BS: Band of Brothers

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: steve in ottawa
Date: 14 Apr 04 - 05:23 PM

Watching a war movie ought to be like singing a sad song. And there'll always be lots of people who hate sad songs, and can't figure out why anyone would ever create a new sad song.

Something that amazed me though: I knew a guy who simply loved Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. The film was clearly anti-war, but he thought it made the idea of being part of a small squad of dangerous men seem really great. He joined the Canadian Forces/Army. No matter how clearly you say something, a few people will always take it the wrong way.

My mom saw Platoon and where I'd seen an anti-war show, she wondered why the protagonist had to be portrayed as a great fighter -- for example, there's no such glorification in All Quiet on the Western Front.

Band of Brothers is on 4 DVDs for the ten episodes. It's expensive. It's great. Phone around. There's probably a video store in town that rents it. At the very least, tape the show; The History Channel kills everything with its commercials.

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: Once Famous
Date: 14 Apr 04 - 05:20 PM

Bravo Freightdawg. so well said!

I watched this originally on it's first showing with my son, who is now a history major at college.

My son is extremely well read on World War II and just may be end up one of those "go to historians" 10-20 years from now when there is no one left who were there to tell the story.

Spielberg and Hanks. These are men of integrity who documented this story.

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: freightdawg
Date: 14 Apr 04 - 04:45 PM

Amergin,

If you can, buy the boxed set. My wife got me the set for my birthday one year. I believe it is 10 dvds in length, the last one for special interviews, "the making of" etc. You are right. Each show begins with an interview of a few of the dozen or so Easy Company soldiers that are highlighted throughout the series. The amazing thing to me is how many survived from D-day through to the capture of Hitler's Berchtesgaden retreat. One really touching scene in the final dvd is where they have a couple of the soldiers walking through the very same forest at the very same spot outside of Bastogne where so many of the company were killed or wounded. (If it wasn't Patton, some other wag called them "the battered and bloody bastards of Bastogne." To a man, they reject the idea that they were "rescued" by Patton.) Two scenes are just spellbinding to me. One was of a speech made by a German commander to his troops following his surrender to (Col., I believe it was) Winters at the end of the war. The other was of the men of Easy Company coming up on a Nazi concentration camp. I feel that these scenes are, along with the rest of this mini-series, history telling, movie making, and sincere message provoking at its finest.

It is a real national tragedy that so many of this WWII generation is dying without someone like Spielberg/Hanks to tell their story. The soldiers are too reticent (for many reasons, some obvious, some hidden), and for every WWII soldier we lose we lose a veritable goldmine of wisdom, courage and duty.

Make no mistake war is hell. But the men who fought them for me so I could sit at this computer and not have to worry about Hitler, or Stalin, or Hussein, or bin Laden, are my heroes.

I LIKE TO HONOR THEM BY LISTENING TO THEIR STORIES AND BY LETTING THEM KNOW THAT I FOR ONE RESPECT THEIR SACRIFICE!

MichaelR, you are not supposed to get enjoyment from watching these films. They are made to educate, to challenge, to provoke, to honor, and to pay tribute. Why does everything in your life have to be about enjoyment? Have you ever once, in your whole life, made just one tiny, insignificant sacrifice for another human being? Something that was not enjoyable, something that actually cost you more than the price of a six-pack of beer? How about a missing limb? How about watching your best friends die one by one? How about watching your blood pour out onto the frozen landscape of a place you could not even pronounce it's name, knowing that all your mother would get was a lousy telegram and a flag folded three cornered? That is the story of the Band of Brothers, from every conflict that this country has ever been engaged, and from their distant brothers in any conflict ever fought.

Proud, and humble, to live in a land of Freedom bought and paid for by the blood of true patriots....

Freightdawg

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 10:59 PM

Well, this one is about Easy Company...a company of American paratroopers...and it is based on fact....one of the more interesting points about it is that at the beginning of the episodes they have a few fellows who were actually in Easy Company describe they're experiences.

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: michaelr
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 10:24 PM

Wasn't "Saving Private Ryan" enough gore, guts and glory for those two?

I get no enjoyment from war movies, even if they claim to be anti-war.

Cheers,
Michael

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 08:44 PM

Hmmm. That's what the Germans figured on doing too.

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: GUEST,fred miller
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 08:37 PM

saw the videos too. The couple of books I've read were good too, but every second page quotes Faulkner's "endure and prevail" line, which gets tiring.

Subject: RE: BS: Band of Brothers
From: Little Hawk
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 08:25 PM

Yeah, I rented the videos a while back. It's quite good.

Subject: BS: Band of Brothers
From: Amergin
Date: 13 Apr 04 - 08:22 PM

On the History Channel they're showing this wonderful miniseries done by Tom hanks and Steven Spielberg about Easy Company in World War Two...apparently it is based on a book by Stephen Ambrose. It is very well done. Has anyone else been watching it? Or did you watch it when it was on HBO originally?