Jump to content

The American Revolution (TV series)

Add links
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the 2025 series. For other TV series, see American Revolution (disambiguation) § Television.

The American Revolution
Promotional image for The American Revolution documentary series
GenreDocumentary
Created byKen Burns
Written byGeoffrey C. Ward
Directed by
Voices of
Narrated byPeter Coyote
ComposerDavid Cieri
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
No. of episodes6
Production
Producers
  • Ken Burns
  • Sarah Botstein
  • David Schmidt
CinematographyBuddy Squires
Editors
  • Tricia Reidy
  • Charles E. Horton
  • Maya Mumma
  • Craig Mellish
Running time715 minutes/11 hours 55 minutes (6 episodes)
Production companiesFlorentine Films
WETA-TV
Original release
NetworkPBS
ReleaseNovember 16 (2025-11-16) –
November 21, 2025 (2025-11-21)

The American Revolution is a 2025 television documentary miniseries about the American Revolution directed by Ken Burns,[1][2] Sarah Botstein, and David Schmidt. The series is a six-part, twelve-hour documentary. It premiered on PBS on November 16, 2025.[3]

Cast

[edit]

Voices

[edit]

Interviewees

[edit]

Episodes

[edit]
No. Title Original air date Length
1 "In Order to Be Free (May 1754–May 1775)" November 16, 2025 1hr 56min
2 "An Asylum for Mankind (May 1775–July 1776)" November 17, 2025 2hrs 4min
3 "The Times That Try Men's Souls (July 1776–January 1777)" November 18, 2025 1hr 55min
4 "Conquer by a Drawn Game (January 1777–February 1778)" November 19, 2025 1hr 56min
5 "The Soul of All America (December 1777–May 1780)" November 20, 2025 1hr 54min
6 "The Most Sacred Thing (May 1780–Onward)" November 21, 2025 2hrs 11min

Production

[edit]

The filmmakers wrote in The Atlantic that the series filmed for 165 days at more than 150 locations, with weather often dictating logistics; they chased the solar eclipse of April 8, 2024 to the Adirondacks and rapidly staged winter shoots in Providence, Rhode Island, Charlestown, New Hampshire, Tivoli, New York, and Philadelphia over the Martin Luther King Jr. Day weekend. They also reported extensive collaboration with reenactors, including the Jersey Greys, who drilled at night in a snowstorm and built what the team believes is the largest redoubt in North America for the production.[5]

According to the filmmakers, the absence of photography of the period led them to emphasize first-person testimony, period imagery, landscape cinematography, and limited-face reenactments to convey the "uncertainty" of the era. The team said it had created over 100 new maps under geographer Charles E. Frye, aligning scanned 18th-century cartography to modern satellite imagery and correcting for altered rivers, coastal infill, and missing colonial borders; Native nations and towns are prominently marked alongside settler sites.[6]

Release

[edit]

The release of the series was preceded by a half-hour preview entitled The American Revolution: An Inside Look. The preview aired on PBS from August 2025 on an on-going basis to introduce the series.[7] The series was promoted by PBS with a nationwide tour and site-specific screenings at Revolutionary War locations.[8]

Critical reception

[edit]

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 96% of 24 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "Examining how America's founding turned the world upside-down as the thirteen British colonies on the Atlantic Coast rose in rebellion, won their independence and established a new form of government that radically reshaped the continent."[9]

Writing in Vanity Fair, Jordan Hoffman characterizes the series as "loaded with characters, ideas, and perspectives" that make "history feel urgent and new," and highlighted its "stacked ensemble" of voice performers. Hoffman also notes the film's "stately pace" and attention to Loyalists and lesser known participants in the events.[10] Jennifer Schuessler in The New York Times argues that as a documentary it "aim[s] to strip away the barnacles of sentimentality and nostalgia" surrounding the founding of the United States. Schuessler noted that the series arrives "in the middle of a culture war," pointing to its "frank discussions of slavery and Native American dispossession" and its depiction of the Revolution as a "hyper-violent civil war that divided families and communities." She observed that the film "doesn't demonize Loyalists" and that its presentation of Native Americans as "members of powerful nations faced with complex choices" may be "the most eye-opening part of the documentary." The article also reported that Burns's "insistence on both inspiration and complexity has played well with audiences, including those well outside the PBS orbit."[11] Daniel Fienberg describes The American Revolution in The Hollywood Reporter as "smart, thorough, [and] sincere in intent," calling it "rousing, if repetitive." He wrote that the series is "patriotic, pragmatic and familiar," noting that it "fits snugly into the unprecedented tapestry that Burns has been weaving since Brooklyn Bridge." Fienberg praised its attention to "the internal conflicts and hypocrisies of the American Revolution," particularly its treatment of "the celebrations of equality that excluded Blacks and Native Americans," while also remarking that the production "relies heavily on familiar Burnsian tracking shots and zooms" and can feel "dry and a little languid." He concluded that despite its flaws, the series conveys "the optimism that we sometimes forget as we squirm through the latest evolution or devolution of the American experiment."[12] Writing for Politico, Nathaniel Moore suggests that Burns frames the series as a unifying civic project grounded in a "shared past," and described the cut he saw as heavy on factual narration while inclusive of voices often omitted from Revolutionary histories; he concluded that the film was "entertaining enough" to draw multigenerational audiences together at public screenings.[13]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Hayes, Dade (December 15, 2023). "Ken Burns On "Complicated Narrative" Of His Forthcoming Revolutionary War Project, Busting 1776 Myths And Looking Afresh At George Washington".
  2. ^ "Ken Burns Returns to PBS with New Documentary 'The American Revolution' | Military.com". www.military.com.
  3. ^ "PBS sets November premiere for new Ken Burns series "The American Revolution"". realscreen.com.
  4. ^ Maglio, Tony (November 19, 2025). "Paul Giamatti Can't Leave John Adams Alone: Who Plays Who in Ken Burns' The American Revolution". The Hollywood Reporter. PMC. Retrieved November 19, 2025.
  5. ^ Burns, Ken; Botstein, Sarah; Schmidt, David (October 8, 2025). "What We Learned Filming The American Revolution". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  6. ^ Burns, Ken; Botstein, Sarah; Schmidt, David (October 8, 2025). "What We Learned Filming The American Revolution". The Atlantic. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  7. ^ The American Revolution: An Inside Look. PBS. August 2025
  8. ^ Moore, Nathaniel (July 3, 2025). "What Ken Burns Won't Say About the American Revolution". Politico. Retrieved November 8, 2025.deadlink
  9. ^ The American Revolution (Rotten Tomatoes)
  10. ^ Hoffman, Jordan (November 5, 2025). "Ken Burns Knows Who Won the American Revolution: "Ne'er-Do-Wells, Felons, and Immigrants"". Vanity Fair. Condé Nast. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  11. ^ Schuessler, Jennifer (October 23, 2025). "Can Ken Burns Win the American Revolution?". The New York Times. The New York Times Company. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  12. ^ Fienberg, Daniel (November 6, 2025). "'The American Revolution' Review: Ken Burns Tackles the War for Independence in Patriotic, Pragmatic and Familiar Form". The Hollywood Reporter. PMC. Retrieved November 8, 2025.
  13. ^ Moore, Nathaniel (July 3, 2025). "What Ken Burns Won't Say About the American Revolution". Politico. Retrieved November 8, 2025.deadlink
[edit]


Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_American_Revolution_(TV_series)&oldid=1325956670"