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**** HBO's BAND OF BROTHERS: The True Story Of Easy Company. (1 Viewer)

Paul Jenkins

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 4, 2000
Messages
965
another great episode, I agree.
One minor point is that I have not got the feeling of scope and/or magnitude in the last couple of episodes. I felt like I was watching a minor skirmish in Chapter 4, then the end laid out that hundreds of the 101st died and that Market Garden was a disaster. I didn't feel that in this particular episode, perhaps following the small group within Easy is the reason? I hope the Battle of the Bulge is larger in scope... Anyone else sense this or is just me?
paul
 

Jaime m

Agent
Joined
Jul 16, 2000
Messages
45
Chad, the series is ten episodes long. Which after next week they will be half way into the run(sniff)
frown.gif
! But I guess we will have to enjoy it while we can.
This is by far the best TV that I have seen in a long,long time.Infact I will say that this is the best presentation of war that has ever been captured on film.Better than any film because there is so much time(10 hours) to tell the stories of these people and the vents that they helped shape.
Next episode should be interesting,seeing how hanks is directing it.Too bad Spielberg didn't have time to helm an episode himself.Defintely a DVD purchase when they release it,Can't wait!
 

Andres Munoz

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 21, 1999
Messages
2,489
The audio drop outs have been increasing with each episode (I have Dish Network). I hope it doesn't get too annoying.
I ain't complaining yet though. This show is too good!
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Andres
My Home Theater
 

Alex-C

Screenwriter
Joined
Apr 18, 2000
Messages
1,238
Paul, I agree. I didnt feel like I was watching anything to do with Market Garden save for the occasional "we need to get to those bridges", however, oddly it didnt bother me at all.
I like the fact that the show/series follows Easy company and doesn't attempt to show the War on a wide scale basis. I have A Bridge Too Far on DVD if I want to get the full impact of Operation Market Disaster.
I also admired the fact that we see Easy Company get pushed back in Replacements, since the Germans were a force to be reckoned with ! Maybe it was me but at the end of the episode someone says, 4 dead, 13 injured...I felt like I saw many more Allies killed in that episode. oh well...no complaints, just observations.
This show must be working on my subconscience - Last night I dreamed I was taking a beach head (a la Utah Beach in SPR) shooting Germans on a hillside while bullets and bombs were whizzing around me. I hid behind an inflatable raft (I know stupid, but hey I was dreaming) and then we finally cleared the beach and hill. When we got up to the top of the hill, there were some injured Allied soldiers on the other side (?) and we went up to them and as the circle of soldiers peeled back, on the ground was Ernest Borgnine, at which time my conscience side took over and realized this was a stupid dream. He said something like a dying statement along the lines of "Win one for the Gipper." or something dramatic...so maybe this show is on my mind.haha. also there was a long and loud thunder storm going through our area last night and the thunder woke me up at least 6 times so maybe that had something to do with my dream, but why Ernest Borgnine was in there is beyond me. He always seems to be in these old disaster/war movies I come across, or maybe it was the fact that I watched "Marty (1955)" recently.
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Paul Jenkins

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 4, 2000
Messages
965
Paul, I agree. I didnt feel like I was watching anything to do with Market Garden save for the occasional "we need to get to those bridges", however, oddly it didnt bother me at all.
I like the fact that the show/series follows Easy company and doesn't attempt to show the War on a wide scale basis. I have A Bridge Too Far on DVD if I want to get the full impact of Operation Market Disaster.
Alex, it didn't bother me or in any way take away from the show, which I feel is very good. Just making an observation about it :)
I also heard the small # of people killed/injured and thought I heard it wrong, so I played it again and that's what they said. I had the same thing happen in the previous episode, I could have swore they said they were not going back to England, but I thought they already were in England with the cleaners...
 

Phil Florian

Screenwriter
Joined
Mar 10, 2001
Messages
1,188
I think the "small scale" is on purpose. This was pre-internet and I believe the guys in the trenches probably didn't have a lot of "big picture" perspective, just their small piece of the war. Thus, the constant enticing "this will be the one that gets us home before Christmas" which is said at least once per episode. Maybe the assumption is people know about Market Garden enough that they don't have to explain things, too. I don't know. It is an odd perspective, as we are used to being fed the large picture as well as small, but I like it.
It was definitely enjoyable to see the surviving characters grow. These were the green recruits two episodes ago and now they inhabit vet bodies and act like it. Great and subtle acting that shows this growth. What is more difficult with me is keeping track of the "main" characters in Easy. There is the "core" group, but so many secondary charcters that get thrown in, it takes some rewatching to get it all...which is fine. I like that, just takes some getting used to. I missed seeing that wacked Lt. from last week or more interplay between Winter and the men, but it is so different week to week, you just got to roll with what they give you.
Great series, though. I can't imagine a better time for it to be released..just when we need to be reminded about heroics as well as the dirty side of war.
Phil
 

Bill McCamy

Second Unit
Joined
Jan 1, 1999
Messages
373
Real Name
Gasim de Paris
I just watched a friend's videotape of the first three episodes. (I also skipped all the comments dealing with episode four. I hope my comments are therefore not redundant.)
This is incredible television. The confusion of battle is accurately captured. The characters don't know what is happening as the situations change. We don't know what is happening. The tension and fear is palpable. The vhs prologic sound was pretty good. The sound of firearms is realistic: rather than the amplified boom of currrent action movies, we hear what those carbines and mgs sound like.
The looting of casualties should be no surprise. A soldier has just taken the life of another. What on earth does it matter if he now takes a watch, pistol, flag, or dagger? And killing prisoners...not exactly cricket, but not surprising. I too will wait to see if there is any ramification from that act. And how many surrendering Germans were shot in the first two episodes? All very real. All very believable.
 

Marty M

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Joined
Dec 6, 1998
Messages
2,919
Having this "smaller scale" of following Easy Company makes this drama more personal. You really get to know who these people are and when one of them dies, you feel for the loss.
 

Tino

Taken As Ballast
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Tonight's episode CROSSROADS was directed by Tom Hanks and surprisingly was IMO, the weakest episode yet.
However, that doesn't mean it was a bad episode, just that all the preceding ones were better. I guess here at the halfway point in the series, it has to take a bit of a breather before heading into Bastogne for next weeks episode which looks fantastic.
Tonights episode seemed a bit uneven, with flashbacks taking up the first half of the episode and the last half setting up next weeks episode. Still there were some good scenes, especially the opening scene with Lt. Winters racing across a field and surprising a very young German soldier, who later in the episode is shown to smile, perhaps thinking he was captured, only to see that smile dissolve away into the realization that he was about to die. A very strong scene.
I also liked the scene in the beginning where Nixon refused to get out of bed and Winters throwing what he thought was lemonade onto his face, which actually turned out to be Nixon's piss, since there were few bathrooms with running water, usually outside. A very funny scene.
Can't wait for next weeks episode;
BASTOGNE. This part was my favorite section of the book and it looks to be very exciting.
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Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus.
 

Alex Spindler

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2000
Messages
3,971
*The following assumes you have now seen Ep 5. Spoilers ahead if you haven't*
Wow. I don't think I've seen anything that made me say "Holy Sh**" like what I just saw. That was a heart stopping moment when he crested that hill and shot the young German.
Losing Winters to an administrative postition is a crushing blow, both for him and the viewers, especially seeing such a courageous act like what we had in the first few minutes.
The next phase looks heartbreaking, especially the thought of the troops lacking basic supplies like clothing, food, and ammunition. This looks to be one of the greatest trials they've been through.
Another great episode.
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Bombardment Society - Member
 

Jon Bell

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 14, 2001
Messages
170
Does anyone know who played the Lieutenant who brought them the ammo toward the end of the episode? I couldn't place him.
By the way, I disagree that this was a weaker episode. I really liked the flashback approach. I am pissed, though, that HBO showed the german soldier's face in the previews last week, giving away the fact that he was a kid, and spoiling the reason why Winters was so affected by it.
 

Paul W

Second Unit
Joined
Dec 17, 1999
Messages
459
===BOB on DVD===
DVD Sewer is reporting from Dave's studio day that the DVD set for this is expected early next year.
http://www.dvdsewer.com/news/reports/studioday2001/index.htm Paul Warren
Hey fella . . . I bet you're still livin' in your parent's cellar . . . downloading pictures of Sarah Michelle Gellar . . . and posting "Me too!" like some brain-dead AOL-er . . . I should do the world a favor and cap ya' like Old Yeller . . . you're just about as useless as MPEGs [sic] to Hellen Keller.
 

Matty B

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 27, 2001
Messages
227
damn you beat me to it. It was indeed Jimmy Fallon. I don't know who he gave head to to get that job. He is COMPLETELY out of place. The whole reason that Hanks didn't want to act in the movie was because he didn't want to take away from the series with his notoriety. It makes no sense to put SNL players in the show for this reason alone.
Also, he didnt think it was lemonade, obviously he thought it was beer (Yellow, clear lemonade?).
This show continues to be the best thing on film I've ever seen.
 

Razvan V

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Aug 28, 2000
Messages
164
I think that the Tom Hanks directed episode was quite bad. Famous actors, with very few exceptions, should be banned from directing. The scene where Winters shoots the Germans one by one without their shooting back was ridiculous ( even laughable) as were the totally unnecessary flashbacks. The series as a whole is too melodramatic and predictable. I remember seeing a lot of Russian WWII movies - I'm Eastern European - and there's basically no difference - ideologically - between them and Saving Private Ryan or Band of Brothers. The only war movies that have impressed me so far are the Yugoslavian-made ones or the older American movies. Somehow the Serbs/Croatians are able to make war movies that feel real. There's a roughness and authenticity in their films that's unparalleled in movies. The best American war movies - say The Deer Hunter or Apocalypse Now - are vastly superior to anything that Spielberg or Hanks have made or will ever make. Spielberg and Hanks are too sentimental and unsophisticated to make anything truly memorable.
Razvan
 

Paul Jenkins

Supporting Actor
Joined
Jan 4, 2000
Messages
965
Razvan,
We must be watching two different shows. I think they are doing a great job of detailing what it was like from Easy Company's viewpoint.
On your main complaint point, the Germans were caught sleeping, the kid was just waking up, smiling as he thought Winters was a German and then realizing he was an American right before he was killed. Winters continued to move and fire into the just-awaking Germans when the rest of the squad came up to help. The entire time from him cresting the ridge/shooting the first SS officer to him unloading 5-10 rounds into the Germans wasn't but 5 seconds, not nearly enough time for them to wake up, understand what was going on, take good aim and down him. They did grab weapons and start firing, btw, they just didn't down him before the other group came up to help.
Don't know what you mean by predictable, I know we win, so what. As for it being melodramatic to each his own. Personally I think the level of 'realizism' in the show is great, but I've never picked up a rifle and stormed a garrison of enemy troops, so I'm not qualified on that subject, are you? From what I've read, the men who fought in Easy Company have said this show captured what they thought/felt/endured and I'll trust their views over yours...
 

Jaime m

Agent
Joined
Jul 16, 2000
Messages
45
Unnessesary flashbacks? Seeming how he was writing a report on the action in question, I find that to be wholly nessesaryn not only as expisition but later as a insight into his state of mind as he was walking around Paris.And as stated before the scene in which winters shoots the young soldier as well the others encompasses about a few seconds and their response time was slow because they were all asleep, which seemed fairly obvious.
All of this is based on the book of the same name and many of the actual people who were present for all of these events gave extensive interviews to the writer Stephen Ambrose which we used along with official records to write the stories of these men.many of the reports that helped ambrose write the book are from the very people you see portrayed in the show.While a great advocate of the American point of view Ambrose is known for telling it like it is, warts and all. Of course i'm not so niave that i dont think they might have dramatized certain scenes to make them more exciting but i havn't seen anything so far that doesn't have historical accuracy of rings of bullshit.It seems that your are approaching this series with a bias against Hanks and Spielberg so i'm sure that it colors your preceptions a bit.
My Grandfather was in eroupe during WW2 and some of the accounts of combat that i have heard from him along with my brother ring as true as the depiction of it in band of brothers and Saving private ryan. They have been in combat and have given the show their seal of approval.That's enough for me!
We are all entitled to an opinion it just so happens that ours differ, No biggie i will enjoy the show and you won't.
By the way I can't wait to get this on DVD.
[Edited last by Jaime m on October 02, 2001 at 02:10 AM]
[Edited last by Jaime m on October 02, 2001 at 02:12 AM]
 

Danny R

Supporting Actor
Joined
May 23, 2000
Messages
871
The scene where Winters shoots the Germans one by one without their shooting back was ridiculous
Hardly ridiculous since that is the way it really happened.
It certainly shows why one of the interviews at the beginning said something along the lines of "Its amazing he survived."
--
Of course can anyone who has recently read the book tell me from a strategic point of view why Winters decided to do a one man charge? Just think of how effective the whole company would have been attacking those sleeping soldiers. As it was Winters woke them up too soon.
 

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