Note to self:
Cross street if you see Ken Burns barking into a cell phone while coming toward me on sidewalk. Be extra careful if his shoes are smoldering.
Honestly, I really thought the guy was probably a wee bit, fastidious, perhaps, but those feet of clay may just keep him out of my personal valhalla now. Still, the docs on Baseball and the Civil War put him front and center for one of the best documentary filmmakers ever, as you acknowledge in your post.
I saw parts of each episode of The War when it ran this week and found that it covered much of the similar territory that other docs about WWII had done in the past. Still, the best things about it were the utilization of some rarely seen film and haunting photos of the soldiers and the Homefront, and the deeply moving interviews with some hale and hearty vets still among us. I thought that Daniel Inouye, (a Senator from Hawaii in his spare time, I hear), was particularly eloquent and terse as one of those vets. The depiction of the racism, the shattering of social barriers and the courage that existed side by side within the military and society on the Homefront seemed well captured.
I do have a problem with some of the Wynton Marsalis musical choices, such as an irritatingly perky fiddle beneath some footage of burning buildings falling on people in London, but that was minor, and most of the music was good. I also feel as though I've spent more time in Waterbury, Conn. than many towns I've physically visited.
The War would be a great introduction to this period in history to teenagers. I'm sure that it will be used for decades to come for that purpose.