The Civil War (Season 1)

The Civil War (1990) is Ken Burns's documentary series you can watch online on iFILM. Across nine parts it walks step by step through the war between North and South, from the nation splitting apart to the shot fired in Ford's Theatre.

Burns built the story with almost no moving footage. Instead the screen fills with thousands of old photographs, the camera drifting slowly across them, alongside soldiers' letters, diaries and the words of famous generals and nameless privates. David McCullough narrates; Sam Waterston speaks Lincoln's lines, and the voice cast includes Morgan Freeman, Jason Robards and Julie Harris. Jay Ungar's fiddle tune 'Ashokan Farewell' threads through every episode and is now almost shorthand for the film itself.

This is the series that set the bar for the form and handed editors the trick now called the 'Ken Burns effect' — bringing a still image to life by moving across it. What you get isn't a dry history lesson but a human record of a country that had to tear itself in two to stay whole. It's long and unhurried, made for patient watching. Stream every episode of The Civil War online on iFILM.