Some of you may remember that this event was supposed to happen at last years event but the show wasn't finished (and it still isn't done, Stone said he was still finishing episodes 9 and 10).
The series begins with the run up to World War Two. Episode 1 is titled World War 2 and it begins with the Japanese expansion in Asia in the early 1930's and it follows the course of events up to 1943. The film Concentrates on how the story that the US was primarily responsible for the Allied victory isn't wholly true. The part also deals with the selection of Henry Wallace as FDR's running mate in 1940. Wallace is a key figure in Stone's view of history.
Part 2 is called FDR, Truman and Wallace and it focuses on the course of the war and how Truman replaced Wallace as Vice President due to trickery and backroom deals. It also deals with how Truman was told early on about how the commies were coming and how this shaped what happened next.
Part 3 is The Bomb and it dealt with the hows and whys of Japan's surrender and the use of the bomb. It also makes clear that the bomb played less of a factor in the surrender of Japan than we think. The episode also paints a less than sparkling clean portrait of President Truman.
At the end of the third part it says that Part4 is The Cold War.
This is a heady mix of history that is almost too much to take in in such a concentrated form. The parts, each running an hour, were screened with ten minute breaks in between. There is a ton of material here and while little of it was anything new, the presentation in it's arrangement and in such a high volume was over whelming. Both my friend Lou and myself wanted to take longer than the 10 minutes they gave us.
I have to applaud Stone for being willing to throw so much at his audience. There is a great deal to mull over and connections are made that I had never seen before. The trouble is that such a concentrated screening gave us very little time to process what we were seeing. It was a few minutes to catch our breath before boom on to the next thing.
On the other hand I know that seeing the films in a slightly less concentrated manner, but more concentrated than as a weekly series they will play much better since we can both have time to reflect on what we are seeing as well as maintain the connections of who some of the people are.
The history, as far as I can tell is all dead on. This really is what happened and to some degree why. To be certain Stone is shading things to bring out certain facts, but there really isn't anything he's saying that isn't true. His problem, if there is a real problem, is that he doesn't fully explain everything. Some events are simply too big (Poland) to explain simply. Other things are not fully relevant to a history of America. Stone said that this is American history and not so much world history
After some reactions from Brinkley, vanden Heuvel and Schell they got down to the nitty gritty. Much of the discussion focused on Henry Wallace, who is a hero of Stone's (though I still don't understand why- though in these episodes it seems more like he loves him for what he might have done). Wallace is portrayed as a the successor of FDR's plans for the world and his removal from the ticket in 1944 a source of great puzzlement. While the series only deals with Wallace's ouster as Vice president as a great loss, the discussion went into more detail with speculation running from hatred of Wallace in many areas, to FDR figuring that he was going to live to the end of the war and thus making Truman a non-issue, to FDR simply being too tired to fight for Wallace who was also becoming a problem for FDR.
There was much discussion about how the less than positive viewing of Truman is going to shake up many people who hold him in high regard. Stone questions whether Truman should have been there since once elected no one seemed to inform him of any of what was going on until they had to after FDR died. Truman is viewed less of being his own man, rather as a man in the sway of others.
The Q&A with the audience was very brief since each question lead to much more discussion with the panel. The only thing that I think didn't refer back to one of the above subjects, was a question by a gentleman from I believe Pacifica Radio who took Stone and Kuznick for task for not going into deeper discussion on Poland and for not going into greater discussions about some of the thoughts of the Japanese high command regarding the use of the atomic bomb. Stone took the comments in stride and pointed out that the series is both limited in scope by a set amount of time, and because some of the issues raised, such as the small military coup attempt by the Japanese near the end of the war, didn't affect the American story.
Both myself and my friend Lou had a blast. Based on what we've seen the series is going to do that which it intended to do, namely inform and to get a discussion going. The screening was one of the real treats of the Festival this year.
(And apologies to anyone looking for a deeper discussion of the series, but there were two obstacles, first there simply is too much to explain. And secondly, Stone has structured the series so each part builds on the last. Everything ties into everything else. How I reacted to part one changed with revelations in part 2 and 3 and so on. Based on comments made during the panel discussion further revelations are coming in the remaining 7 parts. I can't discuss the whole web of the series since I only saw part of it.)
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