I always found him an interesting character for avoiding the big screen like the plague. Has he ever done a movie that didn't go through television? On the other hand, they have all seen large rental success after their release, and his The Civil War is considered a landmark documentary. Sadly, I haven't seen it. But I have heard so much about the series, and I went into imdb to check them out.

Almost 800 votes and it is sitting on a 9.5 star rating out of 10 over there! To put that in perspective, number 1 ranked Godfather is sitting at a 9.0, and Shawshank redemption at 8.9. I wonder why The Civil War isn't even listed there then?

I also think he must work with pretty high budgets by now, so he's an interesting man for having manuevered a position in Hollywood (?) without ever having left televion of the documentary genre.

He's actually up there with Errol Morris (for me that is) as the two biggest and most powerful American documenterers in history, but he'll never really get his name out in the same way. Or maybe he has, how many other people have seen his stuff or know of him?

the civil war is one of the best documentaries ever made. i've watched it at least 10 times and it seems to get better every time.

I recently saw Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson on PBS - very well done - he's definitely the master when it comes to historical docs with limited primary source media. That guy can cobble together a riveting and emotional story from a tattered b&w photo and a 3-word journal entry...

(Speaking of which, has anyone seen Tarnation - the director, Jonathan Caouette, used a lot of Burns' techniques to fashion a fantastic documentary out of his old family photos and videos...)

Yes, i even remember seeing ads for the Jack Johnson story here. So he definately has alot of financial pull considering it was a tv feature. Also, I believe it was for black history month, and I saw very little other programming for the events. So I think Ken has this kind of formal respect that put him perfectly on the right timing for that feature. Its good to know you thought it was successful, since I wasn't sure anyone had watched it. Made for tv docs get alot of bad rap. And if not that, the history channel wips them out so regularly people don't distinguish Ken Burn's stuff from everything else they see. Its too bad he's really one of the best documenterers.

Termi, "each time" you watch it huh? How many times have you seen Civil War??? It's a ten video set isn't it? A couple hours long. Why do you like it so much?

it's 9 episodes, and a grand total of 11 hours long. i like the civil war to begin with so that's why i watch it so often. he is just so in depth and he brings the war to life like no other documentary ever has. it's a real treat for civil war enthusiasts or war enthusiasts in general.

:box:

:duel

I love Ken Burns. H'wood predicted his still pictures on TV would go down in flames. His work is highly engaging because he lets the images form in the mind using narrative, melody, and photos.. Just like a real person sitting in their parlour would do in telling you a story... They might talk a bit, then pull out a photo album to share.. The theater of the mind is much stronger than film stock..
I also have a weakness for violin music.......

Ken Burns is good and has gotten tons of acclaim but he fell into a rut of using the same gimmicks repeatedly. There's only so many times you can see the camera pan up a black and white photo while a narrator reads a letter that the person in the photo wrote.