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The Movie:
Documentarian Ken Burns has gained a considerable following and a remarkable reputation since his first film, 1981's "Brooklyn Bridge". While many groundbreaking productions ("Jazz", "Mark Twain") have followed since, it was 1990's exceptional "Civil War" that really brought Burns's career to a higher level. "Civil War" brings history to life like few pieces of cinema that I've ever seen. While I'm sure that many have tried to copy the approach that Burns takes to presenting history, I sincerely doubt that anyone has managed to reach his level.
"The Civil War" recreates history through the use of thousands of images, accompanied by writings and other correspondence, read by various actors, including Sam Waterston, Jason Robards, Julie Harris, Morgan Freeman and others. The general narration is also wonderful, providing an energetic reading of the necessary facts. The photographs are often captured via a moving camera, freeing the documentary from the static appearance that most similar features have. The photographs, interviews and other material are edited together into a remarkably organized and well-paced series that offers an extraordinary look at nearly every aspect of the Civil War.
While even the eleven-hour series cannot capture all aspects of the war, the amount of research that has gone into the creation of this series, as discussed by Burns on the DVD's commentary, is nothing short of unbelievable. Yet, Burns manages to translate all of the details of the causes of the war and what was at stake in a way that is clear and understandable for those who are not deeply familiar with the history, while also being involving and interesting for those who are. Ken Burns has brought history to life, blending incredible insight, remarkable photos and other material along with a massive amount of research. The result is a groundbreaking masterpiece of television that is often deeply emotional, incredibly moving and exceptionally informative.
The DVD
AUDIO/VIDEO: "Civil War" originally aired in 1990 on PBS. The 1.33:1 full-frame presentation has been remastered with the latest in technology. The differences from the original presentation, shown in split-screen detail on an included documentary, are remarkable. The new transfer, done on a Spirit Datacine, is really a remarkable presentation by itself and even more impressive after seeing the original image quality. Sharpness and detail are crisp and pleasing, as while there is some grain (although, as the documentary shows, the grain has been reduced extremely, all the way down to a very fine level) and slight softness in some of the images, the texture and clarity are very enjoyable.
As for faults, one has to take into consideration the elements. The photographs used are generally in surprisingly excellent shape, but some are noticably worn. The interviews and archive footage vary a bit, as well, although the newly recorded footage is crisp and nearly faultless in appearance. The 11-hour documentary series has been spaced out over 5 discs (so, in other words, about 132 minutes per disc) and artfacts and other problems are generally minor. As seen in the featurette included, many print flaws (hairs, scratches) were removed digitally and the general appearance of the film is impressively clean and clear. While the color palette varies, colors usually appeared natural and crisp, with no smearing or other faults. While not entirely without any problems, this is still truly superb work.
The Dolby Digital 5.1 surround mix is also generally well done and remains appropriate for the material. Unfortunately, as I will discuss, it does have one rare, but noticable problem. Surrounds are put into play for some of the background music, but thankfully, the sound designers have decided to keep the focus on the screen. Dialogue/interview audio comes from the center channel, while the front main speakers provide some effects, music and other background ambience.
As for the fault with the 5.1 track that I mentioned, it is that during a few of the interview segments (only infrquently and not all), the dialogue is not in-sync with the person talking. While this only occured very infrequently (it only occured on a few of the interview segments I ran across and also, the majority of the film is narration over photographs), this problem was definitely noticable on the few occasions when it did occur. It's really too bad, because the general presentation is so terrific otherwise. Switching to the 2.0 soundtrack during these instances revealed that the 2.0 soundtrack didn't have this problem. Note that the 5.1 track is not the default track, but must be selected either via the menu or the remote.
MENUS: The menus are not animated, but they do use images from the series as backgrounds well and are easily navigated. As for the packaging, Warner Brothers offers an interesting (if not entirely effective) design: the main case is inside a slip-cover. Instead of folding out (similar to the "Star Trek: Next Generation" or "X-Files" sets, the set opens up like a book. While this may keep the case from getting bent up, it still doesn't entirely succeed in finding a better way to protect the discs inside: there will still probably be a few cases here that get dented or cracked in shipping.
EXTRAS: Aside from the commentary by Ken Burns, there are several other smaller features that are very enjoyable. The most noteworthy is "Reconstructing The Civil War", which is a little masterpiece of a featurette that goes into terrific detail about how both the image was remastered and cleaned as well as how the mono soundtrack was remixed in both 5.1 and stereo. New interviews with Burns, Shelby Foote, George Will, Stanley Crouch, Jay Ungar and Molly Maron are also included. The interviews are quite interesting, as the participants recall working on the project and the incredible reaction to the series. The director's passionate discussion of the importance of the documentary genre and the response to the series is especially moving and enjoyable viewing.
The extras included on disc one continue with interactive battlefield maps, a "civil war challenge" interactive quiz, civil war bios and finally, two featurettes: "A Conversation With Ken Burns" and "Ken Burns: Making History" that provide enjoyable, if standard, looks at the documentary filmmaker's career.
While Burns provides commentary on all episodes, the commentary does stop for patches. A menu on each disc allows the viewer to skip directly to the next part of the commentary for that episode. Thankfully, the menus are easily navigated and this did not become a problem.
Final Thoughts: Ken Burns has crafted a masterpiece with "The Civil War", a moving, horrifying and beautifully presented series. Warner Brothers has created a very nice DVD set, with enjoyable supplements and very good video quality. The audio, while unfortunately flawed on a few occasions, is otherwise fine.
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