VANITY: "Band of Brothers" now on "History"...same week as Ken Burns' "The War"

The History Channel ^ | 9-29-07 | History Channel

[VOA]

"Band of Brothers" is airing now (Saturday, 12:30PM Central) on
The History Channel.

Interesting that it should air on the weekend following the
airing of the first four parts of Ken Burns'/PBS's "The War".

Opinions about the relative merits of the two WWII-ear shows are welcome.
ee following posts for URLs for the discussion threads for
Parts 1-4 of "The War".

[carton253]

Have seen it twice. Fantastic movie. I think Saving Private Ryan was excellent as well.

[Argus]

the Russian front

There was an excellent British-made series a few years back called Stalin's War or Russia's War, something like that. Available on DVD.

[VOA]

I remember watching the first run of BAND OF BROTHERS on HBO the
week of 9/11/01.

I was in West Los Angeles at the time...without cable.
What was wild was (IIRC) a WEEK without commercials on all the
channels.
(Of course KCET, the local PBS superstation had plenty of
their "Why Do They Hate Us" and "We Had It Coming" type of commentary.
Seeing how they don't have to sell advertizing to survive,
they can engage in all sorts of fantastical, ANTI-reality thinking)

And more American flags on houses, cars and bidnesses than I
thought possible. In this left-wing, left-coast enclave.

[Constitution Day]

My arm for a World War 2 drama that doesn’t focus on Hitler, the Holocaust, or the 101st Airborne.

Hear, hear!

My grandfather was with the 97th Bomb Group in Algeria, Tunisia, Sicily and Italy. Thank goodness I have his war diary, some books on those campaigns, and his memories written down.

[Argus]

That Friday after the memorial service and Bush’s visit to Ground Zero, people started letting their anger out. We drove down Ventura Blvd, folks were all out in the street waving flags and making noise and it was like the greatest spontaneous demonstration of righteous patriotic wrath I’ve ever seen.

If only it had lasted.

[VOA]

Thanks for all your efforts in bringing this forward with discussion
opportunities. Appreciate it.

You are too kind. The real thanks go to Jim Robinson.

I have selfish motivations. When the "younguns" in my extended family
are talking about seeing "The War" in class in less than a
decade, I want to be able to intelligently discuss the positive,
negative and neutral aspects of "The War".
Seeing how it will likely become THE reference work on WWII used
by public school teachers.
(AND too many PRIVATE SCHOOL teachers!)

[Kirkwood]

I was expecting the Ken Burn’s film to be more filled with historicsl information. Instead it is more about the thoughts and feelings of the people who lived during that time. I will say that I was impressed to see so much new photography that I had never seen before. It looks like a lot of it was cleaned up to give some superb images.

[VOA]

We drove down Ventura Blvd, folks were all out in the street waving
flags and making noise and it was like the greatest spontaneous
demonstration of righteous patriotic wrath I’ve ever seen.

If only it had lasted.

Sometimes, I almost try not to think about seeing all the flags
adorning business and homes in my old "hood" along Wilshire/San Vicente.

Because I do get bummed about the transitory nature of the open
display of that sort of sentiment.

[fkabuckeyesrule]

AMC is showing The Longest Day. They are re-airing it tomorrow morning at 7AM.

[ex-snook]

"I want to be able to intelligently discuss the positive, negative and neutral aspects of "The War". "

Great thought. I saw all of Band but only portions of War so far [I'm taping]. Overall I would say so far so good but for one matter. He has grafted the 'my group' mentality of today on the WW II era when he should have characterized it [in my limited experience] more by unity than diversity. At least on the front lines, we didn't recognize nationalities of troops.

[billorites]

"The real thanks go to Jim Robinson."

Probably the single human being most accountable, responsible if you will,
for the presence of African-Americans in Major League Baseball today.

[VOA]

Instead it is more about the thoughts and feelings of the people
who lived during that time.

Agreed.
It is almost more of an "atmospheric" documentary.
And Burns has done a good job of that.
My only gripe is that his commnetary on the inequities of American life
(for blacks, Japanese-Americans, and other minorities) could have
been well-done and with more impact by using about half as much airtime.
I get the feeling Burns hasn't had a child in public schools in
the last 20 years.
That's one possible explanation for him spending so much time
flogging these inglorious chapters of American History...that
now are a fair chunk of regular study plans. I bet some 10 year-olds
watching "The War" are saying "ENOUGH ALREADY"..."we've heard about this
in 10 hours of our history classes".

I will say that I was impressed to see so much new photography that
I had never seen before. It looks like a lot of it was cleaned up
to give some superb images.
Some of the footage has been great, the remainder very good.
Those night-time scenes in North Africa lit by bursting bombs still
make for great film.

[VOA]

AMC is showing The Longest Day. They are re-airing it tomorrow morning at 7AM.

Well, I guess some programmers at The History Channel and AMC
figured there would be enough folks that would like to see a bit
of a contrast to "The War".

I'm not ragging on Burns' work...only trying to post my "first impression"
take on what I see as postive, neutral or negative.
And it helps to see how "The War" strikes other viewers.

No such thing as an "objective viewer"...except for cameras and
videocams!

[VOA]

thanks to all posters for commentary...
now it back to watching “Band of Brothers”!

[MrEdd]

Send arm to P.O. Box....

[Yorlik803]

The Hurtgen Forest would be a good one.
“When Trumpets Fade” was the only movie I know of that was made of it and the 28th Inf (AKA the bloody bucket}.
The Italian front is largly ignored. Maybe it is because of the ass kicking we took trying to take Monte Casino.

[PAR35]

My arm for a World War 2 drama that doesn’t focus on Hitler, the Holocaust, or the 101st Airborne.

Big Red 1. Hell is for Heros. Midway. 30 Seconds Over Tokyo. Wake Island (perhaps the best American propaganda film ever made).

I left off two that mention the 101, and thus wouldn't meet your standards - The Longest Day and A Bridge Too Far.

[SuziQ]

Apples and Oranges. "Band of Brothers" concentrated on a group of paratroopers, following their training, through their D-Day landings, and beyond to the end of the War. Other battles and events were mentioned as they related to this group of men.

Burns's documentary concentrates on four towns, their sons who went off to war, and the townspeople left behind. Along the way, he mentions the battles fought by the soldiers from those towns, and a few other events, as they intersect with the soldiers. He spends time talking about the Japanese Internment because it relates to some of the soldiers' families. One thing I learned that was fascinating, was that the Japanese in Hawaii were never rounded up and put in camps, only the ones on the West Coast. He also mentions the changes in racial situations brought on because of the black men who volunteered to serve in the Armed Forces, and black men and women working at home in Defense related industries.

It is not supposed to be a documentary just about battles and soldiers, but more about how the country was affected by the War.

[Deb]

It will be interesting to see if, in Burns’ world, we win. If so, I bet his focus is on the horrible traffic jam in Times Square.

[SuziQ]

Well WE weren't involved on the Russian Front and D-Day was quite an important event. Ken Burns spent quite a while on the North African and Italian campaigns. In fact, a friend's father was driving the Jeep just in front of FDR's, when he visited North Africa, and he told all his family to watch for him! He was only 22 at the time, and my friend said that was so special to see him in the film.

Also, Burns spent quite a bit of time on the Pacific theater, as well, since at least one of the soldiers featured was on the Bataan Death March, and later was sent to Japan as slave labor, and others were Marines who fought on Guadalcanal, Tarawa, and Saipan. I wonder how many Americans learned for the first time, from this documentary, about the mass suicides of Japanese citizens on Saipan as the American soldiers were begging them not to jump off the cliffs? I only learned about that several years ago, when I read Tom Clancy's "Debt of Honor"!

It has been a very good series; different than most WWII series I've seen, and that's fine. It's good to see what went on at home with the families waiting to hear about their loved ones. It's a good contrast to today's military, where soldiers can call or e-mail their families faily often, but in WWII, it was sometimes weeks or months, or in the case of the soldier on Bataan, YEARS, before their families heard from them.