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This is going to be amazing. Even Ken Burns is saying this is probably his best work. Besides the amazing music of the time period, original music by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross will be featured. Also some Yo Yo Ma. I'm very excited for it.
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Sep 17, 2017 17:00
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MonsieurChoc posted:Is there a way to watch it online for us canadians? I'm not sure, but if you go to pbs.org could you maybe just plug in a random US zip code? You could go check it out now with like an episode of Austin City Limits or something. I'm not sure if it checks your IP to make sure you're in the US. I think the bad news for you if it does work will be that they don't stream concurrently with the broadcast so I think you'll be a day behind.
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Sep 17, 2017 19:00
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It was really good. That had to be the toughest episode to write and direct. The blew through over 100 years of colonial rule in Vietnam and it never felt rushed and I felt very informed about Vietnam before US involvement. Future episodes should be a bit less rushed as each one only looks at maybe 1-2 years of the war.
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Sep 18, 2017 02:56
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I think I have a Ken Burns thread OP that I was writing a few years ago saved on my computer somewhere. I got sidetracked and never made the thread, is it something people would be interested in? Seems like a good time to post it and I'd love discussing all of his stuff as it's all so good.
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Sep 18, 2017 03:10
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Uhhhhh, so PBS dropped ALL of the episodes of The Vietnam War on the PBS app. You can watch the entire series right now. drat.
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Sep 18, 2017 04:28
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Also, just so everyone knows....the PBS app has both the broadcast and explicit versions available to watch. I did notice a few times some swear words getting blanked out last night and it was a bit jarring so maybe seek out those explicit versions for the full Vietnam experience.
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Sep 18, 2017 18:45
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I knew it would be, but the original music from Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is really good. Driving, foreboding, dark, with a pulsing beat that almost sounds like helicopter blades chopping.
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Sep 19, 2017 02:03
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It's like The Civil War on steroids. Except without a clear good guy and bad guy. It's very bleak. Bleak. So god drat bleak. It's almost hard to watch people continue to make mistakes that digs a deeper and deeper hole in Vietnam.
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Sep 19, 2017 03:17
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The last 5 minutes are so 
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Sep 20, 2017 03:09
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Deeper down the rabbit hole I go....just finished Episode 4. I openly wept at two difference points.
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Sep 20, 2017 04:41
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magnificent7 posted:This series is incredible. I think I'll have to/want to go back and rewatch the whole thing when it ends. -Me after watching The Civil War, Baseball, The National Parks, The Roosevelts, Prohibition, etc.
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Sep 27, 2017 18:22
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Honestly though, I still have 2 or 3 episodes left of Vietnam but I think I would say that this is absolutely Ken Burns' best work. Most of what he has done has really engaged me on an intellectual level, but perhaps because the Vietnam War is so recent compared to most of his other docs I find myself engaged both intellectually and emotionally. To the point that I feel this sinking feeling in my chest as I watch it. Almost a state of constant dread and hopelessness as each poor decision piles onto one another and the body count climbs.
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Sep 27, 2017 20:18
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cloudchamber posted:There's no music from the opposite end of things I think you missed Okie from Muskogee. But by and large it was: Anti-war songs = good Pro-War songs = bad To be fair, there are famous anti-war songs missing too. One Tin Soldier is a pretty glaring example.
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Sep 29, 2017 01:48
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cloudchamber posted:That's probably true but Ballad of the Green Berets was the biggest selling single of 1966. It looks like quite a big thing to leave out given how comprehensive the series aims to be. John Lennon's Imagine is regarded in many circles as one of the greatest songs ever written and it was absent too.
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Sep 29, 2017 19:49
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I guess maybe you guys have just never seen a Ken Burns documentary and expected something different? It was exactly the same as all his other documentaries: more informational and immersive than trying to draw grand conclusions or make judgements. You can crucify him for that if you want but he has never pretended to be anything other than what he is: a documentarian that attempts to capture major periods in American history. Being totally judgmental and vilifying one side throughout the documentary wouldn’t exactly portray an accurate idea of the United States during the War.
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Oct 28, 2017 00:42
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Jesus Christ you guys are dumb. It’s like watching a Spielberg film and asking why it’s not a romantic comedy. “Actually I read an article about the Vietnam War and....” 
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Oct 28, 2017 01:27
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mod sassinator posted:The dude has been nominated for multiple academy awards and won quite a few emmys. I think it's safe to say Ken Burns knows what he's doing more than random people on the internet. It’s just classic dick measuring “you’re not liberal enough” bullshit. Like the entire documentary didn’t have a single nice thing to say about the American government or American involvement but some people still wanted the US to be even more vilified despite the fact that it would have thrown off the tone of the entire documentary. Vietnam is one of those “Baby’s First American History Lesson” things that wanna-be super liberals on the internet love to throw their weight around with because they read a book or something. But apparently they needed the last episode to be 2 hours of “white devil” chanted over and over until we led up to the present day.
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Oct 28, 2017 01:40
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:You do know that there are hundreds of books and films about the Vietnam War, and 99% of the posters here from the US have living relatives that vividly remember the period, right? So then why is your posting about it so bad? edit: Also LOL at a living relative that vividly remembers that period. As if that matters. My parents graduated high school in 68 and 69. My mom knew one of the victims of the KSU shooting. They thought it was a perfectly fair representation of the period. My dad called it one of the best things he ever watched. Your bullshit opinion does not matter one bit to me. Mahoning fucked around with this message at 01:50 on Oct 28, 2017 |
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Oct 28, 2017 01:47
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HUNDU THE BEAST GOD posted:Forgot to stick the POW-MIA flag on at the end. Please tell us the name of the book you read for your senior year Modern American History class that was not biased and was really fair.
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Oct 28, 2017 01:54
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Lil Mama Im Sorry posted:STOP TRYING TO JANE FONDA UP THE BEST THING MY DAD EVER WATCHED Jerking off to Jane Fonda is better than jerking off to That Vietnam Book I Read.
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Oct 28, 2017 01:56
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DeimosRising posted:Are you seriously melting down because some people don't agree with how Ken Burns represented the Vietnam War? I'm really sorry I didn't know it was so important to you Are they melting down because of how Ken Burns represented the Vietnam War? Sorry that I disagree with them and I’m willing to call their opinion dumb. It seriously reeks of Baby’s First Documentary and a bunch of 18 year olds that totally learned about this in history class and knows better than you.
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Oct 28, 2017 01:59
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LesterGroans posted:Are you always a giant baby when someone isn't 100 percent on a thing you like? Do you have an opinion on it or are you just making GBS threads this discussion up even more?
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Oct 28, 2017 02:01
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DeimosRising posted:no Sorry I don’t keep track of how old everyone is on a single thread on an internet discussion forum. You do?
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Oct 28, 2017 02:02
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Lil Mama Im Sorry posted:Any attempt to counter how much of a weird baby youre being just makes you look like an even weirder baby You haven’t posted a single opinion about the documentary but thanks for the moderation. Me losing my temper about really dumb opinions doesn’t make your posts automatically good.
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Oct 28, 2017 02:10
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LesterGroans posted:Why don't you explain why a pretty mild alternate opinion from yours is making you so weirdly angry? I’d love to. I am perfectly willing to hear exactly what Ken Burns should have included in a 17 hour documentary that wasn’t included. I found the US government to continually be the bad guy in each episode, one that couldn’t make a good decision if they literally fell into it. At what point do you demonize the US to the point that you can no longer count on the cooperation of the veterans who have agreed to appear in and/or collaborate on your documentary? You can call that a cop out or a compromise but a hit piece on American involvement in Vietnam (no matter how accurate or deserved) would be boring and dumb.
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Oct 28, 2017 02:22
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Christ how are you not understanding this? Ken Burns is not and never has been one to give a modern day critical overview of history. He lets the event unfold as it happened through the lens and voices of those who experienced it. Personal accounts, interviews, letters, poetry, pictures, clips, newspaper articles, these are all hallmarks of Burns documentaries and they all have one thing in common: they are giving us first hand accounts by people who were there. His documentaries are experiential and not judgmental or critical. I’d argue you learn more from the former than the latter, since “this side was right and this side was wrong” is lazy and doesn’t let people make their own judgements. He basically lays it all out there and let’s you experience all the facts for yourself. What the hell point would there be in breaking the film down year by year and going through all the small details if you just want to force your opinion onto the audience in a very heavy handed way? If you watched his Vietnam documentary and expected anything different than that then that’s on you, not Burns. Again, it’s like watching a Spielberg movie and whining that it’s not a romantic comedy. He’s not gonna change the kind of film he makes because you read a book that told you what to think.
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Oct 29, 2017 21:40
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DeimosRising posted:Spielberg has made at least 2 romantic comedies but I don't see how that has anything to do with anything. I'm not criticizing what Burns should have or could have done. I'm criticizing what he did. Of course nothing is unbiased and no one claimed that its unbiased. What I’m saying is that Burns doesn’t go out trying force an opinion or judgement down your throat. If anything he hints around it, but it should be obvious to anyone who isn’t a child. I guess he could make it more like a children’s book and refer to the US Government as the Big Bad Wolf every time they appear, but maybe he assumes that his audience is a bit smarter than that. I still haven’t exactly heard what people wanted it to do better. The only intelligible complaint you’ve made is that it didn’t focus enough on Vietnam post-conflict? Ok? Is that really a legitimate complaint? It was like 17 hours and from a decidedly American perspective, like every Burns documentary ever. When it comes down to what’s gonna get cut (and poo poo always gets cut) Burns will eliminate non-American stuff every time, because his MO is purely American poo poo. It’s why his WWII doc is so bad. But I can’t exactly fault him for not focusing too much on things that weren’t part of the Vietnam War proper.
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Oct 30, 2017 00:36
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Duzzy Funlop posted:Anyone have a recommendation for what to do for a regular fix of space / universe documentaries? Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman ranges from lame to really amazing. Also, there was one a few years ago with Stephen Hawking that was really good.
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Nov 3, 2017 19:41
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Duzzy Funlop posted:Ah, yeah, I've worked through that one too. One hell of a too-sleep-putter with that narration. Loved the bits where he ties his childhood into the topics as well. But I've cherry-picked the series dry pretty much, same with Brian Cox' series, was hoping there'd be a continuation or similar multipart-series like those. Into the Universe was the one I was talking about with Stephen Hawking. It is just a 3 -part series but it is pretty good. It is narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch.
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Nov 3, 2017 21:10
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If you want to watch a quick one, there’s a 40 minute doc on Netflix called Long Shot about a man accused of murder that is exonerated by a Dodger game and an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Not mind blowing but it’s short and it’s a pretty crazy story so it’s worth it.
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Nov 19, 2017 17:29
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Asnorban posted:Please tell me it’s because he is on camera in some random shot of the Car Pool It is!
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Nov 19, 2017 23:21
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Wow this thread really died. I’ve got two for ya: Wormwood on Netflix is a 6-part half-documentary half-dramatic re-enactment (with famous actors even!) about a government scientist who committed suicide in 1953 by jumping out the window of his NYC hotel room. The official story is that the government was testing LSD on him (project MK-Ultra) but the truth could be much more sinister. The whole thing is centered around the guy’s son who is a fascinating story teller and has basically made finding the truth his crusade over the last 60+ years. Voyeur is also on Netflix and is the story of a motel owner who had a catwalk in his motel and spied on his guests for over a decade, writing down everything he saw in a journal. When famous author Gay Talese begins to publish a book about him, things begin to unravel a bit. This is basically a documentary about the documentary about the book about the man. Not the best structured documentary ever but it did remind me a bit of both Icarus and Exit Through the Gift Shop in that the subject of the documentary starts off as one thing and ends up as another.
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Dec 28, 2017 04:55
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magnificent7 posted:These kinds of stories annoy the poo poo out of me. I've got ADHD, and I see my meds no different than the way somebody else would see glasses. There's probably abuse out there, but to turn the debate into "Do these ADD/ADHD kids really need meds or couldn't they just focus harder?" is no different than saying "Do these nearsighted/farsighted kids really need glasses or couldn't they just focus harder?" Are you seriously this naive to think that there isn't widespread abuse of adderall and other ADHD drugs across college and high school campuses? It was a big deal when I was in college and that was 15 years ago.
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Mar 26, 2018 16:23
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I’m watching Wild Wild Country and I really like it so far but the font they use for all on-screen names and locations is maddening.
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Mar 29, 2018 21:57
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I watched Andre the Giant on HBO last night. It’s not overly long, but man oh man did they interview absolutely every big name that crossed his path. Wrestlers, actors, directors, family, friends, etc. I wish it delved more into the man himself but it seems that he was a mostly private person so what we hear secondhand from friends is the best we’ll get. It’s not a groundbreaking doc but that doesn’t make it any less fascinating. The best bit is Hulk Hogan’s blow by blow retelling of the Wrestlemania III match which I think anyone would enjoy even if you’re not into wrestling.
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Apr 12, 2018 18:35
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Oddly enough, there’s none of that with Hogan in the doc, and mostly everything he says is confirmed by other people like Gene Okerland or Andre’s best friend/handler.
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Apr 12, 2018 19:28
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The Staircase has been added to Netflix. It’s a true crime doc series from before true crime doc series were a thing. I wanna say it’s maybe 10 years old. It’s really good and they’ve actually produced 3 new episodes of it. I haven’t seen it in a few years so I’m kind of interested in watching the whole thing again with the new episodes.
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Jun 10, 2018 09:54
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I think the only thing I’m convinced of is that she was murdered by someone. I was just never convinced that an accident causes those kind of injuries.
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Jun 15, 2018 18:04
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Paradise Lost is some dark dark poo poo and although it’s an unbelievable collection of documentaries, I don’t think I could watch it again with the state our world is in. But if you’re a masochist or aren’t feeling as negatively about the world as I am right now, I HIGHLY recommend them.
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Jun 28, 2018 03:12
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Does anyone know the name of the documentary about the breakup of Yugoslavia? I am almost positive I watched it based on the recommendation of this thread but it’s been years.
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Jul 17, 2018 03:41
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