Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ken Burns, welcome back. Let me just say right out
of the gate, the Da Vinci was amazing. I bought that.
I love it, and thank you for doing it.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you, my grandchildren, thank you, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:12):
We're talking to Ken Burns, a legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns,
who's actually coming to the Palace in Albany in September.
Tickets available at ticketmaster dot com. The undertaking is the
American Revolution coming to PBS this fall. Is this the
biggest project you've worked on, Ken?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
You know, in many ways it is. It's not the longest,
you know, Vietnam and baseball and other things have that
record jazz. But it's six parts, twelve hours, starting November
sixteenth and running all that week on PBS, and we're
traveling the entire country, but particularly up and down the
East coast to sort of share the story of the revolution.
(00:51):
And of course Albany has a huge, huge, important story
to tell because you know, the Hudson River is the
main highway, it's the interstate system. Basically, the rivers and
the bays and the and and the you know, the
ocean are the are how this war is conducted. And
(01:13):
you know, The Battle of Saratoga is the defining battle
of the American Revolution because the improbable American victory that
takes place ensures that the French will come in on
our side, and without their assistance, we don't win the war.
That their navy, their army and also their money, and
(01:34):
they sort of in the darkest times, Philadelphia has fallen.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
The Congress is exiled, the first Baltimore and then York
the eight This is, you know, the best news anybody
could ever have, the surrender of an entire army at Saratoga.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
How how relatively how deadly was the Revolutionary War compared
to some of the other big wars, I mean the
Civil War obviously like that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, you know, the Civil War is the most bloody
one know where we have the most lasses, but it's
almost proportional to the population that we have in the
United States the Revolution. So I think we tend to
think that it's just sort of great men thinking great
thoughts in Philadelphia, when what it is is a bloody
(02:21):
civil war that is much more of a civil war
than our Civil War was.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
That was the.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Sectional war, one part of the country against the other.
But I think coming to terms because that violence doesn't
in any way diminish the power of the big ideas.
And these are the biggest ideas that have come along
in most of human history. I like to say the
American Revolution is the most important event since the birth
of Christ. And that's you know, this is big news.
(02:47):
It isn't the dark chapters of us. It's the positive
part of it. But in order to get it those
great ideas, there was unbelievable sacrifice and unbelievable bloodshed. And
you know, what are the things that people be interested
to learn. One of the great great heroes of the
Battle of Saratoga is a guy named Benedict Arnold. For
the Americans, he's our you know you We introduced him
(03:11):
in the first moments of episode two, and it's not
until a third of the way through the last sixth
episode that you find out why it's a despised name
in American history.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
He took a bullet, didn't he.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He was He took a bullet at Quebec in our
failed invasion of Canada. And then he had rushed in
and unbelievable bravery into a British redoubt in the second
half of the Battle of Saratoga's really two battles separated
by a number of days, and he rides around and
(03:45):
into it, has a sure is shot again in his
same leg, and his horse is killed and it falls
on that leg, and he's he's you know, I mean,
he's you know, as the people said after his trader
is stuff. And that's the details of that so interesting,
the spies and coded and stuff and turning over West
(04:05):
Point to the British. I mean, it's just amazing plot
that was foiled. But they always thought that they'd give
a full military if Arnold ever fell into their hands,
which he didn't, that they give a full military honors
to one leg, that leg, and then they then you
don't want to know what they plan to do with
the rest, right.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, He's coming to the Palace in
you know, Albany on September tenth. Tickets available through ticketmaster
dot com. The documentary we're talking about, the American Revolution
is November sixteenth. When it comes to making these films,
can has technology changed the way you do things?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, you know, we're actually limited in this one and
all the other films that we've.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Talked about, guys, you know, we've had plenty.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Of film photographs, even with the Civil War, tens of
thousands of still photographs or newsreels or whatever, and so
you've you've really got a lot of choice. There's no
photographs and there's no newsreels in this, So what do
you do. The landscape becomes a huge part of it. Paintings, drawings, maps.
I have more maps here than in all the other
(05:09):
films we've done. And people who've seen it, and ordinary
folks who watched the scene, they're just so grateful for
the maps that ground them, whether it's you know, Saratoga,
or it's German Town or the Battle of Brandywine or
York Town or whatever it might be. Even you know,
Paul Revere's Ride, which is coming up in just a
few days, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and I'm
(05:31):
headed to Boston and Lexington and Conquered tomorrow to celebrate
the beginning of the American Revolution. So we've also followed
dozens of reenactor groups, not around watching what they do,
but in kind of impressionistic moments, just sort of not
directing them to do certain things, but watching them as
they undergo this stuff. And some of them are black regimens.
(05:55):
Some of them are continentals, some of them are militias,
some of them are French, some of them are British,
some of them are different kinds of British Summer Hessian.
I mean, so you've got summer Southern, You've got all
these different kinds of uniforms, and you begin to realize
these aren't just the male thing.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Every army is being, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Followed by a whole village of women and even children
that are attending to it. And it gives a sense
if we don't have a photograph that proves something, then
the paintings are often after the fact romantic ones that
you need to have a sense of the grid of it,
the muck of it, of the cold of it. If
(06:33):
you think about the Battle of Trenton, or the winter
at Valley Forgery and the even worse winter a couple
of years later as Morristown, New Jersey, this was really
really tough stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, I can't wait. I mean, we're always excited to
see what you do, and it'll be great when you
come to town. Are you taking any questions when you're here?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I think though, yeah, I mean usually what happens is
we show a bunch of clips and then we have
a Q and A with either a scholar or somebody there,
and it's always super, super fun. And I hope there's
time for formal Q and A from the audience, but
I'm always available to if somebody's got a burning question
that wasn't asked in the conversation to answer it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
You're a real treasure.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah, we're looking.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Thank you, thank you. I'm going to wait for you.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I can't wait for you guys to watch it. I
won't work on a more important film in this one,
ten years in the making.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Thanks so much, Ken, great take care
Ken Burns, welcome back. Let me just say right out
of the gate, the Da Vinci was amazing. I bought that.
I love it, and thank you for doing it.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Thank you, my grandchildren, thank you, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (00:11):
Thank you.
Speaker 4 (00:12):
We're talking to Ken Burns, a legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns,
who's actually coming to the Palace in Albany in September.
Tickets available at ticketmaster dot com. The undertaking is the
American Revolution coming to PBS this fall. Is this the
biggest project you've worked on, Ken?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
You know, in many ways it is. It's not the longest,
you know, Vietnam and baseball and other things have that
record jazz. But it's six parts, twelve hours, starting November
sixteenth and running all that week on PBS, and we're
traveling the entire country, but particularly up and down the
East coast to sort of share the story of the revolution.
(00:51):
And of course Albany has a huge, huge, important story
to tell because you know, the Hudson River is the
main highway, it's the interstate system. Basically, the rivers and
the bays and the and and the you know, the
ocean are the are how this war is conducted. And
(01:13):
you know, The Battle of Saratoga is the defining battle
of the American Revolution because the improbable American victory that
takes place ensures that the French will come in on
our side, and without their assistance, we don't win the war.
That their navy, their army and also their money, and
(01:34):
they sort of in the darkest times, Philadelphia has fallen.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
The Congress is exiled, the first Baltimore and then York
the eight This is, you know, the best news anybody
could ever have, the surrender of an entire army at Saratoga.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
How how relatively how deadly was the Revolutionary War compared
to some of the other big wars, I mean the
Civil War obviously like that.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Well, you know, the Civil War is the most bloody
one know where we have the most lasses, but it's
almost proportional to the population that we have in the
United States the Revolution. So I think we tend to
think that it's just sort of great men thinking great
thoughts in Philadelphia, when what it is is a bloody
(02:21):
civil war that is much more of a civil war
than our Civil War was.
Speaker 3 (02:25):
That was the.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Sectional war, one part of the country against the other.
But I think coming to terms because that violence doesn't
in any way diminish the power of the big ideas.
And these are the biggest ideas that have come along
in most of human history. I like to say the
American Revolution is the most important event since the birth
of Christ. And that's you know, this is big news.
(02:47):
It isn't the dark chapters of us. It's the positive
part of it. But in order to get it those
great ideas, there was unbelievable sacrifice and unbelievable bloodshed. And
you know, what are the things that people be interested
to learn. One of the great great heroes of the
Battle of Saratoga is a guy named Benedict Arnold. For
the Americans, he's our you know you We introduced him
(03:11):
in the first moments of episode two, and it's not
until a third of the way through the last sixth
episode that you find out why it's a despised name
in American history.
Speaker 1 (03:21):
He took a bullet, didn't he.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
He was He took a bullet at Quebec in our
failed invasion of Canada. And then he had rushed in
and unbelievable bravery into a British redoubt in the second
half of the Battle of Saratoga's really two battles separated
by a number of days, and he rides around and
(03:45):
into it, has a sure is shot again in his
same leg, and his horse is killed and it falls
on that leg, and he's he's you know, I mean,
he's you know, as the people said after his trader
is stuff. And that's the details of that so interesting,
the spies and coded and stuff and turning over West
(04:05):
Point to the British. I mean, it's just amazing plot
that was foiled. But they always thought that they'd give
a full military if Arnold ever fell into their hands,
which he didn't, that they give a full military honors
to one leg, that leg, and then they then you
don't want to know what they plan to do with
the rest, right.
Speaker 4 (04:26):
Documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, He's coming to the Palace in
you know, Albany on September tenth. Tickets available through ticketmaster
dot com. The documentary we're talking about, the American Revolution
is November sixteenth. When it comes to making these films,
can has technology changed the way you do things?
Speaker 2 (04:42):
Well, you know, we're actually limited in this one and
all the other films that we've.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Talked about, guys, you know, we've had plenty.
Speaker 2 (04:49):
Of film photographs, even with the Civil War, tens of
thousands of still photographs or newsreels or whatever, and so
you've you've really got a lot of choice. There's no
photographs and there's no newsreels in this, So what do
you do. The landscape becomes a huge part of it. Paintings, drawings, maps.
I have more maps here than in all the other
(05:09):
films we've done. And people who've seen it, and ordinary
folks who watched the scene, they're just so grateful for
the maps that ground them, whether it's you know, Saratoga,
or it's German Town or the Battle of Brandywine or
York Town or whatever it might be. Even you know,
Paul Revere's Ride, which is coming up in just a
few days, the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary, and I'm
(05:31):
headed to Boston and Lexington and Conquered tomorrow to celebrate
the beginning of the American Revolution. So we've also followed
dozens of reenactor groups, not around watching what they do,
but in kind of impressionistic moments, just sort of not
directing them to do certain things, but watching them as
they undergo this stuff. And some of them are black regimens.
(05:55):
Some of them are continentals, some of them are militias,
some of them are French, some of them are British,
some of them are different kinds of British Summer Hessian.
I mean, so you've got summer Southern, You've got all
these different kinds of uniforms, and you begin to realize
these aren't just the male thing.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
Every army is being, you know.
Speaker 2 (06:13):
Followed by a whole village of women and even children
that are attending to it. And it gives a sense
if we don't have a photograph that proves something, then
the paintings are often after the fact romantic ones that
you need to have a sense of the grid of it,
the muck of it, of the cold of it. If
(06:33):
you think about the Battle of Trenton, or the winter
at Valley Forgery and the even worse winter a couple
of years later as Morristown, New Jersey, this was really
really tough stuff.
Speaker 4 (06:43):
Well, I can't wait. I mean, we're always excited to
see what you do, and it'll be great when you
come to town. Are you taking any questions when you're here?
Speaker 2 (06:50):
I think though, yeah, I mean usually what happens is
we show a bunch of clips and then we have
a Q and A with either a scholar or somebody there,
and it's always super, super fun. And I hope there's
time for formal Q and A from the audience, but
I'm always available to if somebody's got a burning question
that wasn't asked in the conversation to answer it.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
You're a real treasure.
Speaker 4 (07:14):
Yeah, we're looking.
Speaker 3 (07:15):
Thank you, thank you. I'm going to wait for you.
Speaker 2 (07:17):
I can't wait for you guys to watch it. I
won't work on a more important film in this one,
ten years in the making.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Thanks so much, Ken, great take care
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