“CivilWar: TheUntold Story,” by Denver producer, stirs protest
Alocally produced reflection on what we don’t know about the CivilWar is poised for impact, having landed a notable narrator, prime spots on the national PBS slate and a bit of fringe outrage.
“CivilWar: The Untold Story,” by Denver-based Great Divide Pictures, stretches the old textbook notions of how and why the bloody story unfolded. Not least, the film underscores that political ramifications and deep divisions unsettled by the conflict endure to this day.
“CivilWar: The Untold Story” will air locally on both public TV stations. RockyMountain PBS (KRMA) will carry the five-hour documentary in prime time, beginning April 10 at 9 p.m. CPT12 (KBDI) will air two episodes April 29 starting at 8 p.m., and the last three on April 30 at 7 p.m.
The narration is by “Downton Abbey’s” Lady Cora, Elizabeth McGovern.
The outrage is thanks to holdouts who don’t like the documentary’s basic premise: that the CivilWar was fought over the issue of slavery. (Certain fringe groups insist it was about “states’ rights,” which makes the whole secession idea prettier.)
Producer-director Chris Wheeler and senior associate producerHolly Johnson said the film has inspired hate mail from neo-Confederate groups on the radical right. The film also incorporates the relatively unknown history of the contributions of African-Americans to the conflict.
The tagline—“It’s not just about who we were then, it’s about who we are now”— sums up the essence of the film. The country continues to weigh the appropriate role of government, the rights of minorities, the limits of power of the very wealthiest Americans. If audiences reflexively associate the emotional gut-wrench of “12 Years a Slave” with this documentary, so much the better.
The untold aspect involves the battles in theWestern campaign, which are less celebrated. If Ken Burns thoroughly covered Gettysburg and Antietam in his landmark series, Wheeler invites viewers to more thoughtfully consider Shiloh and Vicksburg.
Wheeler, who won awards for his 1993 documentary “How the WestWas Lost,” considers “Civil War: The Untold Story” his best work. It is certainly his most intricate, involving hundreds of CivilWar buffs as extras in battle re-enactments, directed with a feature filmmaker’s eye.
Believe it or not, it has been a generation since Ken Burns’ “The CivilWar" aired in 1990, Wheeler observed. “People need to hear the story again.”