Ken Burns tells the story of the American Revolution on PBS
The 12-hour series will premiere on PBS on Nov. 16.
American history has never sounded so cool — or so A-list.
Everyone’s favorite documentary filmmaker Ken Burns returns to PBS Nov. 16 with “The American Revolution.” It’s a six-part, 12-hour treatise on the creation myth of the United States, co-directed with Sarah Botstein and David Schmidt, airing over six consecutive nights. The series boasts the same gold standard of research, meticulousness and gravitas to our country’s founding that Burns applied to previous epic documentaries like “The Civil War” (1990), “The Vietnam War” (2017) and “Country Music” (2019). And he has some help in his effort to bring colonial history to life.
“Revolution” is narrated by longtime Burns collaborator, TV/movie veteran Peter Coyote, but for the voices of George Washington, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Abigail Adams, Phyllis Wheatley and more historical figures, Burns enlisted a laundry list of Hollywood heavyweights.
“It’s a very, very interesting, complex story that we’re telling, brought to life by 400 first-person quotes read by 50 of the world’s greatest actors,” Burns said in a recent USA TODAY interview in Philadelphia. The actors’ powerful readings “complement years and years of research on the actual narrative.”
Will you be able to recognize the voices behind the oil paintings? We thinks so: Josh Brolin gives General Washington a deep-voiced respectability. Jeff Daniels is Thomas Jefferson. Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Meryl Streep, Edward Norton and Matthew Rhys all show up. But this is not simply stunt casting − each actor reading a quote helps bring the history to life, which is what Burns does best in his work.
How do you get 50 different, famous actors — many Oscar, Emmy, and Tony winners among them — to jump into reading old-timey quotes for a 12-hour documentary? Well, it helps to be Burns, who has long called on A-listers to help create his award-winning films.
“Well, I’ve been doing this for, I guess the first actors that I started recording were in the late ’70s,” Burns says. “Tom Hanks has read for me for nearly 25 years, Meryl Streep for more than a dozen. It’s just the people we use.”
“Revolution” even has some Easter eggs for history buffs: Paul Giamatti reads the words of John Adams, a sort of reprise of his performance as America’s second president in the acclaimed 2008 HBO miniseries of the same name, although Burns gave the role of Adams’ wife to someone else.
“Paul Giamatti did John, but Claire Danes did Abigail,” Burns explains. “But Laura Linney, who played Abigail in the HBO miniseries, is several voices, including Sarah Fisher, who is a Quaker loyalist here in Philadelphia and undergoes great tribulation in a number of ways.”
The director got a new generation of actors involved in the documentary, up-and-coming names like Lucas Hedges, Alden Ehrenreich and Maya Hawke. Oh, and Hawke’s dad.
“Maya Hawke reads the journal of a girl who was 10 years old when the war began,” Burns says, adding “and Ethan Hawke, Maya’s dad, reads General Anthony Wayne.”
A complete list of the actors in Ken Burns’ ‘The American Revolution’
PBS lists the following few dozen actors in the official description of the documentary:
Adam Arkin, Jeremiah Bitsui, Corbin Bleu, Kenneth Branagh, Josh Brolin, Bill Camp, Tantoo Cardinal, Josh Charles, Hugh Dancy, Claire Danes, Jeff Daniels, Keith David, Hope Davis, Marcus Davis-Orrom, Bruce Davison, Leon Dische Becker, Alden Ehrenreich, Craig Ferguson, Morgan Freeman, Christian Friedel, Paul Giamatti, Domhnall Gleeson, Amanda Gorman, Michael Greyeyes, Jonathan Groff, Charlotte Hacke, Tom Hanks, Ethan Hawke, Maya Hawke, Lucas Hedges, Josh Hutcherson, Samuel L. Jackson, Gene Jones, Michael Keaton, Joe Keery, Joel Kinnaman, Tracy Letts, Damian Lewis, Laura Linney, Josh Lucas, Michael Mando, Carolyn McCormick, Lindsay Mendez, Tobias Menzies, Joe Morton, Edward Norton, David Oyelowo, Mandy Patinkin, Wendell Pierce, Jon Proudstar, Matthew Rhys, LaTanya Richardson, Liev Schreiber, Chaske Spencer, Dan Stevens, Meryl Streep, and Yul Vazquez, among others.
How to watch ‘The American Revolution’
“Revolution” will air on PBS starting Sunday, Nov. 16 at 8 ET/PT and continue over six consecutive nights through Friday, Nov. 21 (check your local listings for the most accurate information). Each installment in the series is two-hours long.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com ’
