YESSS, FINALLY!!! - Masters of the Air - The 8th Air Force, Spielberg, Hanks, Goetzman (Crew behind Band of Brothers, Pacific)

[atomheartbevo 89791]

14 hours ago, Biff Tannen said:

The first episode didn't really catch my attention.  Guess I should give it another shot?

Yes. It gets good and then season 2 hits and 

[RomaVicta 30016]

I know this is the kind of series that many people love and get defensive about if the love is not shared, but I'm not much grabbed by it either.

I think Hanks and Spielberg can be carried away by the golly-gee-whiz belief in the WW2 generation veneration. Band of Brothers stands out and is excellent because they don't fall prey to it. I'm guessing the source material and the first hand meeting of the men had much to do with keeping them real. 

The best episode for experiencing the characters has been the one in the retreat with the actress you keep referring to. It's the best written with a cast that elevates the writing. It's also, oddly enough, the best look into just how damaging the bomber crew experience was.

Most of the prior episodes, I started just speeding through the scenes of the guys kidding around and laughing at shit that isn't funny hoping to persuade me that there is wit present. There never was. It never feels real.

"But these are real people. This really happened."

Plenty of pictures about real people and their real experiences fail to dramatize them in a way that brings the story home to the viewer. The earlier comment about character development is apt, IMHO. These two guys were great pilots who were friends and really cool. Those are other guys are gunners and bobardiers who seem kinda interesting, but we'll never really know.

I've watched the action scenes because that is the best place for war movies to bring out character. BOB does this brilliantly through an array of characters. I like seeing the bomber experience. Much detail is present that hasn't been present before. There's not much insight into individuals.

The Gregory Peck movie, 12 O'clock High, is superior in every regard except techinically. You get a full range of characters and you see what the experience does to them. 

I binged this up until the last episode I saw that ends with the reunion of the friends. The scene in the German city had a lot of value. The Germans in that sequence display more depth and range than the bomber crews  have thoughout the series: you get grief, horror, fury, cruelty, and vengeance. You get an aspect of war.

Frankly, I've forgotten to catch up since then. I will, but I'm not particularly anxious to.

I wish I was having the reaction of those who are loving the show. Band of Brothers and Generation Kill are easily the best war series I've seen about any war.

[TwiceHorn 31535]

I'm guessing that, like The Pacific, this is suffering comparison to BoB, which really was a remarkable work. 

Yes, the plot is constrained by truth and actual events, but with BoB you had the benefit of Ambrose' oral history work and the living characters to provide an unusual amount of character development. Not to mention 80% of the characters didn't die every couple of weeks after dday. 

I read Crosbys book, and you learn quickly that the Bucks were almost the undoing of the 100th and that it required serious, dull, mean men to snap it into shape. 

Also, in a lot of ways, the story of the 8th AF is kind of monotonous on a daily level: fly, bomb, die. The story lies in tactical shifts and technical advances over time. The show seems to be doing a good job with that. 

[RomaVicta 30016]

6 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I'm guessing that, like The Pacific, this is suffering comparison to BoB, which really was a remarkable work. 

Yes, the plot is constrained by truth and actual events, but with BoB you had the benefit of Ambrose' oral history work and the living characters to provide an unusual amount of character development. Not to mention 80% of the characters didn't die every couple of weeks after dday. 

I read Crosbys book, and you learn quickly that the Bucks were almost the undoing of the 100th and that it required serious, dull, mean men to snap it into shape. 

Also, in a lot of ways, the story of the 8th AF is kind of monotonous on a daily level: fly, bomb, die. The story lies in tactical shifts and technical advances over time. The show seems to be doing a good job with that. 

Pacific has great source material in one of the best first person accounts of war I've ever read. I thought the series was pretty good. I think the Pacific campaign was so very nightmarish that it almost defies portrayal on screen. It didn't help that the filmmakers chose to shoot the Guadalcanal sequence in almost complete darkness.

I think the series is good not great.

[TwiceHorn 31535]

12 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Pacific has great source material in one of the best first person accounts of war I've ever read. I thought the series was pretty good. I think the Pacific campaign was so very nightmarish that it almost defies portrayal on screen. It didn't help that the filmmakers chose to shoot the Guadalcanal sequence in almost complete darkness.

I think the series is good not great.

All of these have had good source material. I submit that BOB was exceptional in having access to multiple members of E Company still surviving and their very current remembrances at the time of filming. I think those factors are going to make BoB hard to equal or exceed. 

[RomaVicta 30016]

Just now, TwiceHorn said:

All of these have had good source material. I submit that BOB was exceptional in having access to multiple members of E Company still surviving and their very current remembrances at the time of filming. I think those factors are going to make BoB hard to equal or exceed. 

Agree. I say the same above in my short novel of a post. 

[locodos 5393]

38 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

I'm guessing that, like The Pacific, this is suffering comparison to BoB, which really was a remarkable work. 

Yes, the plot is constrained by truth and actual events, but with BoB you had the benefit of Ambrose' oral history work and the living characters to provide an unusual amount of character development. Not to mention 80% of the characters didn't die every couple of weeks after dday. 

I read Crosbys book, and you learn quickly that the Bucks were almost the undoing of the 100th and that it required serious, dull, mean men to snap it into shape. 

Also, in a lot of ways, the story of the 8th AF is kind of monotonous on a daily level: fly, bomb, die. The story lies in tactical shifts and technical advances over time. The show seems to be doing a good job with that. 

This^

It's hard to do a lot of character development when most of the characters die.   More Airforce personnel died in crashes than all the Marines killed in WWII... Just let that sink in...  MotA did have a quick reference.   Imagine if BoB was reduced to one character after Dday and had to roll over characters every 2 episodes.   Flying bombers was just that much more dangerous. 

Attached is a history of the 401st if you are interested.  My Great Uncle was in the 401st (H) bomb group, he died in a crash in Montana one week before deploying to Deenethorpe.

"On October 1st, (1943) the 612th Squadron lost a Flying Fortress with nine men aboard in an accident over the Big Sandy bombing range. The Fortress was piloted by 2nd Lt. John McIlwain. The plane was flying in formation as they approached the bombing range when observers in other Fortresses saw it go out of control and spin in. All the crew were killed."

US MILITARY CASUALTIES IN WORLD WAR II
 

Branch	Killed	Wounded
Army and Air Force	318,274	565,861
Navy	62,614	37,778
Marines	24,511	68,207
Coast Guard	1,917	Unknown
TOTAL	407,316	671,278

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Army_Air_Forces

USAAF statistical summary[edit]

The United States Army Air Forces incurred 12% of the Army's 936,000 battle casualties in World War II. 88,119 airmen died in service. 52,173 were battle casualty deaths: 45,520 killed in action, 1,140 died of wounds, 3,603 were missing in action and declared dead, and 1,910 were non-hostile battle deaths. Of the United States military and naval services, only the Army Ground Forces suffered more battle deaths. 35,946 non-battle deaths included 25,844 in aircraft accidents, more than half of which occurred within the Continental United States.^[118] 63,209 members of the USAAF were other battle casualties. 18,364 were wounded in action and required medical evacuation, and 41,057 became prisoners-of-war.^[118][119] Its casualties were 5.1% of its strength, compared to 10% for the rest of the Army.^{[120][n 58]}

 

401stBG(H).pdf

Edited March 7 by locodos

[RomaVicta 30016]

29 minutes ago, locodos said:

It's hard to do a lot of character development when most of the characters die. 

Go ahead and disagree with me, but don't assume that I don't know about the casualty rates among bomber crews. 

There are movies that take place over the course of a day or two that have great character development. It's not a matter of time; it's a matter of dramatization.

Every bomber crew wasn't lost on their second mission. This series chooses principal characters from history who actually didn't die right away. They're not much more than 2-dimensional as presented.

I would suggest that the value you are getting from the characters as portrayed is from what you bring to the series yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. I've liked movies that others haven't cared about for the same reason. The Banshees of Inisheren was perhaps more profoundly meaningful to me because I happen to know about that time in Irish history. The same may be happening for you in this series. 

For brief depthening of a character, one great example comes to mind. In the original Cape Fear, the opening is of Cady walking the sidewalk and his path is intersecting that of an attractive woman at the courthouse struggling to carry books. Just before their paths cross, she fumbles the stack onto the ground. Cady just strolls by without a glance. 

Bingo, in under a minute, we have key insight into Cady. This happens in movies all the time.

[TwiceHorn 31535]

2 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Go ahead and disagree with me, but don't assume that I don't know about the casualty rates among bomber crews. 

There are movies that take place over the course of a day or two that have great character development. It's not a matter of time; it's a matter of dramatization.

Every bomber crew wasn't lost on their second mission. This series chooses principal characters from history who actually didn't die right away. They're not much more than 2-dimensional as presented.

I would suggest that the value you are getting from the characters as portrayed is from what you bring to the series yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. I've liked movies that others haven't cared about for the same reason. The Banshees of Inisheren was perhaps more profoundly meaningful to me because I happen to know about that time in Irish history. The same may be happening for you in this series. 

For brief depthening of a character, one great example comes to mind. In the original Cape Fear, the opening is of Cady walking the sidewalk and his path is intersecting that of an attractive woman at the courthouse struggling to carry books. Just before their paths cross, she fumbles the stack onto the ground. Cady just strolls by without a glance. 

Bingo, in under a minute, we have key insight into Cady. This happens in movies all the time.

As someone I understand to be involved in screenwriting or something similar, I very much appreciate your perspective. 

[RomaVicta 30016]

4 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

As someone I understand to be involved in screenwriting or something similar, I very much appreciate your perspective. 

Very kind. I don't think it makes my opinions any more valid, but I can explain what I mean fairly clearly.

[locodos 5393]

5 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Go ahead and disagree with me, but don't assume that I don't know about the casualty rates among bomber crews. 

There are movies that take place over the course of a day or two that have great character development. It's not a matter of time; it's a matter of dramatization.

Every bomber crew wasn't lost on their second mission. This series chooses principal characters from history who actually didn't die right away. They're not much more than 2-dimensional as presented.

I would suggest that the value you are getting from the characters as portrayed is from what you bring to the series yourself. There's nothing wrong with that. I've liked movies that others haven't cared about for the same reason. The Banshees of Inisheren was perhaps more profoundly meaningful to me because I happen to know about that time in Irish history. The same may be happening for you in this series. 

For brief depthening of a character, one great example comes to mind. In the original Cape Fear, the opening is of Cady walking the sidewalk and his path is intersecting that of an attractive woman at the courthouse struggling to carry books. Just before their paths cross, she fumbles the stack onto the ground. Cady just strolls by without a glance. 

Bingo, in under a minute, we have key insight into Cady. This happens in movies all the time.

I will disagree with you and also agree with you...  Do I think MotA has done a great job fleshing out characters?  No I don't, and I don't solely blame the circumstance of the war.    I do think there are serious problems presented by the nature of the story.  Large groups of men doing a single highly coordinated task while separated/isolated into groups of 10.  For a BoB type telling I think they should have focused on one bomber crew, 10 men, but I do think it would have given those characters plot armor and taken away a key message.  Friends, comrades, and maybe you just vanish into thin air.

How impactful would that scene have been to the movie if Cody was immediately struck by a truck and killed?  The characters are getting turned over too quickly to read those traits into a longer story.  I think that "a mile wide and an inch deep" was a trade off to tell a larger story (in 10? episodes), one not associated specific individuals, but with the collective experience of a large group.  

I'd have liked twice the run time of each episode and deeper dives into the characters, but there's only so much $$ and time.

[TwiceHorn 31535]

19 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

Very kind. I don't think it makes my opinions any more valid, but I can explain what I mean fairly clearly.

Well, a lot of us know what we like and don't like but lack the vocabulary or familiarity with the processes, etc. to articulate opinions or observations meaningfully. Whenever you opine/observe in this area, I feel educated or enriched whether I agree or not. 

[Guest]

Some people seem to be wanting Titanic, with regard to a true happening with fictional bullshit characters..

I'd posit the lack of character development actually contributes to the overall saga in MoA.  The guys living it didn't know a lot about each other either once the fucking meat grinder of an air campaign was in full swing.

There is no Dick Winters in MoA.  So fucking what?  He's one of the best 'characters' to ever grace the silver screen.  That's one hell of a bar to which we might hold other productions.

Episodes 6&7 made me want more.  As in, I couldn't wait for the next episode.  That anticipation with a legit payoff is pretty rare these days.

[kevwun 15887]

They could have followed Rosenthal like that, but they wanted to cover everyone's experience in the 100th.  It would have been 10 episodes of Bastogne because of how insane the bombing missions were.  I think whoever said the 100th is the main character nailed it.

[bschoolprof 6272]

14 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Speaking of uneven editing, after a rewatch, I was pissed at how Bailey and the other guy being on the run and getting back wrapped up so suddenly.  Those dudes were on the run and in hiding across Belgium, France, and Spain for four months or so, and a lot of people helped them out.

 

agreed - we got tons of screen time with them in Belgium and whatnot . . . and then bam they're back in England riding bikes like it's nothing. 

14 hours ago, atomheartbevo said:

Give me a spinoff series about Westgate, another series about the Belgian and French resistance helping downed American airmen, and another series about the Red Tails/12th/15th Air Force in the Mediterranean .

 

I'd take a spinoff just on the P-51s getting on the scene to help the 8th.   

 

 

 

[RomaVicta 30016]

2 minutes ago, slorch said:

Some people seem to be wanting Titanic, with regard to a true happening with fictional bullshit characters..

I'd posit the lack of character development actually contributes to the overall saga in MoA.  The guys living it didn't know a lot about each other either once the fucking meat grinder of an air campaign was in full swing.

There is no Dick Winters in MoA.  So fucking what?  He's one of the best 'characters' to ever grace the silver screen.  That's one hell of a bar to which we might hold other productions.

Episodes 6&7 made me want more.  As in, I couldn't wait for the next episode.  That anticipation with a legit payoff is pretty rare these days.

Really? One of the best ever? He's a great character, but such things are not as rare as you suggest. In BoB itself, there are numerous characters important and fleeting that are as well drawn. [Amusingly, I see I mistook the Dick Winters character you name for the Lewis Nixon character. Nixon is at least a match in quality, IMHO, to Winters] This includes Spiers and Malarky and many others including even David Schwimmer as Sobel in maybe his best performance ever.

You also seem to suggest that there's no reason to try to clear that bar or even use it as a standard. That's the path to straight-to-video or the worst of the streaming services.

 

@locodos writes:

Quote

The characters are getting turned over too quickly to read those traits into a longer story. 

There are many ways to tell a story.  We've established where we each stand, but your post did give me an idea for narrative approach. Follow the path of a crew member wounded bad enough to be taken out of action. No one can understand what he went through, let's see a few scenes of that. Maybe he's cleared to return and does not want to. Where does that go? What does that illuminate about the experience? It's another way to take the squadron navigator at the retreat approach. 

Again, just an idea and example, not an argument.

 

[Guest]

Roma, read my post again. Some of your assertions are not what I said or how I said it. 
 

[atomheartbevo 89791]

4 hours ago, RomaVicta said:

For brief depthening of a character, one great example comes to mind. In the original Cape Fear, the opening is of Cady walking the sidewalk and his path is intersecting that of an attractive woman at the courthouse struggling to carry books. Just before their paths cross, she fumbles the stack onto the ground. Cady just strolls by without a glance. 

Bingo, in under a minute, we have key insight into Cady. This happens in movies all the time.

There have been characters here and there in MoA that have some depth,  but part of the problem is that these characters ramp up in mere hours to a scale of violence you never really saw in BoB both in intensity, but also very spread out geographically (between the squadrons) and then ramp back down. As mentioned, you were losing the equivalent of the BoB cast every other mission or so, and then it would ramp right back down to them hanging out at their base in relatively safe Jolly Ole England, eating hot meals, chasing English women, having kids crawling all over the place, etc.  0 to 60 in intensity and then right back down to a complete stop and complete safety.  

In terms of your Cape Fear reference, I think Rosenthal is the best character development they’ve done. He comes into the series late, but you see him (with very little screen time) show his competence and attitude, and then they take him out of the lineup and send him off to R&R after three horrible missions.  

Rosenthal is pissed because, to use his drummer reference, he had a rhythm going and they disrupted it.  Then later on you see him hesitating to get back in the bomber, but he starts tapping out a drum solo to the Artie Shaw song with his hand and then climbs in.  That one little gesture of tapping out a rhythm showed he was able to get back in the swing of things.

3 hours ago, slorch said:

There is no Dick Winters in MoA. 

Rosenthal. The historical record and various interviews and books that mention him make it clear that he was cut from the same cloth.  

Edited March 7 by atomheartbevo

[Biff Tannen 45733]

6 hours ago, kevwun said:

I think whoever said the 100th is the main character nailed it.

I think this also works best because on screen it's damn hard to keep track of who is who when they are all wearing masks while flying.  I guess it worked in Top Gun, but they had call signs and different helmets to differentiate for the audience.

[Guest]

nm

Edited March 8 by slorch

[Js1 85570]

I can’t wait to rewatch this whole series 

[RPM 26353]

I think it's become blatantly clear the writers for World War 2 should have been replaced and a full rewrite was in order before the performance.

[MissingInAction 25183]

8 hours ago, RPM said:

I think it's become blatantly clear the writers for World War 2 should have been replaced and a full rewrite was in order before the performance.

Yea the Holocauat scenes really didn't do well with focus groups.

[RPM 26353]

For those of you getting into Hanks' PlayTone productions, check out From the Earth to the Moon. 1998 HBO miniseries covers the space program from Apollo 1 to Apollo 16. Great stuff.

 

[The Ace of Aces 5194]

The last episode was not so good. It’s all so rushed and they just threw the Tuskegee in for token performances … why? It’s like they had to cut down from 18 to 9namd the last two episodes are what you get. 

It doesn’t help Austin Butler is the worst character on this show and they focus on him hanging out in a pow camp. 

[naija 2869]

Butler is not the worst. The other guy is the worst. It's like he was handed the script for a fratboy, immature character. This isn't "inner turmoil," it's just douchebaggery. 

[4th&Five 41589]

Took me a minute to recognize Eric from sex education was one of the captured Tuskegee guys. Talk about an opposite role. 

Edited March 10 by 4th&Five

[Texzilla588 769]

I’m certainly not shy about bagging on shows that miss the mark for me, but I’m not getting all the complaints for these last couple pages. I think the actors are all doing a fine job and the story is hitting the right beats. For instance I’m fascinated by Sandra Westgate’s character even though there’s a good chance we never find out what she was doing.

I wasn’t feeling the CGI early on but that has totally fallen away. Badass show.

I was hoping we see more of Sandra Westgate. In bed. Nekkid.

[Pato del Muerto 52596]

The little scene with the pilot that couldn’t drop his tanks- wtf was that taking up valuable minutes for?  Bad writing, no point, and having that much continuous cgi just made it worse than quick shots of it. 

[fuggled 576]

The whole presentation of D-Day was awkward. Because they kept jumping around I literally couldn't tell when it actually happened.  And they alluded to the pilots playing a big role in the invasion, but then move off it shows on screen. Just really odd.

[Captainant 27764]

48 minutes ago, fuggled said:

The whole presentation of D-Day was awkward. Because they kept jumping around I literally couldn't tell when it actually happened.  And they alluded to the pilots playing a big role in the invasion, but then move off it shows on screen. Just really odd.

It's Crosby's first-person experience of D-Day, not the definitive retelling. He couldn't tell when it happened either, and despite being at the center of the planning was completely separated from the execution of the operation itself. 

This show at its core is a retelling on his book and the show is even narrated by Cros, so it makes sense to me narratively

[fuggled 576]

2 hours ago, Captainant said:

It's Crosby's first-person experience of D-Day, not the definitive retelling. He couldn't tell when it happened either, and despite being at the center of the planning was completely separated from the execution of the operation itself. 

This show at its core is a retelling on his book and the show is even narrated by Cros, so it makes sense to me narratively

Maybe, but they further confused it by showing the perspective from the POW camp and intertwining the Tuskegee story line.  When the POWs are trying to decipher the German freak-out, you can't tell if it's misinformation, pre-invasion or post-invasion.  Plus, they did show Rosenthal's perspective, but did it retroactively and didn't actually show anything he did on D-Day. Just weird all the way around. It felt like they were trying to avoid a story that's already been told elsewhere, but they ended up with a gap that wasn't filled very well.

[atomheartbevo 89791]

1 hour ago, fuggled said:

Just weird all the way around. It felt like they were trying to avoid a story that's already been told elsewhere, but they ended up with a gap that wasn't filled very well.

The last two episodes feel like they were cut from additional episodes.  Like they cut three episodes down to two.  

[Guest]

All I know is when i see the thread update, first thing I do is ask what day it is, did a new episode drop?  I like it when a series is good/ entertaining and the anticipation of new episodes is part of the ride...as well as avoiding spoilers.

[MissingInAction 25183]

So one ep left? This thing was fire until the last 2 eps.

Austin butt face needs to go away. 

Just another low talent Hollywood face man.

[locodos 5393]

43 minutes ago, slorch said:

All I know is when i see the thread update, first thing I do is ask what day it is, did a new episode drop? 

same

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5566]

On 3/10/2024 at 11:34 AM, fuggled said:

Maybe, but they further confused it by showing the perspective from the POW camp and intertwining the Tuskegee story line.  When the POWs are trying to decipher the German freak-out, you can't tell if it's misinformation, pre-invasion or post-invasion.  Plus, they did show Rosenthal's perspective, but did it retroactively and didn't actually show anything he did on D-Day. Just weird all the way around. It felt like they were trying to avoid a story that's already been told elsewhere, but they ended up with a gap that wasn't filled very well.

This same crew has already told the story of the invasion twice, one in Saving Private Ryan and one in Band of Brothers. They really had no reason to show D-Day a third time, especially when, as they put it, there was no luftwaffe  in the air. It's a show about bombing runs, and they encountered no resistance on D-Day. There was nothing for them to tell, other than to give you some far away shots of action already better depicted elsewhere. Someone above asked why they wasted moments on the tank not dropping earlier, well D-Day would have felt like that but even worse.

[WelfareBuysMyWeed 5566]

Looking online, it seems the final episode is already up.

[Js1 85570]

It was. Nailed the landing 

[Captainant 27764]

Wow what a fucking finale. From the horrors of the nazi war machine and the Holocaust to the thrill of freedom and victory. 

Goddamn it's good to see Americans killing a fuck load of fascists. 

[bolverk 29717]

2 hours ago, Js1 said:

It was. Nailed the landing 

Yeah, that episode tied it all up in a bow nicely. Very well done.

I'm sure there are going to be tons of comments about granddads and great-granddads who fought in the war -- as well there should. They should be lauded. Personally, I didn't know any growing up. My father was born in 1937 and his mom was a recent widow at his birth. My mom, who was born in 1941, her dad worked for Santa Fe RR when he wasn't working his farm. There were no great uncles, et cetera.

What I would like to comment on are all the kids and teenagers who experienced liberation first-hand since that's clearly one of the themes of this show.

In late August 1989, I went off to become a Rotary exchange student (deep gratitude to any Rotarians reading this) and rotated living with three families in the Chantilly area just north of Paris for a year. During my first few months, I wasn't yet super fluent in French (which was difficult, to say the least), but the mother of one of my host "parents" often stopped by to do the family's laundry, hang out, or whatever. One time, she and I were alone in the house and she recounted telling me she still had very strong memories of the distinct and horrific fear she had watching German soldiers coming through the forest.

Man, I really wish I'd been more fluent (and inquisitive) so that I would've quizzed her in more detail about that experience, including the occupation as well as the liberation. I'm guessing she would've been in her late teens to early twenties when the war went down. All I can say is that she was always such a complete joy to be around, and she treated me with great kindness as a lost stranger in a strange land. Even though I could only put together a few phrases in a shitty accent that early on, she always made sure I was accommodated very well with small gifts, cheek kisses (gros bisous) freshly ironed clothes, and copious desserts.

But, shortly thereafter, I moved on to my next family a few kilometers away and never saw her again. My youthful selfishness was more focused on taking in all the new experiences of that world that I didn't bother to stop and soak in that part of history. But, to be fair, I was much more enthralled with watching the Iron Curtain crumble up close during those months, and later had the great chance to celebrate the New Year with a mixed bunch of French and German teenagers up on a hill where a Hitler Youth school's construction was never completed overlooking a small town outside of Cologne just a month or so after the fall of the Berlin Wall. That was one helluva time being the only American where everyone was so happy to have a fucking American Texan in their midst ("Dallas" was still a big deal there on TV at the time).

Anyway, the shit that all those men did and sacrificed to liberate that continent made an indelible impression on millions of people for a few generations, so let's keep those good vibes going. 

Edited March 15 by bolverk

[NeverMarryAStripper 21921]

I just realized that the actress who played Subaltern Westgate was the same one who played Miep in. A Small Light.  I knew her voice had annoyed me from something else

[RPM 26353]

Coca-Cola!

[TwiceHorn 31535]

On 3/7/2024 at 11:15 AM, kevwun said:

They could have followed Rosenthal like that, but they wanted to cover everyone's experience in the 100th.  It would have been 10 episodes of Bastogne because of how insane the bombing missions were.  I think whoever said the 100th is the main character nailed it.

Probably right there, thus making MotA the somewhat unusual "sociological drama" like The Wire amd GoT before it went off the rails. 

[RPM 26353]

On 3/12/2024 at 12:21 PM, MissingInAction said:

Just another low talent Hollywood face man.

Avatar and whatnot.

[Texzilla588 769]

So if you want a barely related movie on postwar Germany that is actually very funny watch One Two Three with James Cagney as a CocaCola exec in 50’s Berlin with his family.

[F250 28818]

The liberation of the POW camp was awesome. Loved seeing that P-51 fly in with no fucks given.

[kevwun 15887]

34 minutes ago, Texzilla588 said:

So if you want a barely related movie on postwar Germany that is actually very funny watch One Two Three with James Cagney as a CocaCola exec in 50’s Berlin with his family.

Yes, that movie is hilarious.  It's worth watching if you haven't seen it.

[MissingInAction 25183]

That was an incredible finale.

When Egan climbed up the barracks roof with our flag I got a freedom boner.

Edited March 15 by MissingInAction
Boner

[Upgrayedd 5818]

53 minutes ago, Texzilla588 said:

So if you want a barely related movie on postwar Germany that is actually very funny watch One Two Three with James Cagney as a CocaCola exec in 50’s Berlin with his family.

 

18 minutes ago, kevwun said:

Yes, that movie is hilarious.  It's worth watching if you haven't seen it.

Underrated flick for sure.