Dean's World

Well I'm not sure the comparison is entirely appropriate considering this is a documentary that's meant to look at the war from all aspects of American life, while the other was a dramatization. That's not to take away from one or the other, but...

Anyway, have you noticed yet just how much more tightly controlled the government was about giving information to the public and spying on people under the Roosevelt administration? Makes anything and everything the Bush administration has done in that department look like practically a hippy radical administration.

Dean:

One thing from the first episode that struck me was the submarine warfare off NYC in 1942. The fact that the city took so long to shut off its lights to prevent merchant ships from being silhouetted was curious.

I do like the emphasis on the homefront, and all the footage that is really completely new to me. The local PBS station is having some locally-produced programs about San Diego during the War.

His brother, Ric Burns, did a documentary on New York City in 1999, with the final two episodes in 2001. No matter their political leanings, they're great storytellers.

Friends,

Charitably, I'd say it is a technically well-done presentation. Beyond that, I'll have to pass. the sermonizing hollywoodish spin just killed it for me. The last straw was seeing Kieth Olbermann, he of the spit-flecked raging on MSNBC, waxing comparitively on WWII vs Iraq.

Ken Burns does nothing for our history of WWII that the History Channel or the Military Channel hasn't already covered. Want to know about WWII? get the "Why We Fight" series, and the "Victory at Sea" series. Read "Company Commander", "Those Devils in Baggy Pants" and "The Forgotten Soldier".

I was hoping for something akin to his excellent "Civil War" series. Instead I got a dormulaic rendering that depends more upon Mr. Burns' credentials than in any truly unique interpretation or presentation.

Other's mileage, of course, may vary.

I've been collecting it on DVR, too (someday I'll learn how to save that) and I've watched most of the first episode and quite enjoyed it. The only criticism I have so far is a nit -- for me sometimes the music seems inappropriate and tacked on, not at all as effective an enhancer as The Civil War. But Olbermann makes an appearance to talk about Iraq? Oh no...

I saw a few of the episodes last week. It's ok, but only just ok. The thing is, I'm getting heartily tired of being clubbed over the head with the segregated-army, jim-crow-in-the-south, the-Japanese-Americans-were-treated-so-badly.

Yeah, it's true that was a part of life in those days, and I'm not saying it shouldn't have been covered at all. But apparently, to Ken Burns the jim-crow laws in the south at that time had more importance to the war effort than say, for example, the entire submarine campaign in the Pacific war - of which he speaks *nothing*.