Ken Burn’s “The War”

I am not in agreement with some that Ken Burn’s new doc The War is “disappointing.” It seems nothing qualifies as “good” unless it dresses down our values, sacrifices, and struggles in order to present some kind of allusive “fair” or “appropriate” presentation. We must under-score our glory and success in order to HIGHLIGHT our mis-steps and injustices. This doc was forthright in its approach and did not pretend to be more than it is: a celebration of American spirit and fortitude, even when the going got tough. That’s good enough for me even if Ken Burns could have covered more and other things. It is what it is and had it focused on those other things more exclusively, I suspect, then some of you would have been delighted by it. World War II was “The War,” and if you ever had the pleasure to ask any of our elders (I had a grandfather who fought in it) who lived through it and truly felt the world was “in doubt,” then you would understand what this film was about. It’s about bigger issues and bigger ideas like: survival, tyranny, oppression, and yes freedom. Oh wait, that would not be politically correct today. Yes, Burns could have focused on the outright injustice black soldiers and civilians faced during and after the war. But that was not what this doc is about. And that’s ok, plenty of you out there already emphasize that and downplay the rest. It was about a world at war and a desperate struggle between autocratic nations and democracies. Should we forget the injustice? NO! But it does not over-shadow the rest, and is at best a subplot.

Finally, ok, don’t watch it tonight and the rest of this week. However, that is a symptom of a problem of some parts of this country and academia. For all you know tonight’s episode might surprise some of you.