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Band Of Brothers...? (1 Viewer)

SvenS

Second Unit
Joined
May 5, 2002
Messages
257
I rented the first 5 episodes and my wife and I didn't like it at all. Every episode was almost identical. We found it slow to the point of being boring. I was expecting to rent just the first three episodes as a test drive and then buy it. Glad I didn't buy it.
WOW! All I can say is WOW!

No, I can say something else! You are absolutely THE first person I have heard on the Internet or in person who has said anything so negative about this series! The numerous posts around the Internet DVD forums about this series on DVD is 100% filled with high praise for this incredible series! I will say that you do yourself a HUGE disservice not watching the rest of this series because only watching half of it will have you losing much of the impact of what these guys reallt went through in WWII.
 

JustinCleveland

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Dec 23, 2002
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Sydney, Australia
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Justin Cleveland
Sven,

Actually, to be fair, the first episode is training... it's pretty general, and if you wanted non-stop action (that the series later provided) then you'd get bored. The second episode is one of the best, showing how things could go perfectly. The episodes in the forest, in the winter, really are repetative.

That having been said, I adored the series and while I felt this was true, it didn't bother me in the slightest. Rather I felt it was indicitive of the monotony that the soldiers actually experienced. The mind-numbing pain of routine in a horrible situation when you could be shelled at any time.
 

Chazz_S

Supporting Actor
Joined
Oct 8, 2002
Messages
501
I cringed when David Schwimmer made his appearance in the first episode 'cause I just can't picture him as anything other than the "weenie, whiney, loser Ross" from Friends. Anyway, please tell me he's gone from BOB for good,......puleeese.
I had always wondered about these (admittedly relatively few) 'complaints' about Schwimmer in BOB. Sure, I can sympathize if you can't stomach the man. Though in this case, wouldn't you say it's a masterstroke of casting? You hate Schwimmer, Easy Company hates the man he portrays- what's the problem?

It's not like he was cast as Winters.
 

Yee-Ming

Senior HTF Member
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Apr 4, 2002
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4,502
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"on a little street in Singapore"
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Yee Ming Lim
Exactly. (Not that I hate "Ross" in the first place)

The whole point was that Sobel was a nitpicky, petty, "small" man, and in that respect Schwimmer's "baggage" as Ross helped give that persona some edge.
 

John Mansor

Stunt Coordinator
Joined
Jan 9, 2003
Messages
218
I am glad see that someone agrees there are similarities between Ross and Sobel. My wife thought it was a strange casting choice but when you think about it, it was pretty sly.
 

RobertW

Supporting Actor
Joined
Feb 27, 2000
Messages
719
agreed. you already have a pre-conception about sobel based on who's playing him, and that only builds as you see how he handles his men and his company. it works.

as does the casting of relative unknowns in all the other parts. you have no pre-conceptions of what that character will be like based on seeing the kinds of roles that actor has been cast in before. they have a fresh canvas, and you get to know the character as a real person, not as some actor playing him.
 

SvenS

Second Unit
Joined
May 5, 2002
Messages
257
Sven,

Actually, to be fair, the first episode is training... it's pretty general, and if you wanted non-stop action (that the series later provided) then you'd get bored. The second episode is one of the best, showing how things could go perfectly. The episodes in the forest, in the winter, really are repetative.
If you read my post completely I do say that he did himself a diservice by not watching it all the way through. Of course the first episode was a lot slower, it was a setup to get to know most of the characters.
 

Adam_S

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 8, 2001
Messages
6,316
Real Name
Adam_S
I've been watching this for the past couple weeks, an ep a night when I had time. I just finished, "Why We Fight"...

Words cannot express the achievement of this series, and I haven't even finished it yet.

Each episode, in my opinion, is in some way an improvement on the one before it, with the possible exception of episode 8 which was a bit of a let down from the incredible Lipton episode just before. Everything is here, and it's real. My gut wrenches as men are stuck with incompetant commanders who get boys killed, and then I am astonished at seeing men like Captain Winters who are the embodiment of a perfect officer; his episode, the leadership episode as I like to think of it, is easily the best work on TV I've ever seen.

In a way, Band of Brothers is rewriting what is possible with TV, particularly in the way it portrays masculinity. There are no stereotypes here, no grand heroics manipulating your reactions; what this is is men who did their job, and that made them heroes. And what makes us empathathize with them is the way we come to know and grow with them, to be as concerned with the issues important to them, leadership, brotherhood (friendship)--the way men find their identities and hold each other together in everything. It's amazingly powerful, wonderful series.

Adam
 

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