The first five episodes will be repeated on HBO tonight, starting at 8PM Eastern.
Oh, and I loved the end of ep. 5, “We’re paratroopers, sir. We’re supposed to be surrounded.”
This is the Battle of the Bulge, right?
Patton is making military history moving his army to the rescue in some very difficult manuver; Some USA commander is going to say “Nuts!” when the Germans ask him to surrender; Germans are running around dressed as Americans changing road signs.
I met a couple of guys who were there. One found a bunch of GIs sitting on the bodies of Germans, because you would literally freeze your butt off if you sat on the ground.
They said to him, “Hey, Sarge. Pull up a Kraut and sit down.”
Another guy was taken prisoner. The Germans switched guards and took off when it became apparent that they would lose. The new German officer let the GIs go off to pee and didn’t look for them. Their USA rescuers gave tommy guns to some of the guys and let them kill some of the German guards who had been particularly viscious.
OK, so I have finally been able to watch “Crossroads” on the PVR. My thoughts:
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This is one of the best episodes since “Day of Days”. Who knew Tom Hanks could direct so well? The previous two episodes suffered because of a lack of focus on Lt/Captain Winters, who IMO is the center of the show. This episode was almost exclusively about Winters, about his dual life as an Army bureaucrat filling out endless reports and a battle-hardened soldier.
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The last scenes looked COLD.
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Ron Livingston’s character, the alcoholic Nickson, functions almost as comic relief for Winters.
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Anyone else think Operation Pegasus, the rescue of the British ‘Red Devils’, was anticlimatic? Jeez, they show up with a bunch of boats, they bring the British over the river that the British colonel had swum in the night before, no shots fired, nothing. Maybe the book adds more information–BUT DON’T TELL ME, I’m going to read it after the series is over.
… the “nod” to the volleyball “Wilson” from Hanks’ Castaway? It was in the scene where they transported one of the troops in the ambulance. The Medic slapped his bloody hand against the rear window.
Don’t know if it was intentional, but when I saw that, I thought, “Hey! It’s Wilson!”
Quasi
They were volunteers.
I watched the first 2 episodes, then got the book and stopped watching because i wanted to read it first. Now I’m reading the chapters during the week that deal with the next show. I missed 3-6. Hopefully they will be on DVD soon.
I didn’t realize Lipton was Donnie Wahlberg until my wife pionted it out to me. In the book they have some pictures. Ron Livingstone looks just like his character, Nixon. They show a picture of him drunk in bed.
This really is TV at it’s best. Kudos to HBO and all those involved.
Now that we’re past episode 7, this should come into more clarity. Still no focus on heroes or individuals, and this is obviously a deliberate choice. We’ve seen different episodes focusing on different soldiers, and then they fade into the background, reappearing at various points.
I recall reading a review (salon.com I think) by someone who had seen the whole series and commented on this. He said the aversion to a central figure makes the viewers focus on the group as a whole. He had a whole logic behind the way it’s being presented, he said it better than I could so I won’t even try. But I think you get the idea.
Anyway, tonight I had a shock, just after the show they had a clip from a documentary about the 101st that will run on Veteran’s Day (what do you want to bet it will be accompanied by a marathon of all 10 episodes?) and it had a clip with one of the same men who did the interviews at the beginning of each BoB episode. I thought these guys were just random 101st vets, since their comments were fairly generic. But now, one of the vets was identified by a name, it was Guarniere! I guess the opening remarks are by the real guys being depicted in the show. I had no idea.
IANAFF (Friends Fan) so I’d never seen this actor before. I thought he did a fine job as Sobel - exactly the ambitious martinet depicted in Ambrose’s book.
The BBC has just shown episode 4, so we’re a bit behind over here :). The series has been excellent so far. (They’ve even got the tanks right; no M60s painted grey, but real Cromwells & Shermans, and spot-the-difference realistic replicas of the Germans tanks. Oops…erm “[trainspotter] [/trainspotter]”)
Did you know that the actor playing Richard Winters is English? How’s his accent?
So that’s why his teeth are so bad 
Before watching I questioned Schwimmer’s choice. I figured it was just an attempt to get a star in there. Then when I read the book and saw his portrayal it was dead on. He even looks like Sobel.
Potential Spoiler*
I hope I’m not giving anything away but there’s a point in the book where Sobel and Winters meet on a street. Sobel sees Winters and looks down adn keeps walking, without saluting. Winters says something like “We salute the rank, not the person” Sobel replies “Yes sir”. Winters said that was one of the most satisfying parts of the war.
I have read the book up to the material covered by last night’s episode (just like you’re doing), but I skipped ahead to the end, where it covers what happened to everyone after the war. And I actually felt pity for Sobel. In real life, his wartime experiences with Easy Company left him unbelievably embittered. He died of self-inflicted wounds in 1988 (I got the impression that he suffered for a few years until succumbing), and neither his ex-wife nor his two sons attended the funeral.
And I agree with the critical theory that Chas.E explained. In fact, that was exactly the theory that I was working on when my boss walked in.
There’s a write up on the show in Maxim. I’m sure it’s been mentioned in other stories.
There’s an ex marine named Dye who works with Hollywood when they use combat scenes. He worked on Platoon. He put these guys through 10 days of boot camp. I think he plays Sink in the show.
Here in England we are up to Arnhem - operation Market Garden. I have been pretty impressed so far. However my principle gripe is that there are only Americans in it!
The war involved a lot of other nationalities which appear to have been airbrushed out. So far the only British characters have been a "cockney with the worst English accent since Dick Van Dyke and an “upper class twit” cavalry officer in a tank.
I realise that it may be that this particular troop only ever fought alongside other American troops, but to see one of our worst days of the war reduced to a caption at the end of a show explaing that our Airbourne troops lost 8,000+ at Arnhem is a bit galling.
Incidentally I thought Ross from Friends was very good as Sobel.
Perhaps this is because this is the history of the 101st Airborne, an American unit.
Potential spoiler (for you limeys who are behind schedule)
There’s a scene where Easy Company rescues a large British commando group from across a river, using rubber boats. I thought it appeared in the Market Garden episode and you already would have seen it.
I met Dale Dye in a bar once. He is one intense and intimidating mofo. I got the feeling he was just itching for a fight to break out so he could kick the crap out of someone. And cause I’m a long hair I think I was probably on the short list of candidates. 
Except that Damian Lewis, who plays Winters, is English! Didn’t you see him the excellent drama “Warriors”?
Umm…the 101st fought around Son and Eindhoven - around 40 miles away from the 1st Airborne at Arnhem. It would really have been stretching it to bring the British paras into it.
(Didn’t see Dick van Dyke, but I thought the old English guy on the bike in episode one did fine with his comic line “Is that the enemy?” nodding at Sobel and his men.)
wolfman Nice story about Dale Dye. Here’s a BBC interview with him about BoB:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/films/2001/10/05/dale_dye_2001_1_interview.shtml?survey
Nope, that is the next episode, “Crossroads”, I believe.
And yes, there are only Americans in it; the show is not trying to minimize Great Britain’s sacrifices, just focusing on a group of Americans. Tell you what: since our two countries are allied together more tightly than we have been since WW2, I will use British spelling for the rest of this thread, to wit:
The colour in the city centre has fallen out of favour.
And Damien Winter’s accent is spot on.
What does Nixon actually do?
He just seems to be around when Winters is in a scene. Is he part of Intelligence or something?
Great show. Seems to be leading up to tragedy as the war winds down but they still have to fight.
Smashing, old boy!
Simply too ripping for words!
Nixon is an intelligence officer. I don’t know if it’s covered in the show but he was actually demoted because of his drinking problem. It wasn’t a big deal and he didn’t seem to mind. There’s a funny scene in the book at the end that I hope is on the show.
reading about the 101st finding a concentration camp in Germany (episode #9). Did I miss something or was this the show’s creative process?
If missed it in the book, it must have been when I was reading it on vacation in Sept while my wife shopped, and I ate about a half pound of maple walnut fudge. Maybe I had a sugar hallucination or something.