Ken Burns and Lynn Novick’s 10 episode, 18 hour documentary, The Vietnam War, takes viewers through a time in history that not only shaped millions of people’s lives but also shaped a culture. The documentary takes viewers through the history of colonial Vietnam, the rise of Ho Chi Minh, and France’s doomed war, leading viewers into the beginning and ending of the American conflict. The Vietnam War, is considered one of Burns’s saddest projects as it offers no uplifting message or happy ending. It simply documents decades of bad decisions following bad decisions all culminating in a time of waste that took millions of lives for nothing. It points out that the war was started with good intentions by good people but because of misunderstanding, overconfidence and Cold War mistakes, it turned into a tragedy. Continue reading →