Al McIntosh, Rock County Star-Herald

So I’ve been watching Ken Burns’ epic The War on tape (I mean, who can do 2.5 hours per night?), and checking some of the history forums online to see what folks are thinking. Generally, the tone is positive, but one thing has come up a few times: “some” are annoyed at Burns’ focus on the home front. They want more battle footage, maps, analyses from historians.

This criticism is misplaced, I think, as the more interesting parts of the show (to me, anyway), have focused on, say, race relations in Mobile, Japanese internment (and who can forget that terribly ironic Life mag paraphrased quote: “they are still cheerful, as they’ve only lost their freedom”), and of course, the work of newspaperman Al McIntosh, voiced by Tom Hanks. As Burns suggests, this work is about a simultaneous view of war, what was going on in different places during the conflict. And McIntosh voices those hometown concerns in ways that evoke much pathos.

To the home front haters, get a grip. He did both. Live with it.