— all 18 hours of it
The Vietnam War era comes with its own ready-made soundtrack of rock, pop and soul hits of the day — the Rolling Stones’ “Gimme Shelter” has a way of appearing just where you think it might — but to this, Burns and Novick have smartly added the sounds of Vietnamese folk songs by the Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma, as well as an unsettlingly memorable score from Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor and his collaborator, Atticus Ross. Reznor and Ross’s music lends “The Vietnam War” a needed, metallic taste of tension and raw nerves.