Ken Burns

I began this film when Barack Obama had 13 months to go in his presidency.

Lots of water under the bridge.

No one was talking 250.

No one was celebrating.

Now people are saying, oh, you're so smart.

You figured this out.

You came out at exactly the right time.

I went, total, total luck of the draw.

history is always the right time.

There is no clearer statement than that.

And then when you do that, and Mark Twain is right, if he said it, he says, history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes.

You are aware.

I mean, I'll tell you, if our film had just like by chance come out a year earlier than it did in the fall of 24, you knew what was going on in the fall of 24.

Well, we follow among dozens of characters, 150 different characters in the film.

The wife of a German general who's heading to join Burgoyne's army and her husband for their triumphant victory at Saratoga.

It doesn't happen.

The French come in, blah, blah, blah.

I'll give away the punchline.

However, she's doing the perilous Atlantic crossing a little bit nervous because she hears that Americans eat cats.

Now, nobody said anything this fall, but if it had come out, they'd go, Burns, you know what he's trying to do.