Geofferson

I very much like the "Official Band of Brothers" thread, don't get me wrong. I just thought I'd start this one up so we can talk about the specific episodes after they air each Sunday.

We did the same thing earlier with HBO's Six Feet Under and it worked out pretty good.

So, to get the ball rolling...

Wow, what a great show. Very realistic and dramatic. Great performances too. While it was kind of weird seeing both David Schwimmer and Ron Livingston attempting dramatic roles, I think both pulled it off and did a great job. While this show will be compared to SPR (which it should, since Hanks and Spielberg are involved), I think that it will focus on the comaradarie among the "Band" as witnessed so far with this 2-hour premier.

Sunday nights live-on with HBO!

dgc

Simply AWESOME!!! Gotta love the big budget quality from this production.

Only thing is I couldn't take David Schwimmer's performance seriously (In anything he does). For me, he just can't shake that sad sack Friends Sterotype.

RolloTomasi

Yeah, I cjust couldn't see Schwimmer as a sadistic commander - he just evokes too many images of Ross from Freinds. I'm glad they decided to use almost all newcomers for this thing.

Great premiere episode. The raid in Part 2 was great quality, about the same level as that in Saving Private Ryan. The paradrop, however, didn't click for me. It was a very ambitious undertaking, and I love the idea, but somehow the graphics looked too fake in that scene to really get me involved - they didn't mesh in well. I guess they need to hire more talented CG artists

palebluedot

I personally thought Schwimmer was great in that role...he played the perfect A-Hole Capitan IMO.

I posted my comments on the first episode in my thread but will repost here too.

I agree this is off to a very good start. I wonder if the confusion of the characters during the battle sequences is somewhat intentional, as I am sure it was pretty confusing in real life.

Spielberg can be heavy handed at times on his movies and it's nice to see the series so far having no traits as such.

I just wish I had a digital cable box that had a digital out so I could have used the 5.1 audio. It was definitely nice to have it in widescreen though.

The photography is very well done as are the special effects and the acting is top-notch so far. I like very much the intros by the survivors of Easy Company it is a nice way to segue into the episode. I agree the scene at the end of Episode 1 was fabulous and the end of part 2 I thought was excellent.

They have very quickly made the characters believable and worth caring about.

One of the best scenes and something very suprising to me because I had no idea that this actually happened was the scene in episode 2 with the captured German soldier that was American but of German descent that returned to the "mother land" to fight with the Germans. You could tell as he was talking to the American soldier that he knew he was on the wrong side and that he wasn't going to make it out alive and they came and shot him...very well done.

Definitely looking forward to next Sunday.

Ian11

I'm glad they're really focusing on Lt. Winters and a few of the men. Its a better way to approach the story for the screen unlike the book where no one in particular is the focus of attention.

I thought David Schwimmer was great as Cpt. Sobel. I had no problem disassociating him from his other tv character in Friends.

The production does look first rate. It doesn't look like a made for tv movie. Although as RolloTomasi stated the air drop CGI sequence looked a little too animated. The combat sequences have the same gritty hand held camera work of SPR but lacks the deft directorial touch of Spielberg. Spielberg is a master placing the camera at the right places and setting up shots so these other directors are gonna have a hard time matching his skills.

Regardless, BoB fulfills what so many of us wanted to see after seeing SPR. As excellent as SPR was this is the true account of American soldiers as they fought their way towards Germany. More dangerous hedgerow fighting, house to house fighting, and the icy cold of the Bulge; all done in the style of SPR.

And what's all this backlash against the "Greatest Generation" moniker as if this was some kind of fashion trend? This is history not N'Sync's latest album. I'm glad we're getting excited learning about and talking history. Something we don't see everyday. The show reminded us of that when they showed all the Bronze, Silver Stars and Distinguished Service Cross earned by Easy Company.

True widescreen 1.85 and Dolby Digital 5.1 (and maybe in DTS since this is a Spielberg project). I can't wait, the BoB DVD has a spot reserved right next to SPR on my DVD shelf.

Blaster1

awesome show, i didn't like saving private ryan, but i like this, can't wait to see the next 8 episodes, it was weird seeing david shwimmer as the captain at first but i got used to him in the part as it went on and they made him out to be an idiot, its also nice to see kirk acevedo from oz in the show too

JaxComet

I agree. I think they wanted to cast someone that you'd hate right away..........

dgc

So true, I'm glad they got rid of him right away. I had a hard time buying into his character. I think he is such a one dimensional actor. He will always come across as the whiney Ross to me. Did you notice that same sad sack / confused look when he was told he was being reassigned?

Static Cling

Whoo, I am glad they're encoring BoB later in the week... I missed it Sunday night. I've got a biochem test Wednesday morning... I'd better leave the house to study so I don't tune into HBO Tuesday night and get sucked in.

G. Noel Gross

I hate that guy, but was stunned by how good he was in the role.

RoQuEr

I found the plot very predictable and thought the story dragged a bit in the middle. I also had trouble understanding everything that was happening.

MrN

Yeah, how come the Americans always win in these WWII movies?

Seriously, I also thought the first episode dragged. I mean it was trying to be the first half of Full Metal Jacket but thats pretty much impossible.

The second episode really flew by (no pun intended) but that maybe because it was that good. Hope the rest are like this.

Chili Palmer

Great Show! I've been pumped to see this for a year and it lived up to my expectations. Great cast even though it's hard to figure who's who besides the three main dudes. But thats what I like about it. It's war people come and go. Don't get to know someone to well because they can be dead in a second. I like how they transfer that feeling to the audience.

grunter

Apparently you can substitute Speilberg and Hanks' names in place of PLOT and CHARACTERIZATION and the vidiots will go ape-sh!t. How am I the only one who sees this? "Band of Brothers" was the apex of the FX-first, story-if-we-have-time "Armaggedon" school of filmmaking. Answer me this: who the hell are the characters in this supposed mini-series? Who is this show about? I can't name one of those soldiers today - NOT A ONE. Aside from the fact that one of them had a brother who died in a previous battle (making him "King Crabby," apparently) I can't give you one iota of backstory for these characters that tells me what they're like, who they love, what is important to them, why they're UNIQUE. That's how LITTLE character development took place over the span of those two hours. There were flashes of story - with Cpt. "Ross" being promoted off "Easy Co." for (I'm guessing) being a prick (??) and with the destruction of three (or was it five? or was it really just one gun shown from 10 different angles?) "kraut guns" - but NO BEGINNING, MIDDLE or COHERENT END. This premiere episode was a complete travesty from the smug "produced by" placard to the closing credits. It was like suffering through the opening sequence of "Saving Private Ryan" stretched to two hours, minus the "take-the-beach-head" storyline driving the characters forward. "Band of Brothers" was a chaotic mush of aimless action sequences and cutting room floor explosions strung together with a "moving" orchestral score and a couple of flag-waving silhouette production stills. THIS WAS NOT A COHERENT DRAMATIC PIECE IN ANY SENSE OF THE TERM! How can the absense of story and character be praised as a watershed television "event?" If in two hours, the audience has zero sense of who the protagonist is in a given episode of a longer piece - what does that say for the remainder of the series? I'm sure you could place this in a grander historic context and derive some feeble attempt at meaning, but why, as an audience member, should you have to do that much work? This "episode" failed to deliver the most basic element: a story. We didn't get a tale about "Easy Co." - we just got an FX test-reel of WWII ground-battles in 5.1 stereo sound. And that, quite frankly, is just not enough.

Chili Palmer

Protagonist = Easy Company

It didn't bother me that I only recognized three soldiers. Like I said before it's war, and soldies come and die. It's going to be like this till the end. Some of the early reviews knocked this as well. When it's dark and soldiers running around with painted faces it is had to determine who is who. I personally don't need to know every 20+ soldiers to get that "emotional" impact out of the show.

BTW.....what was with that dude who capped all the Nazis that were held prisoner? Anybody get that. I think he was a Lt. from another company.

grunter

Since "Easy Company" isn't a person, it really can't be considered the series "protagonist." It's much more difficult to identify with a "regiment" (or whatever this military subdivision is more properly called) than with an individual of that group that "personifies" that whole. "Band of Brothers" just didn't have that symbolic personification anywhere in its script.

You can make all the abstract arguments that you want trying to build that faceless mass of grunts into an involving character - but the premiere episode failed to do even that.

Without the draw of that charismatic (or anti-charismatic) person/protagonist, there's no way you can feel any emotional impact whatsoever. That's why "Band of Brothers" feels disconnected and confused. No one has been introduced as of yet that makes the audience feel anything - good or bad.

I guess what I'm getting to is this: because I don't know these characters - AT ALL - I don't care what happens to them - AT ALL.

palebluedot

I see some of your points grunter but I have to disagree with most of them.

I am usually pretty critical about movies and very critical about TV series and I like this one very much. I immediately cared about the characters becuase I know how I would feel if I was in their situation.

The main plot point is the "brotherhood" formed by the soldiers of Easy company and we are just on the cusp of that and it will develop as the series moves on. . The war, IMO, is secondary to that plot point.

So far the acting has been very good, the dialogue is good and the characters are believeable. Personally I can't be too critical until the final episode and review it as a whole.

I guess I would say to give it the rest of it's 8 hours to develop the "protagonist" and story. You have to think of this as a 10 hour movie...not everything is going to happen in the first 2 hours. My hope is that as it progresses we will get a glimpse into more of the main character's persona and history.

bdshort

If I had to pick out a main character, it would be Lt. Winters. He definitely had the most screen time.


I completely disagree about this being FX first story later though. Even though I didnt know who everyone was, I was still drawn in, even in the first episode. In the few reviews I've read, they all say that you will get to know the characters a lot more as the series moves on.


BTW, just from watching the show, I got the impression that Capt. Sobol was transfered because he was inept at actually leading men in combat. Many of the soldiers in E Company actually credit their survival of the war to Sobol, because he was such a hardass, and united the men under him in their hate of him.

grunter

Actually I guess I just don't see how one could conceivably look at this as a 10 hour movie. That's not even feasible or possible (disregarding freakshow stunt-films like Warhol's "Sleep") in the world of modern commercial filmmaking. It's silly to suggest that only a digestion of the whole 10 hour marathon is the proper way for a viewer to asses the piece, since this is not even the way the material is being presented. "Band of Brothers" comes in one hour chunks, spread over 10 weeks. Would it be too much to ask that each of those chunks be intelligible and engrossing - maybe, oh I dunno, AT THE SAME TIME?

It'd be nice if something happened in the first two hours. Something identifiable and meaningful that drew me into the conflict - into the harrowing reality of these soldiers. Right now I have nothing to go into the third installment with - no questions that need answering, no loyalties, no sense of comaraderie, no loves, no hates, nothing, absolutely nothing. Those soldiers are complete cyphers to me.

Without the cribbing of one of the other posters on this thread, I wouldn't even know that any of these men had names.

And if that were the point of the series - cue the baritone announcer reciting the line: "these men who died were many and nameless" - then I guess I wouldn't be so up in arms over the seemingly complete disregard for traditional story structure. But I know - from the rah-rah flag-waving promos - that Speilberg and Hanks are going for something more than that - for a patriotic version of "Brian's Song" or the tearful "Pearl Harbor" trailer spread out over 10 hours - this time with substance.

But that substance is what's missing - again. For me to wade 2 or more further hours into this mini-series before becoming emotionally connected to the material seems like a complete waste of time. That's just asking too much.

RolloTomasi

If you don't like the show, that's perfectly understandable. Obviously the show isn't for everyone. Personally, I don't think you have to have a personal emotional stake in a singular protagonist to be engrossed in a story that by its very nature is a large conflict. Pearl Harbor tried to do that, and Bay's heavy-handedness with the story made it sink like a lead weight. On the other hand, Tora! Tora! Tora! is perhaps the quintessential of an emotionally detached war film, and it still is very entertaining and engrossing. Yes, Band of Brothers is not very emotionally intimate, there is a sense of detachment - but then, that's what war does. That scene with the captured Nazi soldiers at the rendezvous point is a perfect example. We see some limited contact between enemies that's almost comfortable and conversational in tone. But just as quickly, we're pulled out and reminded that they're fighting a war, and death comes quickly and unexpectedly.

And yes, I believe you do have to look at the series as a whole. I know very few people who read entire books in one sitting; they always read sections at a time. Yet no one demands that books be reviewed on a chapter-by-chapter. If the first two hours of this story were too slow for you (they weren't for me, and for many other people), then obviously this material does not interest you, and you won't be participating in this discussion any further.

grunter

Books and film are two completely separate mediums and should not be compared one against the other. And if there is some debate over whether the "book version" of a story is better than the "adapted film version, invariably the Luddites will pipe up with their "the book is always, always, always better than the movie" refrain. It's incredibly tiresome and predictable.

But I must say that's quite a credo you have there:

"If you don't like it, get out."

Thanks for sharing.

RolloTomasi

I was thinking of sticking a smiley in there, but I thought it would just lower the credibility of my post. Here it is, albeit a bilt late:

The sentiment of my last statement was that if you're not going to continue to watch the show, you probably wouldn't have any reason to continue discussing the show...

grunter

It's not that the subject matter is uninteresting to me or that the tale as presented was somehow too "slow." On the contrary, I'm very much interested in the subject matter and am appalled that the producers of the mini-series would foist installments on the public WITHOUT ACTUALLY WRITING A STORY.

Sure you can say that this was the way the incident played out and that the creators were only transcribing history and "being true" to the real-life events. But you still have to tell an audience a STORY. Cripes, even chock-a-block WWII filler programs on the History Channel fashion history into a story - whether it be about storming the beaches of Normandy or recounting the daily activities of Hitler's pedicurist.

"Band of Brothers" isn't a story. It's a war pastiche in film form. That's what I got last night. HBO's promotional materials were incredibly misleading with respect to this project. More so than usual - I would argue.

It may not mean that the rest of the series is this way -- but that first installment doesn't exactly instill confidence that a story will eventually work its way out of the mush.

mee2

Give it a few more episodes, if it's still lacking by the 5th installment then you can lose all hope whatsoever.

Kal-El

Not so sure of the spellings but here goes:

Malarki - Scott Grimes
Sobel - Scwhimmer
Winters - the Lt.
Dixon - forgot who he was
Liebgot - Donnie Wahlberg of NKOTB
Picante - small Italian guy who didn't want to run
Garnier - the one that was called "gonnorhea" sometimes.
Hall - the guy from Abel company who got killed during the raid
Major Horton - the C.O. one of the privates imitated in the field.

to name a few. It's called paying attention.