For those watching THE WAR by Ken Burns

[derby378]

ginbarn and I just got finished watching the first episode tonight. It was very eloquent and moving in its portrayal of what our soldiers and their families had to endure throughout World War II.

It turns out that ginbarn's father, Louis Read, was profiled by the local PBS affiliate here in Dallas. He is a survivor of the infamous Bataan Death March and of many ordeals that followed at the hands of the Japanese Army, including forced labor at a Mitsubishi mine in Japan itself.

You can see Louis discussing some of his experiences at this link. Just click on the picture labelled "Louis Read" in order to hear his story.

And be sure to check out the other accounts on the site as well.

[rwenos]

1. Powerful Stories; Musical Score Sucks

Ordinarily I love Winton Marsalis. Unfortunately his avant-garde saxophone meanderings over the Bataan Death March and Long Patrol sequences were VERY distracting. Also, the Webern-esque shit violin over the sequences about Hitler and Mussolini rising in Europe literally drowned out the voice-over telling the story.

Call me a reactionary. Isn't the score supposed to ADVANCE the storytelling?

[Swamp Rat]

2. Wynton plays trumpet.

Branford plays sax.

[rwenos]

4. Winton Plays Trumpt and Piano, but writes for the whole band

If you saw any of the previews of the Burns series, you know that Winton wrote the score -- except, obviously, for the original source material (Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby, etc.)

And I've been listening to jazz, in MANY forms, for about 35 years. To say Winton missed the mark on this score -- in a particularly annoying way -- is not to say I don't love his other stuff. No artist is "great" all the time, my friend.

[Swamp Rat]

5. I was responding specifically to the sax comment, as I assumed it was Branford playing.

Wynton is not my favorite arranger or composer, let alone historian (Re: The Ken Burns Jazz series had a few historical inaccuracies, attributable to Marsalis). If Wynton just focused playing trumpet, that would be great. ;)

EDIT: I always thought Webern or Schönberg would be appropriate for images of Hitler or Stalin. They are as ugly as that atonal nusic sounds.

[aquart]

7. Day of the coup.

[Swamp Rat]

8. Never Forget

[aquart]

11. Never forgive.

Family motto:

Silence is consent.
Never suffer in silence.
Never suffer alone.

[goodgd_yall]

3. You're right about the violin bit that drowned out the voice-over

I caught that too. I couldn't wait for it to stop; it was really annoying me. I kind of agree about the musical score. It's classic Ken Burns, but it sounds hackneyed, 3rd time around (I hear echoes of the Civil War + other Burns' documentary musical scores).

My only complaint though, but it is a rather intrusive element.

[grasswire]

6. my uncle survived Corregidor

He was an army captain whose leg was sawed off by an army surgeon in a cave on the island. He was wounded in that leg by enemy bombardment while going out to save a wounded member under his command. He was a prisoner of the Japanese for three years. He never spoke of his experiences, but he never bought any item made in Japan for the rest of his life. RIP, Uncle Bob.

[derby378]

9. ginbarn said: "That's my Dad!"

He still refers to Toyotas as "rice burners" and has a pretty strong mistrust of all people and things Japanese.

[derby378]

10. KICK! for those who DON'T want to nitpick about the music...

:shrug:

[aaronbees]

12. I hope her dad found some semblance of peace after all that...

From his description, it sounds like a horrific ordeal. I winced when he mentioned following the Geneva Convention ... for many reasons. Great idea to assemble some North Texans to tell their tales now.

[xchrom]

13. i've been loving this series. n/t