The new Ken Burns 12 hour (6 two-hour episodes) documentary on the American Revolution started last night on PBS. Predictably, it is very well done. If you missed last night’s first episode, it will re-air this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. ET. The episodes air at 8:00 p.m. ET.
Look forward to seeing that if it goes into wider distribution or streaming.
One of the most horrible features of war is that all the war-propaganda, all the screaming and lies and hatred, comes invariably from people who are not fighting.
- George Orwell, Homage To Catalonia
![[FGM] Bootie](https://i0.wp.com/thefewgoodmen.org/wp-content/uploads/wpforo/avatars/fgmbootie_193390399.jpg?resize=110%2C110 "[FGM] Bootie")
I always use the Ken Burns effect when Im editing these days. 🙂
The Ken Burns effect is a video editing technique that adds slow, smooth panning and zooming to still images, creating the illusion of movement. This effect, named after documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, makes static photos more engaging and is commonly used in documentaries, photo slideshows, and digital storytelling to draw attention to details within a picture. It is created by defining a start and end point for the motion in video editing software, often using keyframes.
@hoa_ksop Damn! He found us ... 😉
I just finished watching the whole 12-hour series. I learned quite a lot of things I had never seen or read before. Much of what I learned was very sad and disturbing. Overall, it was well done. In IMHO there were a few of the people whose comments annoyed me. The courage, valor, hardship and shear violence of that period is breath taking
Watched some of this recently — classic Ken Burns style: slow burn, lots of layers, and it really leans into the idea that the Revolution was as much a civil war as a fight for independence. I do appreciate that it moves beyond the usual Founding Fathers narrative and includes Loyalists, Native nations, and ordinary soldiers just trying to survive while history unfolded. That human angle is probably the strongest part of his work.
That said, I’ve always had a bit of a love-hate relationship with Burns. The depth of research is hard to argue with, but the pacing and repeated recaps can wear me down after a while — sometimes it feels like the same ideas get revisited so often that I start drifting instead of staying engaged.
Still, whether you agree with all the interpretations or not, it’s worth watching if only because it sparks good discussion — and that’s probably the best compliment you can give a history documentary.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum." — Vegetius
"Do not hurry to the sound of the guns without knowing why they are firing." — British maxim
"In war, the simplest things are difficult." — Clausewitz
"No plan survives first contact with the enemy." — Moltke
"The side that can most quickly exploit success is the side that will win." — Guderian
Some days you’re the hammer, some days you’re the nail. 🪖🎲
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