“The War”
On June 28, 2007, we had the pleasure of hearing film maker, Ken Burns, speak at the Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, NH. With an attentive and appreciate audience on hand, including veterans of World War II, and active duty and retired military members, Burns shared film clips from his new film, “The War.”
In all, the audience previewed about one hour’s footage from his new, seven part, 13.5 hour series about World War II, a film that was six years in the making. New Hampshire Public Television will begin running the series on September 23 at 8 p.m. http://www.nhptv.org/
Burns explained some of his reasons for making the documentary. First of all, he was influenced by the example set by Tom Brokaw and his book, The Greatest Generation. He also realized that one thousand World War II veterans are dying every day in America. Time is running out to gather information from oral interviews. In addition, the wish to educate the current generation was a motivating factor after Burns found out that, in one survey, high school graduating seniors seemed to think that Americans and Germans fought on the same side, during the largest armed conflict of the twentieth century.
I came away from this event more mesmerized than ever before by this period of history. With an estimated 50-60 million casualties during the war, one wonders when “enough” killing and brutality will be “enough” for mankind. We continually become engaged in armed conflicts. Usually our youngest, our bravest, and our strongest are sacrificed. World War II has been referred to as a “necessary” war, and after seeing the film, you will begin to know why.
What an amazing experience!
Patricia Cummings
