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Ken Burns is now considered more than a documentarian; he is a brand, a one-man industrial complex. With each new television endeavor heading for the small screen, everybody wants an interview.

He participated in “more fucking podcasts than I ever thought possible”, he notes, wrapping up of nine-month promotional tour comprising 40 cities, 80 screenings and hundreds of interviews. “With podcasts numbering in the hundreds of millions, I feel I’ve participated in a substantial portion.”

Fortunately the filmmaker is incredibly dynamic, as loquacious behind the mic as he is prolific during post-production. The veteran director has traveled from historical sites to The Joe Rogan Experience to discuss his latest monumental work: this historical epic, a monumental six-part, 12-hour documentary series that dominated the past decade of his life and arrived this week on PBS.

Classic Documentary Style

Similar to traditional cooking in an age of fast food, Burns’ latest project proudly conventional, reminiscent of traditional war documentaries rather than contemporary streaming docs audio documentaries.

However, for the filmmaker, who has built a career exploring national heritage including baseball, country music, jazz and national parks, its origin story transcends ordinary historical coverage but fundamental. “As I mentioned to directing partner Sarah Botstein recently, and she concurred: no future work will carry greater importance,” Burns reflects during a telephone interview.

Extensive Historical Investigation

Burns, co-directors Botstein and David Schmidt along with writer Geoffrey Ward drew upon countless written sources and other historical materials. Multiple academic experts, covering various ideological backgrounds, offered expert analysis together with prominent academics representing multiple disciplines including slavery, Native American history and imperial studies.

Characteristic Narrative Method

The documentary’s methodology will appear similar to devotees of The Civil War. The unique approach incorporated gradual camera movements across still photos, generous use of period music featuring talent voicing historical documents.

Those projects established Burns established his reputation; decades afterwards, presently the respected veteran of historical films, he seems able to recruit any actor he chooses. Participating with Burns at a New York gathering, the Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda observed: “Nobody declines an invitation from Ken Burns.”

Remarkable Ensemble

The extended filming period proved beneficial in terms of flexibility. Recordings took place in recording spaces, on location using online technology, an approach adopted throughout the health crisis. The director describes collaborating with actor Josh Brolin, who made time while in Georgia to record his lines as George Washington prior to departing to subsequent commitments.

The cast includes multiple distinguished artists, established Hollywood talent, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Jonathan Groff, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Samuel L Jackson, Michael Keaton, Tracy Letts, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Tobias Menzies, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber, plus additional notable names.

Burns adds: “Frankly, this may be the best single cast ever assembled for any movie or television show. Their work is exceptional. They’re not picked because they’re celebrities. I got so angry when somebody said, regarding the famous participants. I go, ‘These are actors.’ They’re the finest actors in the world and they vitalize these narratives.”

Multifaceted Story

Nevertheless, the absence of living witnesses, visual documentation compelled the production to lean heavily on the written word, combining the first-person voices of multiple revolutionary participants. This allowed them to present viewers not only to the “bold-faced names” of the founders but also to “dozens of others crucial to understanding, several participants lack visual representation.

Burns additionally pursued his individual interest for geography and cartography. “Maps fascinate me,” he comments, “and there are more maps throughout this series versus earlier productions across my complete filmography.”

Global Significance

Filmmakers captured footage at numerous significant sites throughout the continent plus English locations to document environmental context and partnered extensively with living history participants. Various aspects converge to tell a story more violent, complex and globally significant versus conventional understanding.

The revolution, it contends, was no mere parochial quarrel over land, taxation and representation. Instead the film portrays a blood-soaked struggle that ultimately drew in more than two dozen nations and unexpectedly manifested described as “mankind’s greatest hopes”.

Brother Against Brother

What had begun as a jumble of grievances leveled at London by far-flung British subjects throughout multiple disputatious regions soon descended into a vicious internal war, pitting family members against each other and creating local enmities. In one segment, the historian Alan Taylor observes: “The main misapprehension regarding the Revolutionary War is that it was something a consolidating event for colonists. It leaves out the reality that Americans fought each other.”

Historical Complexity

For him, the revolution is a story that “generally is overwhelmed by emotionalism and idealization and lacks depth and doesn’t have the respect the historical reality, all contributors and the extensive brutality.

It was, he contends, an uprising that declared the world-changing idea of fundamental personal liberties; a bloody domestic struggle, separating rebels and supporters; plus an international conflict, the fourth in a series of wars between imperial nations for control of the continent.

Uncertain Historical Outcomes

Burns also wanted {to rediscover the