The perfect 'War' doc

Ken Burns has taken on some massive topics in his time as a documentarian for PBS, including baseball, jazz and, most memorably and enduringly, the American Civil War. This time, he has chosen to deal with possibly the greatest conflict in modern human history: World War II. In approaching this universal tragedy from the perspectives of four American towns and their citizens, he has created another milestone of American historical documentation. \nContained within the 14 hours spanning these six discs is a wealth of video footage and photographs, some familiar but most never seen by the mass public before now. The collection has an endless supply of fascinating and emotionally charged interviews with living veterans, their families and average citizens whose lives were touched in some way by the war. \nAs the movie so often states, World War II impacted the lives of everyone in every nation that was embroiled in it. This was not a passive war, just as it was not an unnecessary one. Burns' essentially humanistic, tight-nerved approach to such a monumentally numbing, all-consuming horror is evident in every frame, and it is certainly his finest doc other than "The Civil War." \nSupplemental materials on this six-disc set include a fine making-of featurette that documents Burns' own documentarian tactics, as well as several deleted scenes, further interviews, soldier biographies and a gallery of photographs used and not used in the film. Most importantly, though, is extensive audio commentary by Burns and producer Lynn Novick discussing various topics that arose during the piecing-together of the doc. \nThe real meat here, however, is in the film. \nThere was much ado about Burns' lack of focus on Hispanics over the course of "The War," and apparently some footage was added at the last minute, but it does nothing to further or detract from Burns' overall vision and presentation. This is a very important work with a very high sticker price ($130, unless you manage to find a sale), but at six decades and millions of lost lives in the making, "The War" is an invaluable, eloquent eulogy to a generation.