Support NeoGAF

[Spike Spiegel]

Official 'The Vietnam War' Site

https://youtu.be/KsURzLKESQE

EDIT: Will begin airing on Sunday, September 17 of this year, so mark your calendars. Ken Burns documentaries are extraordinary.

PBS Previews: 'The Vietnam War' (25:22)

 

[Zampano]

So excited for this.

 

[Fine Ham Abounds]

Ken

The Cubs won

Where's my 11th inning

 

[Lifeline]

I just watched Tower from PBS and it's one of the best documentaries i have ever watched. Excited for this one.

 

[Tugatrix]

Exited for this and to think Trump want to slash their budget

 

[bengraven]

I'm there the moment you say Ken Burns.

 

[BigDug13]

PBS and Ken Burns better enjoy it while it lasts. National Endowment for Humanities and National Endowment for the Arts are getting cut.

 

[Gabriel_Logan]

Yissss. Civil War documentary is my favorite of all time.

 

[gdt]

Ken Burns fuck yes.

 

[Enduin]

Fuuuuuck. September is so long from now.

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Airdate is set for September 17, mark your calendars. Also, a half-hour preview was recently released.

http://www.pbs.org/video/3001104790/

 

[Sunster]

excited. i know very little about this war.

 

[Loxley]

So excited for this, that preview looked great.

 

[Xe4]

Another Ken Burns documentary, hell yeah. They're so well produced, I could watch a Burns documentary on poop and be happy.

 

[Elwainen]

ive always heard about ken burns documentaries but never seen one. are they actually good? my dad says thy are meant for the masses and simplify everything, but id like some other opinions

 

[Earthbound64]

ive always heard about ken burns documentaries but never seen one. are they actually good? my dad says thy are meant for the masses and simplify everything, but id like some other opinions

Watch "Baseball"
Now.

 

[Xe4]

ive always heard about ken burns documentaries but never seen one. are they actually good? my dad says thy are meant for the masses and simplify everything, but id like some other opinions

They're not immune to getting things wrong. Some particularly controversial documentaries of his were on the Civil War, WWII, and Jazz. However, the production values are absolutely insane. They actually make you feel like you're in that time period going through the events of the documentary. They also cover some very important issues and make you think on them.

If you're looking for the nitty gritties of a particular event, look somewhere else, but there is hardly a better primer for any topic than a Burns documentary.

 

[SolarPowered]

ive always heard about ken burns documentaries but never seen one. are they actually good? my dad says thy are meant for the masses and simplify everything, but id like some other opinions

They're very informative, detailed and the musical choices really set unique a unique mood for each one. You should start off with his Civil War documentary. The imagery, music and written statements make for a compelling watch. His prohibition documentary also explored a lot of the forces behind prohibition and how it basically injected steroids into gang crime in certain respects.

Really gripping stuff

 

[Old Gimlet Eyes]

ive always heard about ken burns documentaries but never seen one. are they actually good? my dad says thy are meant for the masses and simplify everything, but id like some other opinions

The best, bar none.

 

[Bronx-Man]

I've never seen a Ken Burns documentary but I'm lowkey obsessed with the Vietnam War and the effect it had on American society forever afterwards. I'll definitely keep an eye out on this.

 

[NoFaceNico]

Will it have piano in the background or CCR?

 

[Elwainen]

Watch "Baseball"
Now.

They're not immune to getting things wrong. Some particularly controversial documentaries of his were on the Civil War, WWII, and Jazz. However, the production values are absolutely insane. They actually make you feel like you're in that time period going through the events of the documentary. They also cover some very important issues and make you think on them.

If you're looking for the nitty gritties of a particular event, look somewhere else, but there is hardly a better primer for any topic than a Burns documentary.

They're very informative, detailed and the musical choices really set unique a unique mood for each one. You should start off with his Civil War documentary. The imagery, music and written statements make for a compelling watch. His prohibition documentary also explored a lot of the forces behind prohibition and how it basically injected steroids into gang crime in certain respects.

Really gripping stuff

The best, bar none.

thanks guys, will definitely check them out then

 

[Spike Spiegel]

Will it have piano in the background or CCR?

CCR plus Yo-Yo Ma and Trent Reznor. There's a segment in the preview about the musical contributions.

 

[Loxley]

Oh shit, the score was done by Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross and Yo-Yo Ma? That's one hell of a line-up.

 

[TheGameshark]

Should be good

 

[norm9]

I don't need to see a fucking preview to be down on premiere night. Ken Burns is quality.

 

[glow]

ive always heard about ken burns documentaries but never seen one. are they actually good? my dad says thy are meant for the masses and simplify everything, but id like some other opinions

He's great. The way he completely immerses himself in his subject material and conveys it in accessible long form documentary is pretty remarkable. I can't wait to see him tackle a war as complicated as Vietnam's American War. It's the forgotten war that no one wants to talk about but it's something that needs to be discussed.

 

[norm9]

I've never seen a Ken Burns documentary but I'm lowkey obsessed with the Vietnam War and the effect it had on American society forever afterwards. I'll definitely keep an eye out on this.

There are SO many repercussions with the Vietnam War. We had a whole generation of teenage kids forced to kill and killed and the survivors came back absolutely changed and the ones who sent them to war knew halfway through that we couldn't win but kept sending them.

That's a whole generation of kids that could have done something else in life.

Eta- watch civil war, Prohibutuon, etc. Any of them. Deep stuff. You'll feel different afterwords.

 

[TiredofWinning]

PBS already did an incredible documentary series on Vietnam in 1983. I'd recommend it to anyone. Partly because of the actual first hand accounts from the leaders of the war from both sides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqKi-SyRA7I

I'm nervous to watch the preview after the high bar set by the 1983 doc. I don't know if Ken Burns really has the guts to take on American foreign policy in such a critical way that's necessary to truly understand American involvement in Indochina.

 

[| Praxis |]

I just watched Tower from PBS and it's one of the best documentaries i have ever watched. Excited for this one.

Yeah, Tower is great.

 

[Snowman Prophet of Doom]

I've never seen a Ken Burns documentary but I'm lowkey obsessed with the Vietnam War and the effect it had on American society forever afterwards. I'll definitely keep an eye out on this.

If you or anybody else has not seen it, the "Vietnam: A Television History" doc series from the early 80s is absolutely FANTASTIC, with tons of talking head interviews with higher-ups and low-level soldiers from both sides and one of the most skillfully edited blendings of television news footage I've seen. Whole thing is on YouTube, too!

Edit: Damn, beaten by two posts.

Double Edit: Doubly also, "Into the Deep: America, Whaling, and the World", by Ken's brother Rick, is the best thing either brother has done.

 

[glow]

PBS already did an incredible documentary series on Vietnam in 1983. I'd recommend it to anyone. Partly because of the actual first hand accounts from the leaders of the war from both sides.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TqKi-SyRA7I

I'm nervous to watch the preview after the high bar set by the 1983 doc. I don't know if Ken Burns really has the guts to take on American foreign policy in such a critical way that's necessary to truly understand American involvement in Indochina.

I have a similar worry especially seeing Berkeley and Kent State protests in the previews. It will be worth a watch no matter what he chooses to cover in the doc. There's another excellent documentary on the war called The Ten Thousand Day War. I do NOT recommend the doc Vietnam in HD. Very little depth, only focuses on big events and the anti-war movement.

 

[TiredofWinning]

I have a similar worry especially seeing Berkeley and Kent State protests in the previews. It will be worth a watch no matter what he chooses to cover in the doc. There's another excellent documentary on the war called The Ten Thousand Day War. I do NOT recommend the doc Vietnam in HD. Very little depth, only focuses on big events and the anti-war movement.

Yes, it's an incredibly misleading and almost a bail out for Americans to focus on the anti-war movement so heavily when it really was on the fringes of American discourse in the 60s in terms of impact. The majority of people were either partisans who supported LBJ or Nixon or ultra right people who wanted to bomb the shit out of the north more.

 

[ThatStupidLion]

Id like to see some docs that cover the vietnamese pov well, regardless of pro/or against its typically the US pov only. Id like some real discussion from the south and north sides

 

[CrazyDude]

Id like to see some docs that cover the vietnamese pov well, regardless of pro/or against its typically the US pov only. Id like some real discussion from the south and north sides

This doc is covering the North and South side as well.

 

[Frozenprince]

Had me at Ken Burns. High king of the historical documentary.

Civil War remains the only documentary series or film of the entire war because it was so comprehensive and seminal that it's impossible to outdo (though one that doesn't have a guy stanning for Nathan Bedford Forrest for most of it's run time would be cool, not gonna lie).

If he can get the political climate right, it'll be seminal.

I'd love to see him cover Korea next. It's obviously not all that historically important other than as background for why North Korea is a thing. But it's a war that's quite literally forgotten most of the time. It's warranted as a fascinating look at history in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

 

[SolarPowered]

Had me at Ken Burns. High king of the historical documentary.

Civil War remains the only documentary series or film of the entire war because it was so comprehensive and seminal that it's impossible to outdo (though one that doesn't have a guy stanning for Nathan Bedford Forrest for most of it's run time would be cool, not gonna lie).

If he can get the political climate right, it'll be seminal.

I'd love to see him cover Korea next. It's obviously not all that historically important other than as background for why North Korea is a thing. But it's a war that's quite literally forgotten most of the time. It's warranted as a fascinating look at history in the immediate aftermath of WWII.

His Civil War documentary was so good that it left me thirsting to watch him tackle reconstruction as well. Honestly, for most normal Americans 1865-1914 is probably one giant void that needs to be filled, especially if we want to better understand how things went from slavery to jim crow.

 

[Anth0ny]

Ken

The Cubs won

Where's my 11th inning

For real.

I've only watched Burns' baseball documentary, but it's god tier so I'm interesting in checking out the other stuff he's done.

 

[Frozenprince]

His Civil War documentary was so good that it left me thirsting to watch him tackle reconstruction as well. Honestly, for most normal Americans 1865-1914 is probably one giant void that needs to be filled, especially if we want to better understand how things went from slavery to jim crow.

Reconstruction would require 20 episodes and a hell of a lot of depth and detail as to why it failed and also need modern contextualizing to see how it's still having an affect on the nation.

It's a tremendous undertaking. I'd love if he did but it's very easy to gloss over key factors and very expensive to get right. So I can see why he's hesitant to do it.

 

[CrazyDude]

Reconstruction would require 20 episodes and a hell of a lot of depth and detail as to why it failed and also need modern contextualizing to see how it's still having an affect on the nation.

It's a tremendous undertaking. I'd love if he did but it's very easy to gloss over key factors and very expensive to get right. So I can see why he's hesitant to do it.

It took them 10 years just making Vietnam.

 

[lightskintwin]

thanks guys, will definitely check them out then

Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is a must watch.