The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns (Boxed Set) [VHS]

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VHS Tape Cover Information

Actor: David McCullough, Garrison Keillor, Jason Robards, Morgan Freeman, Sam Waterston
Edition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language), Analog
Format: Black & White, Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC, Original recording reissued
Running Time: 680 minutes
Release Date: 1997-06-03
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: Pbs Home Video
Studio: Pbs Home Video

VHS Movie Reviews of The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns (Boxed Set) [VHS]

Movie Review: Unsurpassed overview of the Civil War
Summary: 5 Stars

I have spent quite a bit of my learning time in the past two years focusing on the Civil War, wanting to get a better handle on the whole thing. I watched movies, read books, listened to books on tape, listened to college lectures, recorded and watched shows from the History Channel and PBS. I visited Civil War battlefields at Gettysburg and in Virginia and Tennessee.

Throughout this, I used Ken Burns' film as my guide to keep things straight. I think I have watched every part of this film at least twice, and it never let me down.

Burns, whom I once heard give a lecture at Willamette University, found what in my opinion was just the right way to weave elements of learning into a compelling fabric that never bores. I loved getting to listen to and see historians like Shelby Foote. I loved the photographs, the music, the animated battlefield sequences. The many quotations from letters and diaries of participants, read by such familiar voices as Garrison Keillor, lent the whole project an unmistakable credibility.

Finally, no review could do justice to this film without lauding the narration of David McCullough. Whenever I read something aloud to anybody, I try to imagine how McCullough would do it. My imitation of him is always inadequate, but that is not a word that could ever be fairly applied to this film.

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Summary of The Civil War - A Film by Ken Burns (Boxed Set) [VHS]

Hailed as a documentary masterpiece without parallel, Ken Burns' filmed chronicle of America's most terrible and destructive conflict will hold you in thrall as it portrays the strategies and action of the war's famous battles, and tells the stories of illustrious generals and ordinary field soldiers, politicians and rogues, heroes and a beleaguered President. Winner of two Emmy Awards, the series begins by looking at the fateful causes of the war that led to the firing on Fort Sumter, to the devastating battles of Shiloh, Antietam and Gettysburg, climaxing with Lee's surrender and the assassination of President Lincoln. Vivid photographic imagery and narration by many of today's most acclaimed performers highlight this epic program. Titles are: "The Cause of 1862," "A Very Bloody Affair 1862," "Forever Free 1862," "Simply Murder 1863," "The Universe of Battle 1863," "Valley of the Shadow of Death 1864," "Most Hallowed Ground 1864," "War Is All Hell 1865," and "The Better Angles of Our Nature 1865 ."

The most successful public-television miniseries in American history, the 11-hour Civil War didn't just captivate a nation, reteaching to us our history in narrative terms; it actually also invented a new film language taken from its creator. When people describe documentaries using the "Ken Burns approach," its style is understood: voice-over narrators reading letters and documents dramatically and stating the writer's name at their conclusion, fresh live footage of places juxtaposed with still images (photographs, paintings, maps, prints), anecdotal interviews, and romantic musical scores taken from the era he depicts. The Civil War uses all of these devices to evoke atmosphere and resurrect an event that many knew only from stale history books. While Burns is a historian, a researcher, and a documentarian, he's above all a gifted storyteller, and it's his narrative powers that give this chronicle its beauty, overwhelming emotion, and devastating horror. Using the words of old letters, eloquently read by a variety of celebrities, the stories of historians like Shelby Foote and rare, stained photos, Burns allows us not only to relearn and finally understand our history, but also to feel and experience it. --Dave McCoy

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