Band of Brothers

I know many here enjoyed, if that is the right word, the Band of Brothers
series.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12158637 reports that the man who
was the inspiration for the lead character, Major Richard Winters, died on
Jan 2nd. He was 92 so no great sadness, but a notable event.

 

I dunno. I was quite saddened at his passing but from the viewpoint
that he was, due to the way he was portrayed, the epitome of the
American soldier in WWII. I've always wondered why only the Americans
had to single out one man as being the representative of the US Army
and no other country did this for WWII.

 

It was one television show, ffs. Heroes are mandatory. There are
thousands of other American portrayals of WWII that have many other
heroes, viewpoints, etc. For example, Clint Eastwood's Letters From
Iwo Jima. In fact, Any American war movie that singles out one man as
the epitome of an American soldier is a rarity. BoB showed the entire
Company as unique invaluable individuals. Saving Private Ryan,
Inglourious Basterds, The Great Escape, The Best Years Of Our Lives,
The Dirty Dozen, The Longest Day... none has an epitomical American
soldier.

 

So nominations?

Patrick Dalziel-Job...

 

Thomas wibbled forthrightly:

I think you're wrong. Whilst the film [1] was very well made, it wasn't
that that brought Winters and Easy Co. to the forefront of the history
of the American soldier in WWII. Ambrose did an excellent job of
collating the oral histories of the 101 and specifically Easy Co.
Consequently the the most respected and charismatic Co. Commander was
thrust into the limelight and as I said, became the epitome of the
American Soldier in WWII.

I'm not putting down his bravery on D-Day and I've got tremendous
respect for him. He led an attack on a German battery, amongst other
things, for which he was presented with the DSC. If he's not being cast
as "The American Hero" in WWII, D-Day or whenever, why are people
asking for his medal to be upgraded to the Congressional Medal of
Hono(u)r? I don't think that even Winters believed he was worthy
(although he was a humble man) of such an accolade.

BoB was based on real people, with real stories, with a focus on
Winters. None of the films you mentioned above have been based on real
people where they've been made into heroes to the same extent as
Winters.

[1] I tend to be more interested in books than films, when it comes to
history.

 

Monty for the Army & Bader for the RAF were the names I heard as a kid.

2 generations on I suppose, being British we are more likely to remember
the inventors & scientists with Barnes Wallace, Turing and RJ Mitchell more
likely to be remembered than the military types. The same thing will happen
if you ask people to name famous 19th century types: they'll name IK Brunel
& George Stephenson before they name Wellington.

 

You may be right about that one movie, but it's not a generic truth. I
didn't see BoB when it first came out, but it was shown again
recently. I watched the last 2 chapters. It is well done. I'm pretty
sure all the flak over Winters is purely because of the PR campaign
for the movie. At the end of the movie, when they interviewed the
surviving members, it didn't seem to me they were glorifying Winters
that much, BICBW.

Certainly, American movies tend towards the singular hero, (especially
when compared to say, commie proletarian ensemble movies,) but I don't
think you can find a theme in Yank war movies about a prototypical
soldier. If anything, it's more common to see references to a wide
variety of people stepping up to heroic actions.

IINM, Saving Private Ryan and The Great Escape were based on real
people.

 

Istr The Longest Day was too. Unless they made it all up.

 

I know that both the above films were based on real people/events, but they
didn't bring out the "Hero" in any of the characters portrayed to such a large
extent as BoB. You could very well be right in saying that it could all be down
to marketing and maybe it's down to that. Stephen Ambrose did a damn good job
of bringing Easy Co to the forefront before Hanks et al took over though.

 

Heh. I'm pretty familiar as to what war films are based on fact, which ones
are purely fiction. IIRC, the longest day was one of the only films where they
actually used lots of actors who had participated on D-Day.

 

The best thing about BoB was finding out that David Schwimmer could
actually act ...

Paul.

 

Agreed, the character he was playing came across as a real knob. Totally
unlike in Friends, where he played an ordinary knob.

 

<slap>

 

<VBG>

 

You can manage a big grin? In this time, your Winters of discontent?

 

Mike & Bernie?

 

Schnorbitz!

 

<g>

True, but it was a valid point on my part. I thought (and still do
largely) that Friends was execrable, and can't for the life of me
fathom why it was and continues to be so popular.

Paul.

 

'Jennifer Aniston'.

HTH.
--
des
'... when the terrorist attack on the Maxim restaurant in Haifa [in
2003] occurred. The next day I noticed that both the European and
American media failed to report about the victims and I asked myself
why is it that Israeli victims of terror disappear so quickly'
(Giulio Meotti)
<http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/>

 

I've always preferred Courtney Cox.

She was certainly the only reason to watch "3000 Miles to Graceland"
the other night.