The evening began with the expertly cast duo of Rhiannon Giddens and Ketch Secor covering the old-time classic “Ruby, Are You Mad at Your Man?” A longtime staple at Giddens’ shows, both as a solo performer as well as her work as cofounder of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, she showcased the skills that brought her recognition as a 2017 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant by more than ably handling the duties of vocals and banjo while Secor ( Old Crow Medicine Show) accompanied on fiddle. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.While clips from the PBS film played throughout the night, it became clear that Burns’ view of the genre had been captured within the project, as nearly every important turning point within country music was captured in story and song both on the Ryman’s screen and stage for the audience in attendance to bear witness to. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at for further information. JOHNNIE WRIGHT: (Singing) Kiss me goodbye and write me while I'm gone.Ĭopyright © 2017 NPR. It's powerful proof of something Burns once said - history doesn't repeat itself, but human nature never changes. PBS's "The Vietnam War" is another masterpiece by Burns and Novick. The current debate over discussing details about troops in Afghanistan comes to mind. I don't see what we could ever hope to get out of there with once we're committed.ĭEGGANS. JOHNSON: It looks like to me we're getting into another Korea. And when the film plays tapes of President Lyndon Baines Johnson privately expressing doubts about success in Vietnam he suppressed publicly. It's tough not to think of more recent struggles in Iraq and Afghanistan. officials who don't understand the country drawn into a deepening quagmire. Only those who have never fought like to argue about who won or lost." The film shows U.S. One former North Vietnamese soldier named Bolton noted even Vietnamese soldiers don't like to speak on the war.ĭEGGANS: "In war, no one wins or loses," he says, "there's only destruction. It's only been very recently that, you know, the baby boomers are finally starting to say, what happened? What happened?ĭEGGANS: Of course, there have been other films, books and movies on the war, but Burns and Novick reach beyond simple narratives to speak with former Vietnamese troops, their relatives and some former officials from Vietnam. And it's like living in a family with an alcoholic father. Karl Marlantes, a Marine who served in Vietnam in 1969, recalled how he was friends with another man for more than a decade before their wives discovered they both fought in the war. NEIL SHEEHAN: I really believed in all the ideology of the Cold War, that if we lost South Vietnam, the rest of Southeast Asia would fall to the Communists.ĭEGGANS: The first episode leapfrogs between detailing Vietnam's geopolitical struggles and the stories of average people who lived that history. Pullitzer Prize-Winning war correspondent Neil Sheehan described the thinking early in the war. PETER COYOTE: (As narrator) For those Americans who fought in it, and for those who fought against it back home, the Vietnam War was a decade of agony, the most divisive period since the Civil War.ĭEGGANS: This expansive documentary, which lasts longer than entire seasons of some popular TV shows, begins with early efforts by the Vietnamese to resist French colonial rule and foreshadows the cultural misunderstandings and Cold War pressure that will lead America to support the South Vietnamese against the Communist-run government in the North. It's a sign, once you hear the familiar tones of narrator Peter Coyote, that this film will take Burns and Novick's classic documentary style and turn it upside down to tell the story of a war that turned America upside down. Rockets fly back into a helicopter launcher. Flames leap from a village's hut back into a flamethrower. UNIDENTIFIED MAN: The enemy is no longer closer to victory.ĭEGGANS: A score co-written by Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor throbs in the background while the film presents classic footage from the war run backwards. (SOUNDBITE OF DOCUMENTARY, "THE VIETNAM WAR") NPR TV critic Eric Deggans got a sneak peek.ĮRIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: The first thing you notice is that PBS's "The Vietnam War" starts like no Ken Burns film you've seen before. Now, documentary filmmakers Ken Burns and Lynn Novick have made a 10-part, 18-hour series that examines this pivotal time. And the war redefined how America saw itself. More than 58,000 American lives were lost. The Vietnam War had a profound effect on this country.
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