Band of Brothers

[HouTex 1,866]

No harm in repeating Shakespeare:

From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered;

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

[hornmpa96 2,618]

Watching We Stand Alone Together right now. It’s amazing to listen to these heroes discuss their service.

[MNLonghornFUKM 8,817]

That flag has seen some serious shit... and who the hell knows who’s hands have held it.

I’d get goosebumps even seeing it,none the less hanging it up on my gutter lol

[Sbbruin 21,829]

So I watched part 3-10 back to back all day.  While I love it so very much, it does leave me with a sense of inadequacy.  And the very end when the reveal the names of each of the actual Easy company, the line “Grandpa, were you a hero?  No, but I served in the company of a lot of them.” Hit me right in the gut.  God bless every single one them, or you, who served our nation.  I am forever in debt.

[Sbbruin 21,829]

I think I’m going to make this my Veteran’s Day tradition.  Watch BoB all day.  I still have the last 2 parts of The Pacific to watch.  It was good, but not nearly as good as BoB.  But those bad asses were every bit or more of what the European theater guys were.

[DougO 5,243]

Good idea, but Sgt. York is on TCM right now. It's always hard to resist.

[Chewbacca 7,766]

So I watched part 3-10 back to back all day.  While I love it so very much, it does leave me with a sense of inadequacy.  And the very end when the reveal the names of each of the actual Easy company, the line “Grandpa, were you a hero?  No, but I served in the company of a lot of them.” Hit me right in the gut.  God bless every single one them, or you, who served our nation.  I am forever in debt.

Watched the whole series over a rainy weekend with my 14 year old this summer. Such a great piece of work and a gut punch all at once. I'd love to believe i would have risen to the challenge like they did, but i will never know.

One of the best series ever made. Perhaps the best. I own it and watch it every year or so.

[Sbbruin 21,829]

Certainly the most powerful. I too wonder hi would have responded.  I think my younger self would have been full of the piss necessary to do it, but I could also have seen myself ending up in a straight jacket after Bastogne.  

[mininghorn88 2,277]

28 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

So I watched part 3-10 back to back all day.  While I love it so very much, it does leave me with a sense of inadequacy.  And the very end when the reveal the names of each of the actual Easy company, the line “Grandpa, were you a hero?  No, but I served in the company of a lot of them.” Hit me right in the gut.  God bless every single one them, or you, who served our nation.  I am forever in debt.

The following are pics of US GI's preparing to return home at the end of the War taken by my Great-Uncle.  When he gave me these photos he teared up.  After what seemed like an eternity, he finally was able to say, " We left a lot of good men over there."

It is getting misty in here just thinking about him and the others that serve(d).

Troops boarding a ship heading home.

Troops in Axem, Austria loading up.

 

[WhatTheBuck 28,775]

17 hours ago, oSuJeff97 said:

Woof. Yeah it's great, especially when Spears takes over, but man... when you watch the series for the first time, Bastogne/Breaking Point back-to-back was a rough watch.

I've gone back-and-forth over the years on my favorite episode, but I always come back to "Replacements" and "The Last Patrol."  There's something about the humanity of both of those episodes that I just love.... I think also, for whatever reason, I really identified with Webster and he was a key player in both of those episodes.

Yeah, the Bastogne part was really brutal but I think that's the point. It would have been a storytelling failure otherwise. It's brutal every time I watch it but it's such good, honest storytelling. Pretty hardcore. 

I view the series as a piece. Picking a favorite episode is like picking a favorite chapter out of a great novel. They're all connected and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. No one is going to pick the first episode as their favorite but it's foundational and makes every other episode better. Never skip it no matter how much you want to get to the action and dazzling visual effects of the D-Day invasion in episode 2. 

[Parliament 14,237]

The last 10 seconds here are my favorite in the series. Captain Winters watching his men walk straight into Hell.

[TwiceHorn 31,438]

59 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

Yeah, the Bastogne part was really brutal but I think that's the point. It would have been a storytelling failure otherwise. It's brutal every time I watch it but it's such good, honest storytelling. Pretty hardcore. 

I view the series as a piece. Picking a favorite episode is like picking a favorite chapter out of a great novel. They're all connected and the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. No one is going to pick the first episode as their favorite but it's foundational and makes every other episode better. Never skip it no matter how much you want to get to the action and dazzling visual effects of the D-Day invasion in episode 2. 

Yep.  As was wisely and I think accurately observed about The Wire, and the failure of the last two seasons of GoT, BoB is a "sociological" drama more than a character-driven drama.  It is thus best absorbed as a whole.

And that is one of the main distinctions between it and The Pacific, which was almost entirely character-driven.

Before the advent of online HBO and other services, I was like many on here and would marathon it on Memorial Day or Veterans Day and was always vaguely annoyed when I missed some of the eps at the beginning.  Now that I have seen it probably half a dozen times start to finish, I am OK with picking up an ep or two or three at a time.

Edited November 12, 2020 by TwiceHorn

[WhatTheBuck 28,775]

I have a suspicion that a lot of the popularity of The Pacific expressed here is from fans of Band of Brothers who think they're supposed to love The Pacific because they loved Band of Brothers. I thought it was a disappointment. And, speaking of episodes, the shore leave episode in The Pacific was a complete throwaway episode and contributed nothing to the overall story. I have no desire to watch The Pacific again but, if I did, I would skip that episode. That miniseries was a low budget knockoff that no one would have praised if it came out before Band of Brothers. 

That doesn't make the soldiers, sailors, and airmen depicted any less heroic. But seek out the documentary WWII in HD. Their real life footage and storytelling of the war in the Pacific is more compelling than The Pacific whose producers even had the advantage of CGI technology. 

[Parliament 14,237]

BoB was groundbreaking. The Pacific treaded the same ground but didn't improve on it. If The Pacific had come out before BoB, it would have gotten much of the praise BoB got instead. And we'd also say The Pacific is great but BoB is better.

And when is Tom Hanks gonna give us a Korean War miniseries already.

[mininghorn88 2,277]

I have both the BoB and The Pacific on DVD (i am old).  I have watched BoB numerous times.  I have watched The Pacific exactly once.  BoB blew me away. It never gets old. The Pacific?  Not so much.

[RPM 26,315]

5 hours ago, mininghorn88 said:

I have both the BoB and The Pacific on DVD (i am old).  I have watched BoB numerous times.  I have watched The Pacific exactly once.  BoB blew me away. It never gets old. The Pacific?  Not so much.

BoB ruins The Pacific just because of the storyline. BoB follows Easy Company and the 101st. You build a relationship with the men. The Pacific was 3 different source materials telling an overall story. It bounced all over the place, but it also touched on the effects back home. Had it been released first, I think the reviews would be better. It's like trying to follow Robin Williams or George Carlin. 

Rumor has it Hanks/Spielberg are working on an 8th Air Force series.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

21 hours ago, DougO said:

Good idea, but Sgt. York is on TCM right now. It's always hard to resist.

He had a nice rifle gun.... gobble gobble gobble....

[Macanudo 12,975]

A mini-series about the Chosin Reservoir would be... interesting.

[Hornstrader 179]

On 11/11/2020 at 8:06 PM, Sbbruin said:

So I watched part 3-10 back to back all day.  While I love it so very much, it does leave me with a sense of inadequacy.  And the very end when the reveal the names of each of the actual Easy company, the line “Grandpa, were you a hero?  No, but I served in the company of a lot of them.” Hit me right in the gut.  God bless every single one them, or you, who served our nation.  I am forever in debt.

I have watched the full series at least a dozen times and it gets very dusty every time that interview runs. What a perfect way to wrap the entire series.

[Hate 20,106]

A mini-series about the Chosin Reservoir would be... interesting.

I’ve said this same thing before. They could do an entire 10 part episode just on Chosin. Hanks & Spielberg need to do a Vietnam series as well.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

5 hours ago, Macanudo said:

A mini-series about the Chosin Reservoir would be... interesting.

Yep, the history channel has done a really good multi part series on the Chosin reservoir fiasco.  Always been fascinated by that operation.  There really isn't a good Korean War movie.  It's such a red headed step child to WWII.

[South Austin 52,448]

I never saw Band of Brothers until an early quarantine binge watch this year. I didn’t have HBO when it came out and never got around to renting/streaming the series in later years. I loved it.

That said, there’s some truth to liking what you see first. I saw The Pacific when it first aired and was blown away. And maybe unfair to BoB, I thought it had better acting and cinematography.  And, for a lot of people, it comes down to connections, and my dad’s a Marine Corps infantry officer who served in two wars, so I have a natural bias toward The Pacific.

And I agree with what was mentioned above - the shore leave episode in The Pacific really threw off the rhythm of the series. It was good and I appreciate seeing that aspect of the war, but thankfully it was toward the beginning. The last three episodes were incredibly intense and emotional.

Edited November 13, 2020 by South Austin

[TonyTexas 10,505]

1 hour ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

Yep, the history channel has done a really good multi part series on the Chosin reservoir fiasco.  Always been fascinated by that operation.  There really isn't a good Korean War movie.  It's such a red headed step child to WWII.

Yeah. It’s telling that M.A.S.H. is the best Korean War movie

[WhatTheBuck 28,775]

1 hour ago, TonyTexas said:

Yeah. It’s telling that M.A.S.H. is the best Korean War movie

(Pssst...it's actually about Vietnam.)

[South Austin 52,448]

18 minutes ago, WhatTheBuck said:

(Pssst...it's actually about Vietnam.)

Huh?

Quote

The film depicts a unit of medical personnel stationed at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital (MASH) during the Korean War.

 

Wiki is your friend

 

[TwiceHorn 31,438]

Well, from the same wiki, and fairly obviously, while the film was set in Korea, it was intended to be a commentary on war and the Vietnam War in particular.

[WhatTheBuck 28,775]

I thought that was common knowledge. It came out in 1972 and it's hardly a documentary on the Korean conflict. 

Edited November 13, 2020 by WhatTheBuck

[South Austin 52,448]

Oh I get the time and context of when it came out.  I thought your comment was about the actual factual setting of the movie. 

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

1 hour ago, WhatTheBuck said:

(Pssst...it's actually about Vietnam.)

Pssst ........ it's set during the Korean conflict. It may have been a commentary about war in general, released during the war in Vietnam,  but it was Ko-rea...... 

Edited November 13, 2020 by Onboard 2.0

[South Austin 52,448]

Speaking of which, I'd love for Hanks/Spielberg to produce an HBO series about Vietnam.  And nothing like the sensationalized fictitious stories in films like Platoon.  I know that Vietnam has produced its fair share of films and TV series over the years, but it's also due for the magic touch of Hanks/Spielberg.  I recently watched the History Chanel series Vietnam in HD, and there are so many fascinating events from the Vietnam War to chronicle in a well-done character-driven series.   

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

2 minutes ago, South Austin said:

Speaking of which, I'd love for Hanks/Spielberg to produce an HBO series about Vietnam.  And nothing like the sensationalized fictitious stories in films like Platoon.  I know that Vietnam has produced its fair share of films and TV series over the years, but it's also due for the magic touch of Hanks/Spielberg.  I recently watched the History Chanel series Vietnam in HD, and there are so many fascinating events from the Vietnam War to chronicle in a well-done character-driven series.   

As long as we get to see lots of weed smoking, gratuitous amounts of Hendrix and stones background music, and officer fragging I'm in !!

[South Austin 52,448]

1 minute ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

As long as we get to see lots of weed smoking, gratuitous amounts of Hendrix and stones background music, and officer fragging I'm in !!

See, I'd rather not see all that.  It's all been done, and often to a cliched extent. 

I mean, I know drug use became a prominent aspect of the war in its later years.  And it's probably worth addressing in a series.  And I know the music of the time was also important to the soldiers in country.  But I'd be okay with primarily setting the show to another Hans Zimmer score, with sparing amounts of 60s rock. 

[Hate 20,106]

All of the Vietnam Vets I know say that the most accurate portrayal of what is was like is “We Were Soldiers”. I’d love to see a Hanks/Spielberg series along those lines. There are so many incredible stories to be told from that time that need to be heard before they are all gone.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

13 minutes ago, South Austin said:

See, I'd rather not see all that.  It's all been done, and often to a cliched extent. 

I mean, I know drug use became a prominent aspect of the war in its later years.  And it's probably worth addressing in a series.  And I know the music of the time was also important to the soldiers in country.  But I'd be okay with primarily setting the show to another Hans Zimmer score, with sparing amounts of 60s rock. 

I know, I was being sarcastic. I'd like to see something more about the war, and not about the social statements...  That's what I really liked about We Were Soldiers.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

1 minute ago, Hate said:

All of the Vietnam Vets I know say that the most accurate portrayal of what is was like is “We Were Soldiers”. I’d love to see a Hanks/Spielberg series along those lines. There are so many incredible stories to be told from that time that need to be heard before they are all gone.

There ya go.  Really good movie. You got an even handed story from our side, and the VC side.

[mbtex 683]

Need a series on MACV SOG and there operations into Laos and Cambodia

[South Austin 52,448]

5 minutes ago, Hate said:

All of the Vietnam Vets I know say that the most accurate portrayal of what is was like is “We Were Soldiers”.

My Vietnam Veteran father has said the same thing, both the book and the movie. 

He hated Platoon, although my mom told me much later in life that after they saw the movie in the theater he came home and bawled his eyes out.

[Hate 20,106]

I have no doubt he did and there were some good parts to the movie, but it was so horribly cliche that it did a huge disservice to Vietnam Veterans and perpetuated the “baby killer” myth for much longer than it should have. I always found that strange since Oliver Stone is a veteran, but I guess he likes to sell tickets more than the truth.

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

One of the coolest stories I remember reading about the Viet Nam war:  They were trying to track the supply train on the Ho Chi Min trail, and were gonna use the electrical signals from vehicles systems to create a tracking method.  It wasn't working, and they couldn't figure out what they were doing wrong.  

An enlisted man was acting as an orderly for the group, and heard them talking about the tracking method, and wondering why it wasn't working. He chimes in, sir they use diesel trucks, and diesels don't have electrical systems like gas engines so there isn't a signal you can detect.  I believe that's a mostly correct retelling.

[BearSchlong 8,083]

1 hour ago, Hate said:

I have no doubt he did and there were some good parts to the movie, but it was so horribly cliche that it did a huge disservice to Vietnam Veterans and perpetuated the “baby killer” myth for much longer than it should have. I always found that strange since Oliver Stone is a veteran, but I guess he likes to sell tickets more than the truth.

I think Platoon is a powerful, thoughtful, well done movie, though the characters are embellished caricatures and the supposed events are a composite of events that occurred a few years after the battle of Ia Drang Valley chronicled in We Were Soldiers, i.e. 1968 vs. 1965.  Sitting here listening to the Platoon soundtrack right now, my goodness the music that came from those years.  Marvin fucking Gaye.

The problem with Vietnam is that other than the Tet Offensive, there wasn't a single inflection point battle,  No Normandy, No Guadalcanal. Probably a Saving Private Ryan anecdote.  I'm sure Tom Hanks/Playtone has worked up some kind of treatment, would love to know what they came up with.  

Edited November 13, 2020 by BearSchlong

[BearSchlong 8,083]

1 hour ago, Onboard 2.0 said:

One of the coolest stories I remember reading about the Viet Nam war:  They were trying to track the supply train on the Ho Chi Min trail, and were gonna use the electrical signals from vehicles systems to create a tracking method.  It wasn't working, and they couldn't figure out what they were doing wrong.  

An enlisted man was acting as an orderly for the group, and heard them talking about the tracking method, and wondering why it wasn't working. He chimes in, sir they use diesel trucks, and diesels don't have electrical systems like gas engines so there isn't a signal you can detect.  I believe that's a mostly correct retelling.

When wars shifted from real estate/territory held to attrition/kill ratios. . .Robert McNamara et al. Fascinating stuff.  Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest was a good read.

Hits close to home - my family has zero history of diabeetus. Then in his 60s my dad got it, inexplicably.  A long-time member of his 5:30 am Whataburger breakfast club is a VA doctor and he was SHOCKED to find out dad had never applied for VA benefits, nor ANY KIND of veteran's status, not even an ID card - even though he served a tour with the Americal Division ~ Chu Lai ~ 1968-69 as E5.  Dad was of the belief that benefits were for vets that needed them and didn't have alternate means/resources.  Literally got his discharge papers and had zero involvement with the VA/Army from 1969-2010.

VA doc says that 100% the diabetes was a result of Agent Orange.  Full benefits/100% disabled vet status.  Says this happened to thousands, decades after they were in-country.

In 2020 the idea of defoliating an entire country seems preposterous.

 

[Hate 20,106]

Those missions were called ash & trash and my Dad’s unit flew countless numbers of them. They talked about how they used to mix the AO in the 55 gallon drums basically like a college kid would mix spiked punch for a party. It’s crazy to think about in retrospect.

[NeverMarryAStripper 21,872]

5 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

Yeah. It’s telling that M.A.S.H. is the best Korean War movie

The Bridges at Toko-Ri says hello

[South Austin 52,448]

53 minutes ago, BearSchlong said:

When wars shifted from real estate/territory held to attrition/kill ratios. . .Robert McNamara et al. Fascinating stuff.  Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest was a good read.

Sheehan's Bright Shining Lie is also outstanding. 

And you're right about the goal of Vietnam War, or lack thereof.  The soldiers on the ground had no clear objective or sense of purpose. 

In World War II, there was always a sense of moving forward to obtain an objective.  Land on Normandy, advance into France, town by town, heading toward Germany to take down the Nazis.  Same with the Pacific -- advance on a series of islands to hold back the Japanese and head toward an invasion of Japan (which thankfully never happened).

In Vietnam, there was none of that.  A company would take a hill or other strategic position, lose several American G.I.'s in the process while racking up more enemy kills, sit there for a week or so, then leave, and the NVA would come back and retake that area.  I wasn't even alive at the time and it's fucking infuriating.   

[DougO 5,243]

For me, Pacific was like True Detective 2. It was not going to be good no matter which came first. It just wasn't good.

[Macanudo 12,975]

6 hours ago, South Austin said:

my dad

You sure he's your real dad?

[Brisketexan 105,057]

Speaking of which, I'd love for Hanks/Spielberg to produce an HBO series about Vietnam.  And nothing like the sensationalized fictitious stories in films like Platoon.  I know that Vietnam has produced its fair share of films and TV series over the years, but it's also due for the magic touch of Hanks/Spielberg.  I recently watched the History Chanel series Vietnam in HD, and there are so many fascinating events from the Vietnam War to chronicle in a well-done character-driven series.   

Could we have an episode focused on Ann Margaret coming this time?

[Macanudo 12,975]

29 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Could we have an episode focused on Ann Margaret coming this time?

And some early morning dew?

[Onboard 2.0 9,083]

2 hours ago, NeverMarryAStripper said:

The Bridges at Toko-Ri says hello

Yeah, but that's not really a great movie, personal opinion of course.  There's just no epic Korean movie.

[Parliament 14,237]

If Hanks made a Vietnam series, it'd need to be an anthology. There are LOTS of great stories to tell, but none that can fill up 10 episodes.

And episode 1 needs to be Texas's own Roy Benavidez. Dude needs his story told.