Author Topic: Ken Burns Vietnam  (Read 2054 times)

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Ken Burns Vietnam
« on: September 21, 2017, 11:05:05 PM »

Offline Eja117

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Definitely a powerful documentary. Definitely a little different. Difficult to watch. Also a little hard to look away. Sorta saying a lot without saying lots.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #1 on: September 21, 2017, 11:12:03 PM »

Offline More Banners

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Heard the interview with Ken Burns on NPR today.

That was enough.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #2 on: September 21, 2017, 11:13:55 PM »

Offline chilidawg

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Watched most of last night's episode, powerful and exceptionally well done.  Not sure I could stomach another night though, so brutal, so awful.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2017, 01:00:33 AM »

Offline Beat LA

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I was going to make a thread about this, as well, so TP eja :). I'm about 2-3 episodes behind at the minute, but yeah, it really makes you want to put your head through the wall, even if Burns has already glossed over at least a couple of crucial elements to understanding the quagmire, imo, which is rather disappointing, to say the least.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #4 on: September 22, 2017, 07:43:21 AM »

Offline Eja117

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This is actually probably the greatest war documentary I might not watch all of.

How much can you watch waste, lying, anger, and obtuseness in slow motion?

It's been a very very very long time since I've felt bad for the baby boomers, but this is just about making me feel that way somewhat.

I'm not a boomer, but interestingly in a strange sorta way I've seen this from the other end, because my college girlfriend was Vietnamese and her parents escaped, but in two very different ways and had sorta horrible experiences. In a strange kinda way the war followed them and it took a very long time for them to get peace. God if you think the situation in Vietnam is a trigger for baby boomers.....you wouldn't believe how big a trigger it is for some of the refugees. Or maybe you would.

Also....I always wondered why there wasn't a LOT more Vietnamese restaurants. I mean, it's like the perfect food. I suppose even the food is probably a bit depressing to a boomer.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #5 on: September 22, 2017, 08:01:26 AM »

Online Roy H.

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This is actually probably the greatest war documentary I might not watch all of.

How much can you watch waste, lying, anger, and obtuseness in slow motion?

It's been a very very very long time since I've felt bad for the baby boomers, but this is just about making me feel that way somewhat.

I'm not a boomer, but interestingly in a strange sorta way I've seen this from the other end, because my college girlfriend was Vietnamese and her parents escaped, but in two very different ways and had sorta horrible experiences. In a strange kinda way the war followed them and it took a very long time for them to get peace. God if you think the situation in Vietnam is a trigger for baby boomers.....you wouldn't believe how big a trigger it is for some of the refugees. Or maybe you would.

Also....I always wondered why there wasn't a LOT more Vietnamese restaurants. I mean, it's like the perfect food. I suppose even the food is probably a bit depressing to a boomer.

My mother-in-law loves to travel, and takes 1-2 major international trips per year. She has tried to to get my father-in-law to got to Vietnam for years now, and he absolutely puts his foot down. He never served, it's just the psychological scar of the era.


I'M THE SILVERBACK GORILLA IN THIS MOTHER——— AND DON'T NONE OF YA'LL EVER FORGET IT!@ 34 minutes

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #6 on: September 22, 2017, 08:12:10 AM »

Offline SHAQATTACK

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This is actually probably the greatest war documentary I might not watch all of.

How much can you watch waste, lying, anger, and obtuseness in slow motion?

It's been a very very very long time since I've felt bad for the baby boomers, but this is just about making me feel that way somewhat.

I'm not a boomer, but interestingly in a strange sorta way I've seen this from the other end, because my college girlfriend was Vietnamese and her parents escaped, but in two very different ways and had sorta horrible experiences. In a strange kinda way the war followed them and it took a very long time for them to get peace. God if you think the situation in Vietnam is a trigger for baby boomers.....you wouldn't believe how big a trigger it is for some of the refugees. Or maybe you would.

Also....I always wondered why there wasn't a LOT more Vietnamese restaurants. I mean, it's like the perfect food. I suppose even the food is probably a bit depressing to a boomer.

My mother-in-law loves to travel, and takes 1-2 major international trips per year. She has tried to to get my father-in-law to got to Vietnam for years now, and he absolutely puts his foot down. He never served, it's just the psychological scar of the era.

same for me .....i sat there night after night year after year watching kids get blown up , dead tolls , bombing raids ,  poor people getting their homes burned , babies killed . While politicans tried to explain it was the right thing to do ....have a war.   The show is well done .  But,  it brings back too many sad memories.  58K US  killed off with little to show for it all in the end.  All the people wanted was freedom , like Americans had. 

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #7 on: September 22, 2017, 08:56:59 AM »

Offline hwangjini_1

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And now we need burns to make similar films for the debacles in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #8 on: September 22, 2017, 09:21:10 AM »

Offline footey

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Ken Burns made his mark in 1990's Civil War documentary on PBS. It won universal acclaim at the time, and rightfully so. It was an incredibly in depth study of the Civil War, the horrific tragedy of it, and the heroic figures emerging from it. Led by Lincoln, of course. But also speaking reverentially of Confederate generals like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

If Ken Burns had released the Civil War documentary today, I imagine the reaction to it would have been much more critical, especially regarding its reverence to some of the Confederate leaders. It's interesting to see how much society, or at least the media, has shifted the last 27 years. If you are old enough to remember the Civil War documentary and the acclaim it received at the time, you will appreciate my point.

Looking forward to watch the Vietnam War Documentary.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #9 on: September 22, 2017, 05:50:29 PM »

Offline Eja117

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Ken Burns made his mark in 1990's Civil War documentary on PBS. It won universal acclaim at the time, and rightfully so. It was an incredibly in depth study of the Civil War, the horrific tragedy of it, and the heroic figures emerging from it. Led by Lincoln, of course. But also speaking reverentially of Confederate generals like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee.

If Ken Burns had released the Civil War documentary today, I imagine the reaction to it would have been much more critical, especially regarding its reverence to some of the Confederate leaders. It's interesting to see how much society, or at least the media, has shifted the last 27 years. If you are old enough to remember the Civil War documentary and the acclaim it received at the time, you will appreciate my point.

Looking forward to watch the Vietnam War Documentary.
But this is the thing about that....I'm not so sure Ken Burns himself showed reverence to those generals, but the historians he showed did. They were excellent historians. That's the whole point of the civil war. It's a war within the country. There are winners and losers. He showed both sides. If it were to be redone today there would perhaps be more emphasis on the slaves and whatnot. But there certainly was at the time as well.

I would assume if they did a Vietnam war documentary in 2117 it would be different than today.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #10 on: September 22, 2017, 05:58:15 PM »

Offline Eja117

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This is actually probably the greatest war documentary I might not watch all of.

How much can you watch waste, lying, anger, and obtuseness in slow motion?

It's been a very very very long time since I've felt bad for the baby boomers, but this is just about making me feel that way somewhat.

I'm not a boomer, but interestingly in a strange sorta way I've seen this from the other end, because my college girlfriend was Vietnamese and her parents escaped, but in two very different ways and had sorta horrible experiences. In a strange kinda way the war followed them and it took a very long time for them to get peace. God if you think the situation in Vietnam is a trigger for baby boomers.....you wouldn't believe how big a trigger it is for some of the refugees. Or maybe you would.

Also....I always wondered why there wasn't a LOT more Vietnamese restaurants. I mean, it's like the perfect food. I suppose even the food is probably a bit depressing to a boomer.

My mother-in-law loves to travel, and takes 1-2 major international trips per year. She has tried to to get my father-in-law to got to Vietnam for years now, and he absolutely puts his foot down. He never served, it's just the psychological scar of the era.

same for me .....i sat there night after night year after year watching kids get blown up , dead tolls , bombing raids ,  poor people getting their homes burned , babies killed . While politicans tried to explain it was the right thing to do ....have a war.   The show is well done .  But,  it brings back too many sad memories.  58K US  killed off with little to show for it all in the end.  All the people wanted was freedom , like Americans had.
Some people have theorized the commitment shown in Vietnam really did slow communism and really did result in the USSR overextending and gave us a perfect excuse to help the Afghanis in the 80s and make things miserable for the USSR there.

If you think the Vietnam Memorial in DC is depressing.....graves in the USSR often have pictures of the people in the stone. In many cases parents chose to depict their young sons so people could see them frozen in time forever with the dates and the word "Afghanistan" in their own language right below it.
« Last Edit: September 22, 2017, 06:40:45 PM by eja117 »

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #11 on: September 22, 2017, 06:03:33 PM »

Offline More Banners

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This is actually probably the greatest war documentary I might not watch all of.

How much can you watch waste, lying, anger, and obtuseness in slow motion?

It's been a very very very long time since I've felt bad for the baby boomers, but this is just about making me feel that way somewhat.

I'm not a boomer, but interestingly in a strange sorta way I've seen this from the other end, because my college girlfriend was Vietnamese and her parents escaped, but in two very different ways and had sorta horrible experiences. In a strange kinda way the war followed them and it took a very long time for them to get peace. God if you think the situation in Vietnam is a trigger for baby boomers.....you wouldn't believe how big a trigger it is for some of the refugees. Or maybe you would.

Also....I always wondered why there wasn't a LOT more Vietnamese restaurants. I mean, it's like the perfect food. I suppose even the food is probably a bit depressing to a boomer.

My mother-in-law loves to travel, and takes 1-2 major international trips per year. She has tried to to get my father-in-law to got to Vietnam for years now, and he absolutely puts his foot down. He never served, it's just the psychological scar of the era.

same for me .....i sat there night after night year after year watching kids get blown up , dead tolls , bombing raids ,  poor people getting their homes burned , babies killed . While politicans tried to explain it was the right thing to do ....have a war.   The show is well done .  But,  it brings back too many sad memories.  58K US  killed off with little to show for it all in the end.  All the people wanted was freedom , like Americans had.
Some people have theorized the commitment was showed in Vietnam really did slow communism and really did result in the USSR overextending and gave us a perfect excuse to help the Afghanis in the 80s and make things miserable for the USSR there.

If you think the Vietnam Memorial in DC is depressing.....graves in the USSR often have pictures of the people in the stone. In many cases parents chose to depict their young sons so people could see them frozen in time forever with the dates and the word "Afghanistan" in their own language right below it.

Holy cow.

Full disclosure, issues relating to military service and sacrifice are particularly difficult for me.

There is an old saying that nobody hates war like a soldier. Whoever came up with that never met a soldier's mother.

Re: Ken Burns Vietnam
« Reply #12 on: September 22, 2017, 06:37:42 PM »

Offline Emmette Bryant

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Yeah I'll be skipping this one. Definitely too soon.

I did enjoy Robert McNamara's mea culpa, "The Fog of War", in which he discusses the lessons of the Vietnam war.

If you're gonna have war, ya gotta have lessons.