Illustration by Michael DiMilo
By Geoff Carter
There have been instances when the sometimes all-too-thin lines between art and reality have intersected, crossed, and become blurred. The China Syndrome, a film about safety violations at a nuclear power plant, was released only twelve days before the partial meltdown at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant. Wag the Dog, a film about spinning a political scandal, premiered a month before the Monica Lewinsky scandal at the Clinton White House. Other films, like Spiderman and Lilo and Stitch, were altered after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, deleting footage of the Twin Towers and a 747 flying through a city.
Art does imitate reality—or vice-versa. At any rate, not all these mirrored images of real life are negatives. Sometimes a book, film, or other work—Uncle Tom’s Cabin comes to mind—can be instructional, galvanizing, or even inspirational. Ken Burns’ The American Revolution, a detailed twelve-hour history of the American War for Independence is the latest case in point
Ken Burns is a master documentarian. His PBS debut The Civil War set a new standard for documentary film excellence and was followed by his other examinations the American experience, including Baseball, Jazz, Country Music, The National Parks, Prohibition, The War, Vietnam, and dozens of others, covering everything from history to sports to music to our greatest national upheavals.
Burns’ cinematic techniques, inserting voice-overs of historical figures reading from their letters and diaries, actors voicing national figures, and brilliant camerawork lend revealing insights into the people behind the words, were ground-breaking. Interspersed by interviews with scholars, historians, and other experts, Burns’ films really do bring history to life.
The American Revolution is one of his best. It is a brilliantly conceived and executed recreation of the myriad complexities and forces that culminated in this brutal eight-year war. Instead of presenting a pasteurized version (like the one we learned in high school) of our founding fathers wresting independence from the British throne with their bare hands, Burns presents a more complete picture, including experiences of all the inhabitants of the colonies, including slaves, women, free Blacks, and Native Americans comprising a young America composed of dozens of separate races, creeds, and cultures, not all equal, but all willing to fight for liberty.
As described in The American Revolution, the inhabitants of thirteen very disparate colonies, many of whom despised and mistrusted each other, became united not for a king, a general, or a messiah, but for an idea—for democracy. When King George and his parliament enacted the Stamp Act, the Townsend Acts, and sent the British Army to occupy Boston, the American people said no. The united colonies demanded their voice, and they demanded their liberty. They took up arms and the fought for these rights.
Setting aside regional and ideological differences, the colonists united to fight a common enemy. Recognizing that every citizen deserves a voice, rights, and liberty, they molded a government based not on a person, but on an idea. Instead of a king, they gave us the Constitution, based on the notion that a nation can function as a democracy.
Granted, there were warts. At the beginning, only propertied white men were able to vote. Slavery was still legal; in fact, Washington, Jefferson, and other wealthy founding fathers were slaveowners. Native Americans were still being illegally forced off their lands. Women could not vote or own property. But the founders designed the Constitution to be a flexible document. Over the years, it has been amended to outlaw slavery, grant suffrage to African Americans, women, and eighteen-year-olds. It has guaranteed voter rights. It has done what it was designed to do, to protect the rights of the people, but now it is under attack. And, following the model of our forefathers, we know what to do.
It is a fortuitous coincidence that this film premiered during a time when our present American democracy, forged in the blood and fire of the American Revolution, is at greater risk than at any other time during its history. America is in crisis because voters were lied to and fooled, and so elected a charlatan, a liar, and a thief for president.
Donald Trump does not simply want to be president; he wants to be king, and much like King George III, he wants complete and utter power our us, the American people. In point of fact, many of King George III’s crimes pale in comparison to his:
- President Trump has tried to intimidate us through force, deploying American troops against the American people.
- He has arrested and imprisoned our citizens without due process.
- He has stolen and probably sold our personal data.
- He has tried to take over and destroy our government institutions.
- He is attempting to dismantle Social Security.
- He has called for the prosecution and execution of his political opponents.
- He has lied unceasingly to the American people.
- He has placed his unqualified lackeys and soulless minions into the Cabinet and other positions of power.
- He is using the Department of Justice to persecute his political enemies.
- He has raised taxes—tariffs.
- He has physically destroyed part of the White House—the people’s house.
This is only the tip of the iceberg. Donald Trump has committed—and will continue to commit, if permitted—even more heinous crimes. He needs to be stopped by us, the people. Congress won’t stop him. They’re in his thrall. The Supreme Court won’t stop him. They’re in his pocket. Only some federal courts and courageous judges—and the American people—have stood in his way.
The American Revolution serves as a reminder of what we are, how we became what we are, and what we need to do to preserve our liberties. In short, the American people need this message at just this time. We need to see what we were and what we could become again. The timing of its release couldn’t be better.
Nearly two hundred and fifty years after the Revolution, another would-be despot is trying to take away our freedoms. And, once again, the American people are not tolerating it. We have taken to the streets in mass demonstrations. We have stood outside ICE detention centers, demanding the release of prisoners and enduring hostile attacks by Trump’s hired thugs. On October 18th, over seven million people took to the streets in the “No Kings” rally. We have protested shrewdly and peacefully. The determination and resilience of the earlier colonists who fought for American independence is being demonstrated by today’s Americans.
We have said no to DOGE, no to mass firings and layoffs, and not to Trump’s royalistic ambitions. We have not, unlike our forefathers, had to take up arms to fight for our independence, and hopefully we won’t, but we will if necessary. Whether this spirit for independence and liberty is, after two hundred and fifty years of freedom, ingrained into the American sensibility or springs from the pioneering spirit of those who first came here looking for a new life, it exists and will not be extinguished.
We need to learn the lessons history has taught—or has tried to teach us. As stated in The American Revolution, the War for Independence is our origin story, and our government became the model for people seeking freedom everywhere. The price was not cheap. Thousands died in horrific hand-to-hand combat. Hundreds of thousands suffered for the freedoms we enjoy today.
When asked, after the 1787 Constitutional Convention, when asked whether or not Americans had a republic or a monarchy, Benjamin Franklin replied, “A republic, If you can keep it.”
Let’s keep this one. Let’s look to the past and find the fortitude to keep it.