PBS Documentary "The War"

DDD

Well-Known Member
Last night on PBS the first 2.5 hour segment of "The War" was
shown. In total the documentary is suppose to be 11 or 12 hours.
I'm not sure how old you have to be to appreciate the program but
certainly it has meaning in my family. I was born in l940 and
it was probably l950 before the aura of "The War" had disipated
and my generation moved on to Rock and Roll.

The documentary is particularly signicant because the WW2 vets
are dying off rapidly and those vets mostly kept the horror of
"the good war" to themselves. My Dad never spoke in details. I
only remember once when he got teary after the war when my friend
Judy asked him "did you see my Daddy's plane crash?". He had. I
had nightmares for awhile thinking of Judy's Daddy. My eldest
sister married an attorney who was a Marine and had shrapnel
scars from fighting in the islands. He never, ever, ever would
speak of the war.

The times were different in the 40's and 50's. Now, in 2007, these veterans are sharing the horrible truth for the first time.
I was so moved. I was horrified. I was ashamed. I was proud.

Did any of you ever watch the wonderful, long Civil War series
that was on PBS years ago? It was later marketed and it was the
best documentary we had ever seen. Our library has multiple copies of it. This WW2 documentary is on the same plane. It
stresses that WW2 has always been referred to as "The Good War"
BUT those in the know....know....there is no such thing. DDD
 

Steely

Active Member
I have taped it to watch. It is produced by Ken Burns and I have only heard good things about it. I am not a big history documentary fan, so I am hoping I will be able to sink my teeth into, and not get bored.
 
I have seen Ken Burn's "The Civil War" several times. Also watched his baseball documentary. Both very well made. I missed the premier of this one and I am kicking myself! Not sure if I should watch now, having missed the opening, or if I should wait until it comes out on DVD so I can watch the segments in order (or maybe there will be an encore presentation of the premier?)

No such thing as a "good" war, true, but I believe WWII was a just war, and I think that is what they mean by "the good war".
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
I did watch it and taped it also. I grew up watching WWII movies with my Dad, the old black and white movies. I would ask him questions about the war and he tried to answer them for me. He was in many different countries during the war so he had stories of all of them.

I reminded Dad this movie started last night and he said he was going to watch it so I'll be interested to see what he thought. Being a documentary I'm not sure a lot of younger people will find it interesting but I really did. It certainly is a good history lesson.

I was struck by how honest the people were in talking about what really happened there. And it really hit home just how many men and women were lost in those battles.

Nancy
 
Here is an interesting theory of history which proposes that the generation that fought WWII was the last example of a "civic" or "heroic" generation to reach maturity, born between 1901 and 1924. Supposedly the next "heroic" generation is the "Millenial generation" born approximately from 1981 to 2002.

The theory is that each generation tends to correct for the excesses of the previous generation in an 80-to-100-year repetitive cycle. If the theory pans out then the external crisis that this heroic generation (that is, the "Millenial generation", current five-to-twenty five year olds) must face will occur in about 2015 to 2025.

My generation, the boomers (1943-1960), are an "idealist" generation according to the theory, tending to be visionary, individualistic, and spiritual.

The generation after the boomers ("generation X") (1961-1980) is a "reactive" generation (again, according to the theory), tending to be "rebellious, pragmatic, and materialistic". The previous reactive generation was the "Lost generation" born 1883-1900.

The fourth type of generation (theoretically) is "artistic/adaptive", members of which are described as "conformist, sensitive, and cultured". The last such generation was the "Silent generation" born between 1925 and 1942. The next artistic generation is the children being born now.

It's a fascinating theory and does in many ways seem to be broadly accurate as a description of the past century or two, but I'm reserving judgment on whether it is predictive of the outlines of future trends or not.
 

DDD

Well-Known Member
That historical perspective is interesting. I don't think I have
the sense of history to weigh in on the subject but I admire those who do. Thanks for sharing. DDD
 

Nancy

Well-Known Member
That's interesting. I'm a boomer too and I agree with what they say about the X generation. I'm hoping this generation doesn't face too many crisis, my easy child is too sensitive for that.

Nancy
 
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