Quote of the Day: Controversy over Latinos and “The War”

"Earlier this year, Hispanic groups, aided by the Hispanic Congressional Caucus, put pressure on Burns and PBS to include some stories of Latinos in the film, which was already finished, after six years of work…To be excluded was to be written out of history, they insisted. Burns eventually added twenty-eight minutes to the film, which, however, do not add much; the scenes—the extra material throws a Native American veteran into the mix, as well as two Hispanics—feel tacked-on, because they are. Burns had originally said that reediting the film “would be destructive, like trying to graft an arm onto your child.” It turns out that not reediting the film was also like grafting an arm onto your child.”

--Nancy Franklin reviewed the upcoming documentary series “The War” which focuses on World War II. Her critique in The New Yorker acknowledged the tedious amount of work acclaimed filmmaker Ken Burns put into making the series, yet ultimately she believed that the series was “too much of a not good enough thing.”

(Hat tip: kottke.org).

Sources- The New Yorker, kottke.org

Image- MSNBC (“Hispanics such as these men were among the American soldiers who landed on Cebu island in the Philippines near the end of World War II.”)