The American Revolution

The American Revolution achieves that goal brilliantly, sidestepping romanticism of the period (see Outlander) and stripping away myth with a grounding in granular reality. While never losing focus on heroes like George Washington, whose triumphs and mistakes are scrutinized by a diverse faculty of scholars, the series brings history to life through the accounts of lesser-known participants.

At once thorough, nuanced, and moving, investigating the paradigm-shifting uprising from numerous micro and macro angles that bring it to vibrant, inspiring life.

It's not faultless. There are obviously no contemporary photographs (a familiar Burns tool) so the visuals are mainly an array of drawings, paintings and etchings that could do with some labelling. And while I liked the restrained use of live reconstructions that sparingly use often wintry landscapes to convey mood perfectly, at times the stirring music and rhetoric about "the noblest aspirations of humankind" gets a bit much. But it works superbly when it gets into the weeds of the story.

The series makes its case the way Burns’s whole body of work has: by trying to tell a full story and trusting, maybe with quaint optimism, that all kinds of Americans will want to hear it. The series might well draw controversy pointing out the founders’ contradictions. But “The American Revolution” is also deeply patriotic. It gushes with love for America’s natural beauty, for its democracy and for its professed, if not always realized, ideals.

Contemporary battlefield sketches, grand post-war history paintings, elegant portraits of the major military and political figures, along with watercolor illustrations and unobtrusive live-action recreations bring the tale to life. As in other Burns projects, the narrative is knit together out of many individual stories, but it’s Washington, the commander of the army, who stands out here.

The American Revolution is yet another example of how Ken Burns and his collaborators take what we already know about a historic event and, through meticulous research and extensive interviews with historians, goes really deep into the topic in an entertaining way.

Their sanctimonious approach to history becomes very tiresome very quickly. This is unfortunate, and not just because it affects the viewing experience, which is as numbing as a winter at Fort Ticonderoga. .... The Burns-Botstein-Schmidt review is certainly enlightening, at least about who did what and where and why—the military strategies can be fascinating, though. .... When the most energized aspect of a documentary series is the talking heads, it says something.

I thoroughly enjoyed my watching of The American Revolution. It fleshed out and humanized that important time compared to my simple and romanticized version I was taught as a kid growing up in the U.S. It opened my eyes to the fact that it was more a civil war than one between the British and American. It fleshed out the deeply complex people, capable of both good and evil, behind my nation's founding. It was fascinating to learn of the huge impact, mostly forgotten and whitewashed, that black and native people had in the conflict. Its an important documentary to understand that no war or revolution is simply good vs. evil. And that very flawed men can still fight for something great and create something better than themselves.

Hes brought us a mostly exquisite and meticulous retelling of a mostly forgotten chapter of our shared history. But sadly, as is almost always the case, its laden and hobbled by a patronizing and beleaguered focus on the very real and disconcerting history of racial persecution and slavery. He simply cannot help himself. And so as is usually the case its tough to tell if the guy has even a shred of affection or respect for the country or its people. The result is a messy and uneven string of random facts and battle lines. Most of the people he interviews look as if theyd been created by AI. We all know the evils that have transpired in our history. Its nothing unique to america before or after our period of history. I swear if he made a doc about lets say spaceflight, itd be mostly commentary on evil whites and how bad slavery is. Its weird and counterproductive. All the worse considering how fascinating and important the revolution was.

Total historical revisionism mixed with no fewer than 5 flat out lies or heavily anti-American points of view. Constant half truths and an inability to portray the founding fathers of America in a good or truthful light. Totally disappointing after watching the civil war documentary.