Ken Burns

[goosefish]

I watched his WW II documentary last night. I thought it was great. I like how he follows the men who fought the war, not the men who called all the shots back in Washington.
Powerful stuff.

[Skip N]

Excellent program so far, very well done

[spence]

Originally Posted by Skip N

Excellent program so far, very well done

Skippy, you do know he's a serious liberal don't you?

-spence

[Skip N]

Originally Posted by spence

Skippy, you do know he's a serious liberal don't you?

-spence

Im sure he is, but "The War" doesnt seem to have any left leaning spin. Seem to be telling it as it was, not trying to be all PC. He's ok in my book!

[Skip N]

Burns seems to be giving some decent attention to some of the forgotten campagins, Good job on the North Africa campaign and i'm looking forward to seeing how he desrcibes fighting in Italy. Especially Anzio. Very well done so far!

[spence]

Just let the record stand that Skippy doesn't think "the War" has any "left leaning spin".

JohnR, could you please burn this thread to DVD ROM?

thanks,

-spence

[Skip N]

Originally Posted by spence

Just let the record stand that Skippy doesn't think "the War" has any "left leaning spin".

JohnR, could you please burn this thread to DVD ROM?

thanks,

-spence

SO FAR i thinks its been presented in rather fair way.

Have you been watching? Watcha think?

[basswipe]

His Civil War documentary based on Shelby Foote's books SHOULD BE REQUIRED VIEWING by all American students from the college level down to K.

[stripersnipr]

What channel, when?

[goosefish]

eight o'clock on PBS. I think it's running all week. I fished last night so missed it. I'm fishing tonight too. Guess I'll have to wait for it to come out on DVD. I still need to see his Civil War and his Baseball. My ball friends say the baseball one is required, especially after episode six. That I guess is when it goes to color.

[spence]

I'd like to see it, he does great work and I love history...

-spence

[Backbeach Jake]

Ken Burns has become the "Great American Story Teller". His work is just amazing!

[RIJIMMY]

I am tivo-ing it and looking forward to watching it.

I have to say as a life long jazz fan and musician, I HATED (as did many jazz fans ) his series on jazz. it was very biased and could be titled Jazz - through the eyes of Winton Marsalis. He did a disservice to a lot of jazz greats IMHO.

[goosefish]

RIJIMMY--I agree with you on that. I think he stayed way too long on the early years.

[RIJIMMY]

watched the second episode last night - man 76,000 US dead in 6 months in North Africa, thats nuts! Also couldnt beleive that all US production, Ford, GM etc turned around and focused on defense in a little over a year. i can barely get a softward upgrade project completed in in less than a year!!

[RIJIMMY]

watched episode 3 last night.

I am SOOO glad he is giving time to the war in the pacific and the marines. I always feel that is overshadowed by the war in Europe. IMHO the marines had it harder than anyone. Also the Italian campaign which is overshadowed by D-Day. So far I like it, could do without all the preachy racist stuff but I guess its part of the story.

[ProfessorM]

Great show. Very interesting was the part on the Japanese force fighting for us and also the native American story too.

[Joe]

Originally Posted by Karl F

it wouln't fly today.. would it?

Sure it would....all it would take is one city embalmed in dirty bomb dust and you'd see the US dropping tactical nukes - we got a long fuse but it's attached to a very big bomb.

[spence]

Originally Posted by Joe

Sure it would....all it would take is one city embalmed in dirty bomb dust and you'd see the US dropping tactical nukes - we got a long fuse but it's attached to a very big bomb.

Not a chance in a global economy. Things are completely different now, and that may work against us...

But given an big attack, we'd still see the same business as usual mantra from our leadership, and probably for the right reasons.

-spence

[Joe]

Sounds good Spence - but in the event of a spectacular attack with a high body count, there's not much evidence to support the theory of a measured response with an eye toward calming the global marketplace. If 9-11 triggered the invasion and occupation of two countries - for a body count of approx 3000 U.S dead citizens - what kind of response do you think 20,000 or 50,000 dead would incur? I also believe would see severe racial profiling, deportations, and wholesale detentions.

[RIJIMMY]

the question was, would you see the president ask for, and get , the kind of sacrifice from the american people as you did in WWII.
I dont think so, what sacrifice has the average american made in the wake of 9/11, nothing really, longer lines at the airport?
Maybe something major would unify and focus the country but I really douby our resolve and ability to sacrifice our standard of living.

[RIJIMMY]

as a side note, I think they did an excellent job on the pacific war. Something thats LONG overdue.Dont want to give it away but the last epsiode was the best especially the Okinawa invasion and how it refelcted on the planned invasion of Japan.