From Ken Burns come the groundbreaking 9-part PBS documentary _The Civil War_. The series follows the American Civil War from it’s rumbles in the years prior to the election of President Abraham Lincoln to the war’s end and the honoring of its soldiers in the years that followed. David McCullough, Sam Waterston, Morgan Freeman, Garrison Keillor, Jeremy Irons, and Laurence Fishburne lend their voices to provide narration for the writings of various soldiers, politicians, and civilians workers. Additionally, several historians are interviewed and numerous paintings, photographs, news reels, maps and newspapers are used to illustrate the people and events that are discussed. At times the narrative goes down some dead ends, for the most part it does a good job at following the major events of the war and at including interesting bits of trivia and personal stories that embody the Civil War experience. An extraordinary series, _The Civil War_ really gets into the complexities of the war, how it shaped us, and the impact it’s still having.

I first watched The Civil War when I was 8 or 9 and never since. On watching it this time, I am amazed I still remember some of it; it obviously had a big impression on me. This documentary is an important landmark – kind of like the American version of Shoah – the first long-form American documentary about American history. And it’s also iconic – so much of what is contained in this film has become cliche but that’s not because it is cliche, just that Burns’ style has weaseled its way into American documentary storytelling, especially in the case of TV documentaries. Watch any PBS documentary or basically any American documentary about the past, and there will be some aspect of the style of The Civil War. The film does have its problems; it relies too much on hearsay and on mythology. A more accurate, less poetic history of the Civil War wouldn’t give us so many anecdotes. But part of the film’s power is this mythologizing of this truly central event in American history. It may not be entirely accurate, but it is more compelling from a narrative point of view. Also, something this long and large, based on something that occurred nearly a century and a half prior, necessarily has to rely at least a little bit on legends. I don’t think the film is lesser for it.