As much of a fan I am of Burns Civil War, as well as his (underrated?) Jazz documentary, it's hard to not notice how there is due to the period its about that there's a distinct lack of footage to drawn upon. The Vietnam War is the opposite, as Burns and Lynn Novick draw upon a massive plethora of footage from all sides, from the combat bolex 16mm photographers to footage from the Vietcong and in Hanoi to the protesters and (thank goodness) lots and lots of juicy never-before-heard (or little heard) audio tapes from Johnson and Kennedy and so on. But at the same time if it was just that it would make for some compelling viewing and still only be as far as that, some good footage showing us things about Vietnam most of us don't know about or may have forgotten since school (or if one does know a lot about, like I've seen in social media, there may be holes to poke, but I digress).
No, what gets this the full 5-stars is that its master storytellers at a peak: this is the story of Vietnam from all of the conceivable angles: the hundred year or so lead-up to how the French were finally driven out of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh (who quoted from US *the Declaration of Independence* in his speech after the French were gone to his people) to the years in the 50's when that divide between North and South sewed the seeds of all the problems that were to come, and then how the very first Americans died in *1959*, and then all of the perspectives: the US Military; the presidencies; the anti-war protesters; the soldiers recounting back on the US side AND the Vietnamese (especially the Vietnamese); the parents and family members of service members; locals and civilians in Vietnam, north and south. Every step of the way we are drawn in through the step-by-step process and how it was kind of inexorable; the US could have gotten out at multiple points, but due to the Cold War, Communism, a gargantuan sense of pride as WW2 and Korea had come in the recent consciousness, they were stuck in a civil war that they should have not been a part of.
In other words, Burns/Novick are charting all of the history that can fit into ten hours, and I'm sure if there are Vietnam war buffs they'll say this or that is missing. For those who only know so much they lay it all out in such a way that is harrowing and achingly personal (look at episode 3 with the story of the teenage boy who feels it's his duty so much to get into combat that he runs away for four months until his parents say it's okay... and you realize this is not going to turn out well, but you try not to think of that while his story is told), through all of the interviews with real guys who fought and came back and the stare is still there after over forty/fifty years. There's regret, there's trying to put things into context, there's more regret, there's footage that shows more than one might expect about the trepidation of the soldiers then (a hard-assed marine captain who admitted in an interview he wished he could have 200 of the Vietcong as they were "good soldiers").
There's so much to wrestle with here about American Imperialism - if not the beginning of it, then the crystallization of it - the entrenchment of politics through combat (Johnson doomed himself through not going more for peace and instead digging in to his advisors - and then of course Nixon, good lord that walking-talking curse word) - and then how real people, citizens being fed from the trough of anti-Communism (and on the flip-side how the Americans were exactly like the French, like there were no differences at all, as Western-European invaders), and it's both dense and easy to follow. I'm not even done with it yet and I'm tempted to say it's the best thing Burns has done.
No, what gets this the full 5-stars is that its master storytellers at a peak: this is the story of Vietnam from all of the conceivable angles: the hundred year or so lead-up to how the French were finally driven out of Vietnam by Ho Chi Minh (who quoted from US *the Declaration of Independence* in his speech after the French were gone to his people) to the years in the 50's when that divide between North and South sewed the seeds of all the problems that were to come, and then how the very first Americans died in *1959*, and then all of the perspectives: the US Military; the presidencies; the anti-war protesters; the soldiers recounting back on the US side AND the Vietnamese (especially the Vietnamese); the parents and family members of service members; locals and civilians in Vietnam, north and south. Every step of the way we are drawn in through the step-by-step process and how it was kind of inexorable; the US could have gotten out at multiple points, but due to the Cold War, Communism, a gargantuan sense of pride as WW2 and Korea had come in the recent consciousness, they were stuck in a civil war that they should have not been a part of.
In other words, Burns/Novick are charting all of the history that can fit into ten hours, and I'm sure if there are Vietnam war buffs they'll say this or that is missing. For those who only know so much they lay it all out in such a way that is harrowing and achingly personal (look at episode 3 with the story of the teenage boy who feels it's his duty so much to get into combat that he runs away for four months until his parents say it's okay... and you realize this is not going to turn out well, but you try not to think of that while his story is told), through all of the interviews with real guys who fought and came back and the stare is still there after over forty/fifty years. There's regret, there's trying to put things into context, there's more regret, there's footage that shows more than one might expect about the trepidation of the soldiers then (a hard-assed marine captain who admitted in an interview he wished he could have 200 of the Vietcong as they were "good soldiers").
There's so much to wrestle with here about American Imperialism - if not the beginning of it, then the crystallization of it - the entrenchment of politics through combat (Johnson doomed himself through not going more for peace and instead digging in to his advisors - and then of course Nixon, good lord that walking-talking curse word) - and then how real people, citizens being fed from the trough of anti-Communism (and on the flip-side how the Americans were exactly like the French, like there were no differences at all, as Western-European invaders), and it's both dense and easy to follow. I'm not even done with it yet and I'm tempted to say it's the best thing Burns has done.