--- product_id: 219934010 title: "The War: A Ken Burns Film" price: "VT12626" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/219934010-the-war-a-ken-burns-film store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # The War: A Ken Burns Film **Price:** VT12626 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** The War: A Ken Burns Film - **How much does it cost?** VT12626 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/219934010-the-war-a-ken-burns-film) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description The Emmy® award-winning documentary THE WAR explores the history and horror of World War II from an American perspective by following so-called ordinary men and women who became caught up in one of the greatest cataclysms in history. This epic film focuses on the stories of citizens from four American towns taking the viewer through their personal and harrowing journeys, painting vivid portraits of how the war altered their lives. Review: The lessons of "The War" are never ending - This is a very excellent illustration of how to tell a story, it is perhaps a documentary as well and provided this viewer with a unmistakable interest that I have watched the entire series twice and more.I sometimes fall asleep when I want to watch an episode nearing a latter part of the day, but that has not deterred my efforts to listen and watch many times over.This is very excellent story telling. The difficulty in placing this event is that much like the war much should be said, so much that it posed a problem, how much is necessary? Necessary for what? This is that compelling a story, a story that becomes something very personal, the war gets your attention, stories that need to be respected and conveyed to others.The telling of those days became so gruesome that memories returned to me as "With the Old Breed" by EB Sledge.I did not know just how other worldly those days were until I heard in EB Sledge own words.The stories were of an underworld, a darkened day that was truly very nearly the end of life.This is truly the "War".An account that testifies to time-everlasting how terrible that event, how terrible that resolve, whereby some nearly 60 million people world wide would lose their lives.The telling of this story is very much worth the time and effort to know. It is personal, it is a magnificent story, it is both glory bound and of such an unmistakable defeat, that where glory lives death was never far away.The film was from real footage, the sound was good to listen to, the effects were so real that when I first listened to Franklin Delano Roosevelt time, so it seemed stood still.I tear up when FDR in the episode entitled "Pride of Our Nation" prays for our cause, for our boys as this occurred on the evening of the day of the Allied invasion of France. I'am reminded of something that Ernie Pyle wrote when he witnessed the very one-sided account that occurred in North Africa.It is unmistakably excellent writing that suggests we Americans had a very high opinion of ourselves but got our heads handed to us at the expense of Erwin Rommel and the Africa Corp It was Erwin Rommel that wanted to teach the Americans a lesson so thorough as to instill an inferioty complex of no mean order, in part that is what happened. He went on to say that the worst was yet to come.That truly was as it would be an account that set the record straight.The American Army became a great fighting force, however, the debacle at Kasserine Pass, Tunisia was a learning experience, a valuable experience but a learning experience none the less.We had to fight for it and fight for it, we did.This showing is such an excellent approach to this big bad event that it rates well within the ranks of other of its kind. "The World At War" is a comparable comparison, yes the two are different but neither lacks pathos, neither lacks truthfulness with "The War" surprising just how personal the war became. Review: The Necessary War - My late father (Canadian WWII author George G. Blackburn) would have appreciated this -- but he couldn't be with me, last night, as I watched the first episode of this latest `masterpiece' from Ken Burns. I tried my best to see it through my father's eyes. [He was the longest-surviving "Forward Observation Officer" (FOO) on any front in WWII. FOO's, always with front-line troops, lasted an average of 23 hours before being killed or wounded; George Blackburn lasted ten months from just after D-Day until VE-Day (Victory in Europe).] My father appreciated ALL of Ken Burns' work (especially the "Baseball" series -- Dad was a star pitcher when he was young: he left me his VHS tapes of that one). My father, who almost made it to age 90, lived long enough to author a best-selling WWII trilogy for Canada's largest publishing house. He would have been greatly impressed, I believe, with Ken Burns' latest accomplishment. "Episode One -- A NECESSARY WAR" aired last evening (on our closest PBS station -- "Prairie Public Television" of North Dakota - which gets most of its funding from this Manitoba city of 700,000). I found myself enthralled by Ken Burns' approach to "THE WAR." ----- We're taken in quick sequence to four places: a small town in Connecticut - close to New York City - "Waterbury." Next we visit the Midwest, (a town just to the south of us, here in Manitoba) -- Luverne, Minnesota; then, off to the heart of the South -- Mobile, Alabama; and finally, out to the west coast -- standing in for all of California - SACRAMENTO (a city of "110 thousand that feels like a small town"). The opening thoughts --from Luverne MN - are narrated by a familiar voice (from "Saving Private Ryan") -- Tom Hanks: "Much of the world was already at war in the Fall of 1941 . . . " (and) "There was a saying (in this small town where everybody knew everyone else's business) that, "If you don't want everyone to know about it . . . don't do it." In our first glimpse at Mobile, we're introduced to one WWII veteran, now in his 80s, "John Gray who (because of the color of his skin) would soon be asked to fight a war for `Freedom' - though his own country's definition of that word, didn't include HIM." Then back to the Midwest for a few minutes: "Sam Hynes," a surprisingly young-looking WWII veteran from Minnesota who was "barely 17 in 1941," recalls how, "You could, all of a sudden, choose to be an adult (just) by signing your name; and suddenly (I see myself as) a fighter pilot - an "Ace" . . . or a submarine commander going into Tokyo Bay: It is the opportunity to be someone more exciting than the kid you are." [To inject a personal note (since my lovely, new daughter-in-law "Eriko" hails from Osaka Japan), I was deeply moved by the interviews with Japanese-Americans, now in their 80s, who'd been singled out as enemy aliens, requiring internment. We see and hear "Asako Tokuno" -- born in America, whose parents were born in Japan, as she fights back tears, recalling what it was like (on a day's notice) to be sent off to remote internment camps. We're told how this grim process flowed from a simple, innocuous-sounding "executive order" from President Roosevelt's office: "(First,) designate military areas - then exclude anyone who might pose a military threat." On the strength of which, "110 thousand Japanese-Americans were forced out of their homes, with only the possessions they could carry, and moved inland." But it's the interviews with those "old soldiers" (Navy, Airmen and Marines too), that really hit home: Some of these men being interviewed, were still in their teens when they volunteered for military service; they're still comparatively young-looking today. But you hear some of their stories on this great program - and you wonder how they survived at all. "Glen Frazier" with the infantry in the Phillipines, (the largest, eventual surrender of Americans in U.S. military history) was among those few who survived the infamous "Bataan Death March." A good-looking man in his old age, he quietly sums up the experience in a sentence or two. After a march in which he saw his comrades (and Filipino civilians including women) "beheaded, buried alive" (etc.) -- a march on which between 6,000 and 11,000 died ("no one knows for certain the correct number") -- Mr. Frazier, says, matter-of-factly, "I marched without sleep for six days and seven nights . . . no water and no food. They say you can't do that. But I did. (At the end of the march) my tongue wouldn't go back into my mouth." Ken Burns' approach is so well-balanced and suddenly, inter-cut gracefully with such horrific recollections are the peaceful scenes of small-town America - back where "war bond drives raise one billion dollars in a month." We learn that "The War" cost the U.S. 304 billion dollars ("more than 3 trillion in today's terms"). Citizens of Sacramento - "in one bond drive alone" raised 16 million "to pay for 96 minutes of the war.") Statistics are parceled out in small digestible chunks throughout the show - again a remarkable "balance" to keep the show moving along at a pace that an entire family watching this together, would appreciate. (I watched alone but kept thinking that my ten-year-old grandson would find this as riveting as Ken Burns' "THE CIVIL WAR." ------ Ken Burns reserves the longest, single interview in Program One until the very end. I didn't catch the name of this "old soldier" when it flashed on the screen (I was busy jotting down a note about him). He is an Hispanic-American who joined the Marines -- after the Navy twice turned him down ("too small"). He tells the story of the death of one of his buddies (on one of the Solomon Islands, which he described as "hell on earth") recounting how his "best friend" died on a night "so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of you" - so dark he didn't realize it was his own best friend who'd taken a single bullet of `friendly fire' -- then moaned and cried out in the darkness, "all night until dawn." Not knowing who this dying man was, but, like the rest of his buddies, desperately in need of sleep, he muttered under his breath, "Just DIE -- Die, will you? -- let the rest of us get some sleep." He runs out of words to say - allowing the viewer imagine how he felt at the moment he saw his friend's body in the light of day. The episode ends there, with a fade-to-black in silence. How wished I could have turned to my father to say, "Well . . . what do you think of it, so far?" I believe he'd have said (once again) "Good work, Ken Burns!" But then, I can hear his voice adding, "Bet you Canada (and its WWII efforts) will hardly get a mention." (Hope you're wrong, Dad!) ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Contributor | Ken Burns, n/a | | Customer Reviews | 4.8 out of 5 stars 1,604 Reviews | | Format | Box set, Color, Dolby, Multiple Formats, NTSC, Widescreen | | Language | English | | Runtime | 15 hours | ## Images ![The War: A Ken Burns Film - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71axziD40QL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The lessons of "The War" are never ending *by C***N on January 23, 2016* This is a very excellent illustration of how to tell a story, it is perhaps a documentary as well and provided this viewer with a unmistakable interest that I have watched the entire series twice and more.I sometimes fall asleep when I want to watch an episode nearing a latter part of the day, but that has not deterred my efforts to listen and watch many times over.This is very excellent story telling. The difficulty in placing this event is that much like the war much should be said, so much that it posed a problem, how much is necessary? Necessary for what? This is that compelling a story, a story that becomes something very personal, the war gets your attention, stories that need to be respected and conveyed to others.The telling of those days became so gruesome that memories returned to me as "With the Old Breed" by EB Sledge.I did not know just how other worldly those days were until I heard in EB Sledge own words.The stories were of an underworld, a darkened day that was truly very nearly the end of life.This is truly the "War".An account that testifies to time-everlasting how terrible that event, how terrible that resolve, whereby some nearly 60 million people world wide would lose their lives.The telling of this story is very much worth the time and effort to know. It is personal, it is a magnificent story, it is both glory bound and of such an unmistakable defeat, that where glory lives death was never far away.The film was from real footage, the sound was good to listen to, the effects were so real that when I first listened to Franklin Delano Roosevelt time, so it seemed stood still.I tear up when FDR in the episode entitled "Pride of Our Nation" prays for our cause, for our boys as this occurred on the evening of the day of the Allied invasion of France. I'am reminded of something that Ernie Pyle wrote when he witnessed the very one-sided account that occurred in North Africa.It is unmistakably excellent writing that suggests we Americans had a very high opinion of ourselves but got our heads handed to us at the expense of Erwin Rommel and the Africa Corp It was Erwin Rommel that wanted to teach the Americans a lesson so thorough as to instill an inferioty complex of no mean order, in part that is what happened. He went on to say that the worst was yet to come.That truly was as it would be an account that set the record straight.The American Army became a great fighting force, however, the debacle at Kasserine Pass, Tunisia was a learning experience, a valuable experience but a learning experience none the less.We had to fight for it and fight for it, we did.This showing is such an excellent approach to this big bad event that it rates well within the ranks of other of its kind. "The World At War" is a comparable comparison, yes the two are different but neither lacks pathos, neither lacks truthfulness with "The War" surprising just how personal the war became. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The Necessary War *by M***N on September 24, 2007* My late father (Canadian WWII author George G. Blackburn) would have appreciated this -- but he couldn't be with me, last night, as I watched the first episode of this latest `masterpiece' from Ken Burns. I tried my best to see it through my father's eyes. [He was the longest-surviving "Forward Observation Officer" (FOO) on any front in WWII. FOO's, always with front-line troops, lasted an average of 23 hours before being killed or wounded; George Blackburn lasted ten months from just after D-Day until VE-Day (Victory in Europe).] My father appreciated ALL of Ken Burns' work (especially the "Baseball" series -- Dad was a star pitcher when he was young: he left me his VHS tapes of that one). My father, who almost made it to age 90, lived long enough to author a best-selling WWII trilogy for Canada's largest publishing house. He would have been greatly impressed, I believe, with Ken Burns' latest accomplishment. "Episode One -- A NECESSARY WAR" aired last evening (on our closest PBS station -- "Prairie Public Television" of North Dakota - which gets most of its funding from this Manitoba city of 700,000). I found myself enthralled by Ken Burns' approach to "THE WAR." ----- We're taken in quick sequence to four places: a small town in Connecticut - close to New York City - "Waterbury." Next we visit the Midwest, (a town just to the south of us, here in Manitoba) -- Luverne, Minnesota; then, off to the heart of the South -- Mobile, Alabama; and finally, out to the west coast -- standing in for all of California - SACRAMENTO (a city of "110 thousand that feels like a small town"). The opening thoughts --from Luverne MN - are narrated by a familiar voice (from "Saving Private Ryan") -- Tom Hanks: "Much of the world was already at war in the Fall of 1941 . . . " (and) "There was a saying (in this small town where everybody knew everyone else's business) that, "If you don't want everyone to know about it . . . don't do it." In our first glimpse at Mobile, we're introduced to one WWII veteran, now in his 80s, "John Gray who (because of the color of his skin) would soon be asked to fight a war for `Freedom' - though his own country's definition of that word, didn't include HIM." Then back to the Midwest for a few minutes: "Sam Hynes," a surprisingly young-looking WWII veteran from Minnesota who was "barely 17 in 1941," recalls how, "You could, all of a sudden, choose to be an adult (just) by signing your name; and suddenly (I see myself as) a fighter pilot - an "Ace" . . . or a submarine commander going into Tokyo Bay: It is the opportunity to be someone more exciting than the kid you are." [To inject a personal note (since my lovely, new daughter-in-law "Eriko" hails from Osaka Japan), I was deeply moved by the interviews with Japanese-Americans, now in their 80s, who'd been singled out as enemy aliens, requiring internment. We see and hear "Asako Tokuno" -- born in America, whose parents were born in Japan, as she fights back tears, recalling what it was like (on a day's notice) to be sent off to remote internment camps. We're told how this grim process flowed from a simple, innocuous-sounding "executive order" from President Roosevelt's office: "(First,) designate military areas - then exclude anyone who might pose a military threat." On the strength of which, "110 thousand Japanese-Americans were forced out of their homes, with only the possessions they could carry, and moved inland." But it's the interviews with those "old soldiers" (Navy, Airmen and Marines too), that really hit home: Some of these men being interviewed, were still in their teens when they volunteered for military service; they're still comparatively young-looking today. But you hear some of their stories on this great program - and you wonder how they survived at all. "Glen Frazier" with the infantry in the Phillipines, (the largest, eventual surrender of Americans in U.S. military history) was among those few who survived the infamous "Bataan Death March." A good-looking man in his old age, he quietly sums up the experience in a sentence or two. After a march in which he saw his comrades (and Filipino civilians including women) "beheaded, buried alive" (etc.) -- a march on which between 6,000 and 11,000 died ("no one knows for certain the correct number") -- Mr. Frazier, says, matter-of-factly, "I marched without sleep for six days and seven nights . . . no water and no food. They say you can't do that. But I did. (At the end of the march) my tongue wouldn't go back into my mouth." Ken Burns' approach is so well-balanced and suddenly, inter-cut gracefully with such horrific recollections are the peaceful scenes of small-town America - back where "war bond drives raise one billion dollars in a month." We learn that "The War" cost the U.S. 304 billion dollars ("more than 3 trillion in today's terms"). Citizens of Sacramento - "in one bond drive alone" raised 16 million "to pay for 96 minutes of the war.") Statistics are parceled out in small digestible chunks throughout the show - again a remarkable "balance" to keep the show moving along at a pace that an entire family watching this together, would appreciate. (I watched alone but kept thinking that my ten-year-old grandson would find this as riveting as Ken Burns' "THE CIVIL WAR." ------ Ken Burns reserves the longest, single interview in Program One until the very end. I didn't catch the name of this "old soldier" when it flashed on the screen (I was busy jotting down a note about him). He is an Hispanic-American who joined the Marines -- after the Navy twice turned him down ("too small"). He tells the story of the death of one of his buddies (on one of the Solomon Islands, which he described as "hell on earth") recounting how his "best friend" died on a night "so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of you" - so dark he didn't realize it was his own best friend who'd taken a single bullet of `friendly fire' -- then moaned and cried out in the darkness, "all night until dawn." Not knowing who this dying man was, but, like the rest of his buddies, desperately in need of sleep, he muttered under his breath, "Just DIE -- Die, will you? -- let the rest of us get some sleep." He runs out of words to say - allowing the viewer imagine how he felt at the moment he saw his friend's body in the light of day. The episode ends there, with a fade-to-black in silence. How wished I could have turned to my father to say, "Well . . . what do you think of it, so far?" I believe he'd have said (once again) "Good work, Ken Burns!" But then, I can hear his voice adding, "Bet you Canada (and its WWII efforts) will hardly get a mention." (Hope you're wrong, Dad!) ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ An important, engrossing, and necessary documentary *by S***D on November 4, 2007* Ken Burns' 15 hour PBS miniseries, THE WAR, is stupendous by even his high standards. It gives us a fresh and powerful and poignant portrait of World War Two. We have both the home front and combat in both the Pacific and Europe, battle by battle, mostly from President Roosevelt declaring war in 1941 to V-J Day in 1945. And the home front is viewed through four towns across America: Sacramento, California; the tiny farming town of Luverne, Minnesota; Mobile, Alabama; and Waterbury, Connecticut. As always with Burns (and co-director and co-producer Lynn Novick), we have oral reminiscences, then graphic combat footage to show what is being talked about. In the process, several ordinary people in those four towns emerge as superstar commentators. And the war's horror really comes alive. Libraries are more likely than Blockbuster to stock THE WAR. If you want to buy a copy, Amazon.com is way, way cheaper than PBS directly. The DVD has seven episodes on six disks. Each episode is about two hours in length, with advisories on the front for strong violence. Episode one shows how the attack on Pearl Harbor changed life in the four profiled towns across America for both wives and soldiers. Burns and Novick offer audio commentary, if you have the time to view episode one twice. We go all the way up to December 1942. Episode two gives us 1943 in 24/7 factories across America, battles in north Africa, suicide bombing raids in Europe, and bloody battles in the Pacific. On the same disk, episode three takes place from November 1943 - May 1944. We get Allied forces in Italy and heavy American losses in Tarawa in the Pacific. Meanwhile, on the home front, factories are booming with productivity, leading to ugly racism. On one of these episodes we also see Japanese-Americans rounded up and sent to internment camps, and blacks in their own proud front-line combat unit. D-Day in June 1944 is at the center of episode four, with commentary by Burns and Novick, which I did not play because I wanted to hear the oral witnesses instead. Maybe on a second viewing next year. Episode five is wryly subtitled "FUBAR", which stands for "f----- up beyond all recognition", which tells it like it is in Fall 1944. We are in Holland and Germany, directly fighting the Nazis on their own turf. We also fight one of the most brutal and unnecessary battles in the Pacific. Episode six is set in early 1945. Americans finally get across the Rhine in Germany, after heavy losses in the Ardannes forest, while the Russians are only 50 miles from Berlin in the opposite direction. In the Pacific, we score big with the capture of Iwo Jima and bombing raids on Japan. Finally, episode seven of THE WAR has V-E Day, the battle of Okinawa and the atom bomb droppings on Japan, V-J Day, and a whole world trying to learn to live without war. It is a sobering and poignant finale to a magnificent war miniseries when you have the time for it. Ken Burns and his staff picked the exact right four towns and found the exact right commentators to make the home front and these battles unforgettable. --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/219934010-the-war-a-ken-burns-film](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/219934010-the-war-a-ken-burns-film) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-09-16*