How to Appreciate World War II with Tom Hanks

Before embarking on any comments specific to individual episodes, I want to provide background on the production of the series in hope this will inform viewers about not only this program, but also for a spectrum of programs in the visual broadcast arts. This is based on what I have learned over the years when engaged in various capacities in this field. My experience is far less than the decades of experience professionals acquire, but when I have shared what I believe I have learned, the professionals I have dealt with have validated these very basic insights.

The take off point for any program is a core basic concept. In this case, it is manifestly to present an updated version of what still stands as one of the, if not the greatest, World War II documentary programs. This is the BBC production of The World At War. This twenty-six-part series debuted in the US from October 1973 to May 1974. The first thing to be said about World War II with Tom Hanks is that it is spectacularly audacious to embark on a series inevitably to be compared to The World At War. This is hands down something to be admired.

It is not that The World At War is without fault. In my view, the single most problematic issue is that the phase then termed :“The Pacific War” gets extremely terse coverage. Several of the twenty-six episodes briefly mention aspects of that phase of the war. Only one episode covers American campaigns across the Pacific. Even that episode folds in “British” operations in Burma. And there the “British” operations are overwhelmingly dominated by British Indian Army and East and Western African troops. The “British” component literally was less than ten percent. There is also one episode that addresses the atomic bombs. Roughly, The World At War deemed Asia and the Pacific worthy of less than ten percent of its overall coverage. Already we

know World War II with Tom Hanks will do vastly better than the BBC series on this huge part of the war.

Putting aside financing of the new series for our purposes—no small matter--after the basic concept must confront the enormously consequential decisions on the number of episodes and the length of each episode. Based on the first three episodes, we can anticipate that choice was twenty episodes, each with ostensibly forty-two minutes. But each episode begins (like The World At War) with an introduction that consumes almost ninety seconds. Each episode ends with another approximately thirty seconds of credits and transition to the next episode. This leaves the “hole” for episode content at about forty minutes. Given the almost limitless topics that could demand time in those forty minutes, these two basic decisions exert profound effects on content. This effect will be invisible to most viewers. But to those creating the series the number and length of each episode will demand numberless hard decisions about what can be presented with words and images.

I would offer an analogy that might serve to understand just how vast the potential content that must be rigorously rationed for each episode. The analogy is one golf hole, The potential of words and images for the “hole” encompasses the tee, the fairway, and the green. The actual content used is proportional to the tiny size of the hole itself on the green, compared to every other part of the hole.

With respect to words, Tom Hanks serves as the ultimate narrative voice. He has earned that position with decades of work. The early episodes show his comments linking up the elements of the master narrative for each individual episode. More words are provided by a chorus of “talking heads.” These are an impressive and diverse array of speakers. They are universally adept in landing telling points succinctly. Their emotional emphasis varies. The

varied emotional emphasis works like notes on a music scale. The mixing of the voices drives the episodes along far more than would a limited palette of voices. What the viewers will not realize is that the interviews from which each snippet is extracted were usually hours long. The editors would pick and choose between contributions that overlapped a great deal. This work must be very skilled to elevate the program. More words appear from recorded quotes of participants from all stations. This is the only option now that most with direct experience are no longer with us.

With respect to images, the overall international visual archive is gigantic. But for individual nations there may be a paucity of surviving images for distinct times or events. For example. the US image archive for 1942, both still and motion picture, is a very small fraction of what is available in 1944-45. The Axis powers may have superior inventories during their victorious runs from 1937 through 1942. Again, it requires very sophisticated work to blend the images.

Another very basic characteristic of these initial episodes is that the military elements of the series will address high strategy, but will not begin to cover the operational details, such as units below say army level or fine details of weapons, vehicles, ships, aircraft, and maneuvers. This sort of dense military detail must yield to narrative focus on other essentials. Not least of other essentials will be illustrative individual experiences.

The series is destined to endure. Viewers should first just watch each episode straight through. Only on latter viewings can these insights be pondered.