# The War (2007)

> A seven-part PBS documentary miniseries that tells the Second World War through the personal recollections of men and women from four American towns.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/29234

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 7
- Episode runtime: 124 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, history
- Network: PBS
- Cast: Keith David, Tom Hanks, Josh Lucas, Bobby Cannavale, Samuel L. Jackson, Eli Wallach, Robert Wahlberg, Adam Arkin
- TMDB rating: 9.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0996994/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: solemn, reflective, elegiac, humane, intimate

## What critics say

Critics broadly acclaim the miniseries as a moving, carefully assembled account of the Second World War told through ordinary Americans' personal recollections.

## Synopsis

The War (2007) is an American PBS documentary miniseries created by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick, presented as a seven-episode limited series. Rather than marching through generals and battle maps, it follows a handful of men and women from four American towns, whose recollections of the Second World War carry the story from the attack on Pearl Harbor through the years of fighting and the return home. Veterans and civilians speak directly to the camera in intimate, first-person testimony, while archival photographs, newsreel footage, letters and home movies fill the frame. Each episode runs roughly two hours and builds a mosaic of everyday hardship, rationing, factory shifts, separation from loved ones, combat fear and grief, so the war feels like it reaches every street in America. The tone is solemn, reflective and deeply humane, with an elegiac undertone that never tips into sentimentality. Viewers who appreciate the sweeping documentary craft of The World at War or the Civil War series by Ken Burns will find the same blend of archival richness and personal voice. Its emotional weight comes from accumulation, the way small stories of ordinary people add up to a portrait of a nation at war.

## Shows like The War

- [Greatest Events of World War II in Colour (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/77695)
- [World War II in Colour (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/38530)
- [WWII in Color: Road to Victory (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/116700)
- [WWII in HD (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/29671)
- [Apocalypse: The Second World War (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/30535)
- [The Roosevelts: An Intimate History (2014)](https://ember.film/tv/57967)
- [9/11: One Day in America (2021)](https://ember.film/tv/104793)
- [The Civil War (1990)](https://ember.film/tv/8991)
- [World War II: From the Frontlines (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/150708)
- [World War II with Tom Hanks (2026)](https://ember.film/tv/1105057)

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