The War
Overview
The story of the Second World War through the personal accounts of a handful of men and women from four American towns. The war touched the lives of every family on every street in every town in America and demonstrated that in extraordinary times, there are no ordinary lives.
Key Crew
Producer: Lynn Novick
Director: Ken Burns, Lynn Novick
Top Cast
Seasons
Season 1 (2008)
Six years in the making, this epic 15-hour film focuses on the stories of citizens from four geographically distributed American towns - Waterbury, Connecticut; Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; and the tiny farming town of Luverne, Minnesota. The four communities stand in for - and could represent - any town in the United States that went through the war's four devastating years. Individuals from each community take the viewer through their own personal and quite often harrowing journeys into war, painting vivid portraits of how the war dramatically altered their lives and those of their neighbors, as well as the country they helped to save for generations to come.
7 episodes
Episodes
Episode 1: A Necessary War
2008-03-05December 1941 - December 1942: The tranquil lives of the citizens of Mobile, Alabama; Sacramento, California; Waterbury, Connecticut; and Luverne, Minnesota are shattered on December 7, 1941, as they, along with the rest of America, are thrust into the greatest cataclysm in history.
Runtime: 142 minEpisode 2: When Things Get Tough
2008-03-05January 1943 - December 1943: Americans mobilize for total war at home and overseas. Factories hum around the clock, while in North Africa and then Italy, inexperienced GIs learn how to fight. Meanwhile, in the skies over Europe, thousands of American airmen gamble their lives against preposterous odds on daylight bombing missions.
Runtime: 115 minEpisode 3: A Deadly Calling
2008-03-12November 1943 - June 1944: Americans are shocked by terrible losses on the Pacific atoll of Tarawa, while in Italy Allied forces are stalled for months at Monte Cassino, and a risky landing at Anzio fails utterly. At home, as overcrowded "war towns" boom, economic transformation leads to confrontation and ugly racial violence.
Runtime: 110 minEpisode 4: Pride of Our Nation / A Volunteer Basis
2008-03-12June 1944 - August 1944: On June 6, 1944, D-Day, 1.5 million Allied troops take part in the greatest invasion in history, but then bog down in the Norman hedgerows for weeks. Saipan proves the costliest Pacific battle to date, while back home dreaded telegrams from the War Department begin arriving at an inconceivable rate.
Runtime: 136 minEpisode 5: FUBAR
2008-03-19September 1944 - December 1944: Victory in Europe seems imminent, but in Holland, the Vosges Mountains, and the Hurtgen Forest, GIs learn painful lessons as old as war itself - that generals make plans, plans go wrong and soldiers die. Meanwhile, on the island of Peleliu, the Marines fight one of the most brutal and unnecessary battles of the Pacific.
Runtime: 124 minEpisode 6: The Ghost Front
2008-03-19December 1944 - March 1945: Americans are shocked by Hitler's massive counterattack in the Ardennes forest - but by mid-March, 1945, they are across the Rhine, while the Russians are 50 miles from Berlin. In the Pacific, after weeks of desperate fighting, Iwo Jima is secured, and American bombers begin a full-fledged air assault on Japan.
Runtime: 117 minEpisode 7: A World Without War
2008-03-26March 1945 - December 1945: A few weeks after the death of President Roosevelt shocks the country, Germany surrenders. Meanwhile, American sailors, soldiers and Marines endure the worst battle of the Pacific - Okinawa. In August, American planes drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Japanese, too, surrender. Millions return home - to try to learn how to live in a world without war.
Runtime: 125 minVideos
THE WAR | A film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick | PBS America
