More rambling about Band of Brothers
Nov. 13th, 2005 04:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
amari_zI wrote this last week on the train back from D.C. and also forgot about it. Absent minded? Me? I misplace half my supposed journal entries that way.
I’ve been reading Steven Ambrose’s book Band of Brothers after having watched the HBO miniseries. It’s interesting, but not quite what I had expected after seeing the miniseries.
One, it assumes knowledge of or indifference to some of the military terms it uses, as well as of the overall military structure. I realize that there are a lot of people out there who know a lot about the U.S. military, but I’m not one of them. I probably know more about military matters in classical times and the middle ages than I do about the World War II military (not to say I know that much about the two former). I had hoped the book would explain more. Overall, though, it’s a relatively minor quibble.
I was most interested in seeing how the book fleshed out the stories told in the miniseries, and it does and it doesn’t. It was good to see that some of the miniseries dialogue was taken verbatim from what people are actually quoted as having said. (Although I didn’t see any reference to Winter’s archetypical line in the miniseries, uttered as the company marches into Bastogne while other U.S. troops are retreating from the area (“We’re paratroopers, Lieutenant, we’re suppose to be surrounded”).) Parts of the miniseries don’t seem to be narrated in the book, or at least not in any detail, and I wonder if the screenwriters made those things up—although I hope they reflect further interviews the filmmakers had with the real people involved. It seems possible that could be the case, since clearly the film makers were speaking to some of the real people they were portraying. I confess, though, that I can barely follow some of the military engagements described in the book. It is partially that I don’t necessarily understand the military terms, but also that I’m not very good at figuring out visual descriptions. I had a hard time following some of the action in the miniseries as well, but for different reasons. More maps or diagrams would have been nice.
I actually got interested in watching the miniseries when I caught part of the episode on Bastogne on TV. That episode takes place when the company is participating in the Battle of the Bulge, and is surrounded by the Germany army at the end of 1944. The troops have been transported there in great haste after Hitler’s surprise offensive and are ill-equipped—they have little ammunition and no winter clothes. The episode follows one of the company medics, Gene Roe. I found this episode incredibly moving--watching Roe’s efforts to take care of his fellows as best he can in the terrible conditions, as well his own struggles with his role as a medic. After watching it and before getting the book, I was reading a WWII historian’s online commentary about the miniseries which complained a bit about the Bastogne episode, saying that it was an example of how Hollywood could devote a whole episode to a person barely mentioned in the book. I was disappointed to read that, wondering if it had been mostly made up. I was happy to read the following paragraph in the book:
Regardless of how much of Roe’s experiences were based on truth and how much was written as an example of what a combat medic might have experienced, it hardly seems worthy of complaining about—it’s likely that whoever wrote the screenplay started out having read this paragraph. This episode is my favorite of the series.
[It also reminded me a bit of the main character in Ha Jin’s recent book War Trash, which is about the Korean War. There, the main character who had fought for the Chinese in the war and spent most of the war as a POW, now an old man, is trying to encourage his young American-born grandson to become a doctor. He is told not to pressure the boy by his son and American daughter-in-law. The character explains:
Later, as the character narrates his experiences in the war, we see how this opinion was formed, when as a POW he was treated by an American woman doctor. Of course, there isn’t really a direct parallel, since the E Co. medics were combat medics, and I seriously doubt they treated German wounded. [11/19 edit: Apparently, I'm wrong about this--a medic would help an enemy soldier who was wounded. There's no mention of this in Ambrose's book, but an anecdote from Paul Fussell's The Boy's Crusade, which I'm now reading, describes such a situation. I suppose it makes sense considering the Geneva Convention (although these days it’s easy to forget that our government actually signed the thing).]]
One last note on BofB--I haven’t finished the book, but I skipped ahead and read the last chapter (a bad habit of mine), which describes the post-war lives of the company. The miniseries did something similar, but in much less detail. I don’t recall, however, that the miniseries mentioned the fate of Sobel, E Co.’s original commanding officer, who was hated by everyone and portrayed as a petty tyrant as well as an incompetent combat leader. You last see him in the miniseries (played by an amazingly good David Schwimmer, whom I admit I had never taken seriously before) when he is forced to salute Winters, who is now a major and outranks him. (There’s satisfaction in seeing that, but it seemed an out of character act for Winters to make a point of forcing it—I haven’t reached that part of the book yet to know if it’s based on a real event.) I admit, watching the portrayal of Sobel, I wondered if he or his family were watching the series and how horrible it must have made them feel. I also wondered how much of his awfulness was shown out of a desire to create dramatic tension--but the book bears out that he really was much-hated, to the point to the men under his command "joked" about how long he'd live once they entered combat (meaning that one of them might shoot him given the chance). It turns out that Sobel had a very unhappy life after the war and later had a mental break down (he apparently virulently hated E Co. the rest of his life) and died after a botched suicide attempt before the book was published, much less the miniseries produced, and so never saw it.
I hate winter, not because of the cold (when it actually is cold), but because the days are so short. It's only 4:30 and it feels like the day is over, and it was a lovely day. (I also hate that I can't fully enjoy having unseasonably nice weather, since I keep thinking about global warming.)
I’ve been reading Steven Ambrose’s book Band of Brothers after having watched the HBO miniseries. It’s interesting, but not quite what I had expected after seeing the miniseries.
One, it assumes knowledge of or indifference to some of the military terms it uses, as well as of the overall military structure. I realize that there are a lot of people out there who know a lot about the U.S. military, but I’m not one of them. I probably know more about military matters in classical times and the middle ages than I do about the World War II military (not to say I know that much about the two former). I had hoped the book would explain more. Overall, though, it’s a relatively minor quibble.
I was most interested in seeing how the book fleshed out the stories told in the miniseries, and it does and it doesn’t. It was good to see that some of the miniseries dialogue was taken verbatim from what people are actually quoted as having said. (Although I didn’t see any reference to Winter’s archetypical line in the miniseries, uttered as the company marches into Bastogne while other U.S. troops are retreating from the area (“We’re paratroopers, Lieutenant, we’re suppose to be surrounded”).) Parts of the miniseries don’t seem to be narrated in the book, or at least not in any detail, and I wonder if the screenwriters made those things up—although I hope they reflect further interviews the filmmakers had with the real people involved. It seems possible that could be the case, since clearly the film makers were speaking to some of the real people they were portraying. I confess, though, that I can barely follow some of the military engagements described in the book. It is partially that I don’t necessarily understand the military terms, but also that I’m not very good at figuring out visual descriptions. I had a hard time following some of the action in the miniseries as well, but for different reasons. More maps or diagrams would have been nice.
I actually got interested in watching the miniseries when I caught part of the episode on Bastogne on TV. That episode takes place when the company is participating in the Battle of the Bulge, and is surrounded by the Germany army at the end of 1944. The troops have been transported there in great haste after Hitler’s surprise offensive and are ill-equipped—they have little ammunition and no winter clothes. The episode follows one of the company medics, Gene Roe. I found this episode incredibly moving--watching Roe’s efforts to take care of his fellows as best he can in the terrible conditions, as well his own struggles with his role as a medic. After watching it and before getting the book, I was reading a WWII historian’s online commentary about the miniseries which complained a bit about the Bastogne episode, saying that it was an example of how Hollywood could devote a whole episode to a person barely mentioned in the book. I was disappointed to read that, wondering if it had been mostly made up. I was happy to read the following paragraph in the book:
The medics were the most popular, the most respected and appreciated men in the company. Their weapons were first-aid kits, their place on the line was wherever a man called out that he was wounded. Lieutenant Foley had special praise for Pvt. Eugene Roe. “He was there when he was needed, and how he got ‘there’ you often wondered. He never received recognition for his bravery, his heroic servicing of the wounded. I recommended him for a Silver Star after a devastating firefight when his exploit was were typically outstanding. Maybe I didn’t use the proper words and phrases, perhaps Lieutenant Dike didn’t approve, or somewhere along the line it was cast aside. I don’t know. I never knew except that if any man who struggled in the snow and the cold, in the many attacks through the open and through the woods, ever deserved such a medal, it was our medic, Gene Roe.”
Regardless of how much of Roe’s experiences were based on truth and how much was written as an example of what a combat medic might have experienced, it hardly seems worthy of complaining about—it’s likely that whoever wrote the screenplay started out having read this paragraph. This episode is my favorite of the series.
[It also reminded me a bit of the main character in Ha Jin’s recent book War Trash, which is about the Korean War. There, the main character who had fought for the Chinese in the war and spent most of the war as a POW, now an old man, is trying to encourage his young American-born grandson to become a doctor. He is told not to pressure the boy by his son and American daughter-in-law. The character explains:
So I shut up. They probably think I’m greedy, eager to see my grandson wallow in wealth. But my wish has nothing to do with money. From the depths of my heart I believe medicine is a noble, humane profession. If I was born again, I would study medical science devotedly. The thought has been rooted in my mind for five decades . . . . In brief, this desire of mine has been bred by my memories of the wasted lives I saw in Korea and China. Doctors and nurses follow a different set of ethics, which enables them to transcend political nonsense and man-made enmity and to act with compassion and human decency.
Later, as the character narrates his experiences in the war, we see how this opinion was formed, when as a POW he was treated by an American woman doctor. Of course, there isn’t really a direct parallel, since the E Co. medics were combat medics, and I seriously doubt they treated German wounded. [11/19 edit: Apparently, I'm wrong about this--a medic would help an enemy soldier who was wounded. There's no mention of this in Ambrose's book, but an anecdote from Paul Fussell's The Boy's Crusade, which I'm now reading, describes such a situation. I suppose it makes sense considering the Geneva Convention (although these days it’s easy to forget that our government actually signed the thing).]]
One last note on BofB--I haven’t finished the book, but I skipped ahead and read the last chapter (a bad habit of mine), which describes the post-war lives of the company. The miniseries did something similar, but in much less detail. I don’t recall, however, that the miniseries mentioned the fate of Sobel, E Co.’s original commanding officer, who was hated by everyone and portrayed as a petty tyrant as well as an incompetent combat leader. You last see him in the miniseries (played by an amazingly good David Schwimmer, whom I admit I had never taken seriously before) when he is forced to salute Winters, who is now a major and outranks him. (There’s satisfaction in seeing that, but it seemed an out of character act for Winters to make a point of forcing it—I haven’t reached that part of the book yet to know if it’s based on a real event.) I admit, watching the portrayal of Sobel, I wondered if he or his family were watching the series and how horrible it must have made them feel. I also wondered how much of his awfulness was shown out of a desire to create dramatic tension--but the book bears out that he really was much-hated, to the point to the men under his command "joked" about how long he'd live once they entered combat (meaning that one of them might shoot him given the chance). It turns out that Sobel had a very unhappy life after the war and later had a mental break down (he apparently virulently hated E Co. the rest of his life) and died after a botched suicide attempt before the book was published, much less the miniseries produced, and so never saw it.
I hate winter, not because of the cold (when it actually is cold), but because the days are so short. It's only 4:30 and it feels like the day is over, and it was a lovely day. (I also hate that I can't fully enjoy having unseasonably nice weather, since I keep thinking about global warming.)
