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In extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives |
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“How fortunate it is that we in the United States are stitched together—as a country, a people, indeed, as individuals, not only by words and their dangerous progeny ideas—but also by memory…
…memory permits us to have an authentic relationship to our national narrative. These individual stories and moments, anecdotes and memories become the building blocks, the DNA, of our collective experience.
There are no ordinary lives. By stepping into memory, what these men and women have given us, by stepping into the great gift of memory, we liberate ourselves.”
—Ken Burns, about THE WAR |
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THE WAR, a seven-part series directed and produced by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, tells the story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of nearly 50 men and women from four quintessentially American towns. The series explores the most intimate human dimensions of the greatest cataclysm in history—a worldwide catastrophe that touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America—and demonstrates that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.
Throughout the series, the indelible experience of combat is brought vividly to life as veterans describe what it was like to fight and kill and see men die at places like Monte Cassino and Anzio and Omaha Beach; the Hürtgen Forest and the Vosges Mountains and the Ardennes; and on the other side of the world at Guadalcanal and Tarawa and Saipan; Peleliu and the Philippine Sea and Okinawa. In all of the battle scenes, dramatic historical footage and photographs are combined with extraordinarily realistic sound effects to give the film a terrifying, visceral immediacy.
In every episode, veterans’ accounts of battle are interwoven with the poignant recollections of their loved ones back home, who, for four long years, carried on with their lives, contributed to the war effort, and lived in constant fear of telegrams containing news too terrible to bear.
The film honors the bravery, endurance, and sacrifice of the generation of Americans who lived through what will always be known simply as THE WAR. |
THE WAR - A KEN BURNS FILM ORIGINAL PRODUCTION UNDERWRITERS
General Motors, the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Hantzmon Wiebel LLP - Charlottesville, VA
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| Promotional Video Streams |
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The videos are played with Quicktime. Click here to download Quicktime for free. |
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