As a fan of Ken Burns’ The Civil War PBS series originally broadcast back in 1990, I was looking forward to seeing how the DVD version (released a few years ago, in 2002) would feel and sound like in digital format. Well, I’m here to say that it it is an absolute triumph. While the dialogue is crisper, and the sound impeccably mixed (as one might expect), it is the color and clarity of Burns’ photographic essay in all its digital sharpness that makes it worth viewing again and again. Even if you’ve seen the VHS version a hundred times, I guarantee you will be astounded at how Burns’ production has been transformed – to the point where you feel as if you’re seeing this old friend for the very first time.

If you’re a fan of “The Civil War” and have not seen it yet on DVD, you owe it to yourself to either rent it from a local library or purchase it for yourself. (Burns’ interviews with the late American writer/historian Shelby Foote are by themselves worth the price of admission.) I just wish Burns’ production could be made mandatory viewing for all high schoolers (and, I think, Dan Rather and every whiny, limp-wristed reporter for the AP, Al-Reuters, the Washington Post and the New York Times, with a little 60 Minutes cast member thrown in for good measure). Perhaps by watching it they’ll be reminded once again of the high price this country has always paid – blindly and recklessly at times, I’ll grant you – and continues to pay for the cause of freedom throughout the world. It is a unique aspect of our American character and the American experiment, and the quality of Burns’ work in all its digital glory helps us understand that part of our history that so molded and shaped us into becoming the nation we are today.