I just marked Sunday night, September 23 on my calendar. That’s when a new documentary by Ken Burns begins to air on PBS. This one, called The War, is a fifteen-hour look at WW2 from ground level, the perspective of the soldiers and their families back home.

In an interview on Fresh Air, Burns said that he decided to ignore the more typical focus of WW2 documentaries - on celebrity generals, strategies, maps, time-tables, weapons…and Hitler - to concentrate on the battle experiences of those who fought. Clint Eastwood recently covered similar ground in Flags of our Fathers and Letters From Iwo Jima (from the Japanese perspective). Burns focuses exclusively on the soldiers and families from four American towns. From the previews, it sounds great.

I’m a big fan of Ken Burns, though I haven’t actually seen his masterwork The Civil War. It was Baseball, his 1994 documentary of eighteen-hours (and nine innings) that won me over.