Burns draws all of these seething elements together to make an account which crashes through the barrier of time like a furious locomotive, and brings its modern audience to understand the fearful grandure of that hallowed event. No American can watch the entire "Civil War" series and not be transformed in their opinion of the significance and intensity of this nation's past, and its hellishly earned place among the great players in the history of the world. In spite of its inherently violent subject matter, I would strongly recommend this piece to young people and their parents together, as I feel the expertise of the storytelling, and the richness of the story itself, make up an undeniable experience of reflection and growth for all those who will thoughtfully view it.