Easy Company Medic Eugene Roe

The Nelson Mail - Oct. 12, 2001

Easy Company Medic Eugene Roe: Band Of Brothers in the News: The Nelson Mail - Oct. 12, 2001

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By Chrisdfw (Chrisdfw) (209.245.239.163 - 209.245.239.163) on Saturday, October 13, 2001 - 12:09 pm:

Don't mention the British ...

By Ric Stevens, The Nelson Mail
10/12/2001

The war drama Band of Brothers has shown yet again that the Americans-- and not the British-- now lead the world when it comes to high-impact, high-quality television drama.

But there is a price to pay, for those of us out here on the fringes of the Western world, particularly when it comes to historical events-- a peculiarly Americocentric view of things.

In Band of Brothers (continuing on Wednesday nights on TV One), it can be seen in the American producers' refusal to acknowledge that any other country might have made a contribution to the invasion of Europe in June 1944.

It is the most disappointing thing about this hugely expensive series, based on the real-life experiences of Easy Company, a bunch of paratroopers that fought its way across Europe after D-Day.

The characters of Easy Company are fully rounded, as much as they can be in the extreme conditions of the battlefield. But other friends and foes alike get the once-over treatment.

Put the evils of the Nazi regime aside, and the Americans' Wehrmacht opponents were, for the most part, ordinary soldiers like themselves-- with parents, siblings, wives and children. In Band of Brothers, they are reduced largely to anonymous-- often faceless-- grey shapes.

There are exceptions, but they are mainly dead. The only German soldier so far with a substantial speaking part turned out to be an American-born quisling, and he didn't last long either.

As for America's allies...what allies?

Band of Brothers, produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, shares the American one-eyedness that marked Spielberg's otherwise brilliant movie Saving Private Ryan, in which Hanks starred.

The British, when seen at all (and briefly), are stereotypical. The drama details the American invasion of Normandy, but the simultaneous British and Canadian landings don't even rate a mention.

This was predictable, especially in an American series narrowly focused on the story of one unit's war, based on a book drawn from the survivors' memories.

The title is from Shakespeare-- from Henry V's rousing speech to the outnumbered English before their victory at the Battle of Agincourt. The language of that speech is heroic, glorious even. Its message is that if you're not on the battlefield, you should hold your manhood cheaply.

So, does Band of Brothers glorify war?

On that question, the jury is still out. All we can say at this stage is that it certainly glorifies martial qualities-- courage, strength, determination, devotion to your fellow man (provided he's on the same side).

As for the rest, we are presented with a high-impact, ultra-realistic, ultimately shocking depiction of battle-- so realistic, apparently, that the camera crew at times instinctively dived for cover.

The battle scenes are done in the minutest detail. All war films have rifles that go bang. Spielberg does it with a bang and a tinkle, taking care to include the sight and sound of ejected shell casings.

Strangely, however, there doesn't seem to be enough blood, given the severity of the wounds on display.

Generally, the fighting is given similar treatment to the visceral opening sequence of Private Ryan, which was interpreted by some as being an anti-war film because of the realism involved.

This is more honest than the traditional style of patriotic war movie, which owes more to the black-and-white values of the western than to the actual experience of the battlefield.

Already in Band of Brothers, the story has included American troops commiting a war crime (machine-gunning German prisoners) and looting dead bodies, so there is at least an intention to tell things as they might really have been.

By wxsfpeganoh (142.227.61.61) on Friday, March 12, 2010 - 03:46 am: