Ken Burns: Labor of love doing WW II documentary
The arithmetic alone of The War - seven parts, 15 hours, airing over two weeks - is indicative of the commitment America's premier documentary maker has given to his recount of World War II.
Burns measures the retelling by focusing his film on the personal accounts of 40 men and women living in four American cities: Waterbury, Conn.; Mobile, Ala.; Sacramento, Calif.; and the tiny farming town of Luverne, Minn.
He and co-filmmaker Lynn Novick tackle both the European and Pacific theaters of the war and, significantly, the home front, in the retelling.
"I'd say about 25 (percent) or 30 percent of the film is back home,'' Burns said."We've yet to run into a documentary covering both the war on both fronts plus the reaction at home.''
He said he chose those four towns because, unlike bigger cities such as Brooklyn, N.Y., or San Diego, "our audience would have no preconceptions about them. They wouldn't come with baggage and presumptions.''