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Band of Brothers

Its one of the best series ever made.

As someone said a 10 hour Saving Private Ryan but without the shite Ryan plotline.

Its not all guns n glory. Especially not the episode where they follow the medic around or the one where they find the concentration camp.
 
I like the doc at the end where you get to see the surviving members as they are now, you could see who they were straight away.
 
There was also a great episode IIRC correctly that was basically them building foxholes in the snow and sitting around doing nothing. Then about 10 mins before the end all hell breaks loose.
 
Marius said:
Its one of the best series ever made.

As someone said a 10 hour Saving Private Ryan but without the shite Ryan plotline.

Its not all guns n glory. Especially not the episode where they follow the medic around or the one where they find the concentration camp.
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Ah yes the Camp episode.....wandering out of the woods....superb without every becoming cliched.
 
cliche guevara said:
I've been recommended this series by my hosuemate, he absolutely raved about it. He can be a bit of a miltary buff at times though, so I'm wondering whether it's actually worth it? Apparently it takes a few episodes to get into, but if I'm not hooked by the end of the first one I probably won't watch any more... Opinions please urbs.
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is your house mate Loud 1??

but yes its fooking quality
 
g force said:
Ah yes the Camp episode..
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inman.jpg



:confused:
 
Swarfega said:
Don't be daft.

WTF makes you think that?

It was a fairly straightforward, unfliching account of the war.

I can't say it made me even remotely interested in signing up - if anything, quite the opposite.

It did however both entertain and make me reflect and pay quiet respect to all those involved, which I suspect was more the motivation than "propaganda"
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I just abhor the imperial Military-Industrial-Hollywood genre (or previously when it was, for example, Noel Coward being very competant dressed in a smart navy uniform).

It sentimentalises war, it elevates the status of a conscript into a warrior. It celebrates ‘duty’, it admires and exalts personal sacrifice, it teaches the next generations how to think and behaviour about the concept and notion of war - whether in uniform or keeping the home fires burning - until the gap between peaceful co-existence and war is so small all it takes is a sexed up document to persuade a military and the majority of a population that war isn’t an utterly absurd and alien notion in the 21st century, but a not unreasonable course of action.

This can only happen in populations educated to think of ‘war’ in certain way, and those populations are at the heart of the empire of the day, or in the thrall of the empire. It feels very Anglo-Saxon.

But also – in relation to BoB - the USA has been either an aspiring empire or an empire since the first decade of the 20th century. It has fought dozens of wars in that time from the Philippines (1899-1902-ish) to currently Afghanistan and Iraq – every continent, a not inconsiderable list.

Now take the main themes of BoB, courage, leadership, brotherhood, solidarity, etc . . . they apply in any war anytime; the lot of the soldier is consistent throughout.

But BoB is set in what is probably the only war, throughout that entire period, in which the motives and behaviour of the USA is not, at best, questionable. In WW2 the people of the USA can really see the US as a liberator, casting off the yoke of tyranny and replacing it with democracy, the USA is the beacon to the world – now, you have dozens of conflicts to chose from to explore your themes, and you select this war, the noble, decent war among so much murderous empire building wars. Why ? Because in this war the conscript is the epitome of the just cause itself, he is the beacon. It’s propaganda for so many imperial themes acting on the conscious of the easily led from a variety of appealing angles.
 
The intros with the veterens talking piss me off no end and it has the longest opening credits known to man other then that its really good.

dave
 
LC, You make some interesting points but one thing you get from the BoB book and film is that as it goes along the guys cease to care about what they were fighting for. The only thing that mattered was getting themselves and their brothers through the hell and out the other side. Your brothers more so than yourself as you assumed you had a bullet with your number on it and just accepted that and hoped you didn't fuck up and land your friends in it before then.

As for not wanting to ever be a soldier, Saving Private Ryan did that trick for me. First 10 minutes = Fuck that for a laugh.
 
I thought it was great, gonna get the box set at some point myself. Shows the true face of war with nothing hidden, and the true face of friendship through adversity, highly reccomended.
 
Marius - The story follows the winners though, the hero's who lived to reap the status and kudos. That they went through "hell" to get there - and brought democracy and freedom and freed the Jews - along the way just enhances their heroism.

Gee, war's worth it after all, etc.
 
It shows more than just that.

We have the soldier who loses his nerve, finds it again, kills a german and sadly takes the eidelvise (sp?) from his dead body only to get killed himself later on.

It shows german prisoners rounded up, given a cigarette and then shot.

Unfortunately what i don't think it covers from the book is a lot of the GI's got on really well / respected with the germans when they finally occupied germany. Although some still held grudges.

So okay it shows a happy ending. But don't 99.99% of all films do that as thats what people want. Its not propaganda, its just the movie biz. Escially the american movie biz.
 
I've only watched the first episode so will give it a few more. Having a real problem with Schwimmer's character though, I'd laugh my @rse of if I had to take orders from him.
 
I thought his flaw was he wasn't a natural Leader of Men, and by God real men recognise a real Leader of Men - a man who can lead you into and out of Hell - when they see one. And besides anyone knows a real Leader of Men is reluctantly pushed forward, Officers who attain rank by virtue of privilage let you down.

You should know all that from your Sunday afternoon war film viewing on the BBC, aged 6.
 
cliche guevara said:
Having only watched the first episode myself, I thought that Schwimmers character was meant to be hated.
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i thought it was kinda challenging role for schwimmer to take cos of the obvious association with Friends.

Pulls it off quite well imo. For moments there i forgot of his old character.

Superb series. Up there with the best of them and the battle scenes are amazing, with some very memorable episodes towards the end. :cool:
 
London_Calling said:
I just abhor the imperial Military-Industrial-Hollywood genre (or previously when it was, for example, Noel Coward being very competant dressed in a smart navy uniform).

It sentimentalises war, it elevates the status of a conscript into a warrior. It celebrates ‘duty’, it admires and exalts personal sacrifice, it teaches the next generations how to think and behaviour about the concept and notion of war - whether in uniform or keeping the home fires burning - until the gap between peaceful co-existence and war is so small all it takes is a sexed up document to persuade a military and the majority of a population that war isn’t an utterly absurd and alien notion in the 21st century, but a not unreasonable course of action.

This can only happen in populations educated to think of ‘war’ in certain way, and those populations are at the heart of the empire of the day, or in the thrall of the empire. It feels very Anglo-Saxon.

But also – in relation to BoB - the USA has been either an aspiring empire or an empire since the first decade of the 20th century. It has fought dozens of wars in that time from the Philippines (1899-1902-ish) to currently Afghanistan and Iraq – every continent, a not inconsiderable list.

Now take the main themes of BoB, courage, leadership, brotherhood, solidarity, etc . . . they apply in any war anytime; the lot of the soldier is consistent throughout.

But BoB is set in what is probably the only war, throughout that entire period, in which the motives and behaviour of the USA is not, at best, questionable. In WW2 the people of the USA can really see the US as a liberator, casting off the yoke of tyranny and replacing it with democracy, the USA is the beacon to the world – now, you have dozens of conflicts to chose from to explore your themes, and you select this war, the noble, decent war among so much murderous empire building wars. Why ? Because in this war the conscript is the epitome of the just cause itself, he is the beacon. It’s propaganda for so many imperial themes acting on the conscious of the easily led from a variety of appealing angles.
Click to expand...



I'd agree with you in large part.

I joined up in the late 80s, genuinely convinced that with the 'New World Order' (remember that?) I'd be part of some interventionist UN force, bashing dictators and keeping murderous sides apart in civil wars world-wide (and, naturally, sleeping with lots of girls).

Looking back, I think I was inspired by my Grandad and his mates, who were exactly what LC seems to doubt - conscripts raised to warriors. I don't want to over sentimentalise these people, I know full well there were cowards, criminals and scumbags among them. But what they did was to quietly and bravely leave their lives and go to the most terrible war that had ever happened. Don't forget too that it was not a foregone conclusion, the Axis still looked like potential winners as late as 1943/44.

I thought some of that 'good soldier' would apply to me post Cold War.

Well. You can be a bit wrong, can't you?

Not sure if this is the right thread to explore that tbh.

How about one where the question is put '..... If you knew that the Army was going to be used to stop the fighting in Darfur, bring aid to Burmese typhoon victims (and overthrow the junta), stop the Israelis and Palestinians from killing each others civilians, and similar tasks only.... would you join? Even at risk of killing or being killed?'
 
chainsaw cat said:
How about one where the question is put '..... If you knew that the Army was going to be used to stop the fighting in Darfur, bring aid to Burmese typhoon victims (and overthrow the junta), stop the Israelis and Palestinians from killing each others civilians, and similar tasks only.... would you join? Even at risk of killing or being killed?'
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I do remember a time (perhaps in the mid 90s ?) when the British Army was promoting itself as a kind of international rescue service. The reality was and is, of course, the Army works for politicians, not Jeff Tracy.

I don't mean that to be glib, but idealism and realpolitic don't mix well together.
 
Band of Brothers is a magnificent series, one of only a few series box sets that I just had to get. Would recommend it to anyone who has even a passing interest in watching war drama.
 
I bought it for my Dad, who is nearly 90, and was a radio operator in the British Army as it pushed into Germany and across the Rhine.

He likes it, but finds it 'a bit American'.

He also saw Saving Private Ryan a few years ago, but complained to me that 'it was a bit gory'.

:cool:
 
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