tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post7559908488178626436..comments2024-03-28T18:01:28.997-04:00Comments on What's Alan Watching?: Band of Brothers rewind, episode 6: "Bastogne"Alan Sepinwallhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03388147774725646742noreply@blogger.comBlogger54125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-38650617363089615922023-10-22T00:33:14.218-04:002023-10-22T00:33:14.218-04:00It was a great episode. I dd find the forest stagi...It was a great episode. I dd find the forest staging episodes 6 and 7 were too artificial. Not enough breath coming from mouths and those sweeping camera moves through the trees just confirmed the soundstage. Thought it should have been more confined. I would have liked it more if the nurse wasn't the same age and frankly attractive. I think the bond would have been even stronger as it wouldn't be so predictable. Doug Eisenstarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10768153182028335002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-28388238285630361332012-04-03T16:39:42.562-04:002012-04-03T16:39:42.562-04:00Years on from this post, I'd like to add somet...Years on from this post, I'd like to add something. This is the most impressive piece of writing in the series. The framing that McKenna uses here of making the episode a quest for morphine is the best way to get a view of everyone in their individual foxholes, get a sense of what was bothering each of them, and dramatize the act of waiting as suffering. In addition, this is maybe the most stylized episode visually, to the point where it reminds me of certain Japanese films (especially the scene shown in the picture at the top.) And somehow they manage to give Roe a full character arc. It's really remarkable, and I steal from it all the time as a writer.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-85074047705620638442011-12-09T23:05:29.524-05:002011-12-09T23:05:29.524-05:00Re: Shane Taylors accent,
I listened to a radio i...Re: Shane Taylors accent,<br /><br />I listened to a radio interview with him recently and he said that both he and the casting directors were working towards something that was inbetween old-school cajun (which is often quite incomprehensible) and a sort of soft generalised american accent. The idea was to have it be obvious that he was from a different state/culture to his comrades, but without making it too overpowering for the character. <br /><br />Personally I think Shane pulled it off brilliantly ('We don't GOT no aid station!)and I didn't actually know he was British, same with Heffron, I really bought his Philly accent ('Edward? Are you serious!?').<br /><br />'Bastogne' is far and away my favourite episode. Brilliant dialogue and acting, and a lot of character development, I felt. The part where Julian is dying and Babe is shouting at him to stop moving and to hold on, then he has to leave him there, the look in his eyes is just gutwrenching, gets me every time.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-43429071358666182212010-03-10T09:02:57.735-05:002010-03-10T09:02:57.735-05:00Fanastic review of Bastogne.
The first time I saw ...Fanastic review of Bastogne.<br />The first time I saw BOB, I barely noticed Roe up until this episode, but when I eventually got to it, it became my favorite of the series.<br />The battle through the eyes of Doc Roe adds compassion and a very human perspective to the difficulties the soldiers went through.<br />Shane Taylors portrayal of Roe was incredibley haunting and captivating all at once. There were moments when my heart was breaking for him, he didn't have to use words, but the look on his face when he heard the word MEDIC called by one of his mates said so much.<br />Since re-watching BOB, I've made it a point to watch out for Roe throughout the pre-bastogne episodes and again, am encouraged by the actions of Roe tending to the soldiers needs as he see's them.<br />There are so many fantastic characters and episodes, to point one out in particular would be a criminal offence, but from my perspective, right here and now, Bastogne would have to take the award for being the episode I would be most easily able to relate to, on an emotional level anyway.<br />Top points to all the actors who portrayed members of the 101st airborn, they were all unforgetable.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-46403391155033999782010-02-02T15:27:04.137-05:002010-02-02T15:27:04.137-05:00This episode is particularly beautifully haunting ...This episode is particularly beautifully haunting not only due to the snowy cold depicted but also when someone needs a medic, yelling "Medic!," it turns out it's just not one someone it's many someones. And the medic then becomes someone who needs/wants to be in more than one place at the same time to do his job.<br />Shane Taylor pulled this performance off beautifullyRebecca Jillhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18262004084187699127noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-6834260390372176822009-12-11T10:11:21.696-05:002009-12-11T10:11:21.696-05:00This was the first episode i had watched and the f...This was the first episode i had watched and the first to start my love for Band Of Brothers.I love Roe he's one of my favorite characters and like someone said before one of my favrite Roe moments is in crossroads when he's yelling at Winters and Welsh and at the end he gets into the ambulence you you see water flicker from his canteen.That just add more to the part,and makes me grin everytime.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-20459505596841836532009-08-03T08:15:15.105-04:002009-08-03T08:15:15.105-04:00An anonymous comment above mentioned their surpris...An anonymous comment above mentioned their surprise to learn this was shot on a sound stage but I could never shake the fakiness of the episode. I loved the medic viewpoint they used and this was my favorite episode in memory from my first viewing precisely because it was so attached to his perspective. But rewatching it I was reminded how much I hated the soundstage set (and the CGI during the drop was pretty atrocious too).J-rodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11348149382409634033noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-30130510760266579502009-06-30T19:00:57.692-04:002009-06-30T19:00:57.692-04:00Alan, if I wouldn't have heard him say he was ...Alan, if I wouldn't have heard him say he was half-cajun, I wouldn't have recognized the accent. At first I thought he was a New Yorker, then when the heritage was revealed, I listened closer and it was recognizable, but not on the mark. Still a more valiant effort than most cajun treaments get on film (specifically Dennis Quaid's turn in The Big Easy---the horror!)<br /><br />Curiously, I wonder how much Ambrose's living in New Orleans influenced his decision to spotlight a chapter to a half-cajun.<br /><br />Great introspective episode.LSUFreekhttp://twitter.com/LSUFreeknoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-62880480974872265602009-06-25T12:34:17.613-04:002009-06-25T12:34:17.613-04:00so beautifully filmed. the bleak cold winter just...so beautifully filmed. the bleak cold winter just came alive.Carolynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09412645118253860411noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-64621907566781196312009-06-22T00:33:20.810-04:002009-06-22T00:33:20.810-04:00While I agree that "The Breaking Point" ...While I agree that "The Breaking Point" is probably one of the, if not the, best in the series, this episode is the one that is the most affecting to me.<br />My boyfriend is a medic in the Army right now, in the 101st as a matter of fact. And re-watching this episode recently haunted me in a way I can't quite describe.<br />After watching this episode, I heard the pained screams of "Medic!" in my sleep. I saw blood on my hands and imagined it on my friends. I imagined watching and desperate trying to help them with their immeasurable pain as the world burned down around me. And then I went home and cried.<br />Medics are frequently seen as the "lucky ones," however, they are anything but. Not only do they have to deal with the very same things that all soldiers do, they also frequently hold their friends' lives in their hands. And what they do does not make them exempt from danger. My boyfriend has the shrapnel, knife, and bullet wounds to prove it.<br />Whether a person believes that "Bastogne" was inaccurate or ill-advised to show it through the eyes of a medic, I can't say that I care. For me, at the very least, it helped me understand what medics, and what my medic, must go through. And it gave the world their eyes, if only for an hour.The Irish Cowgirlhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13261904667340795290noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-82865625607944260902009-06-21T22:30:47.531-04:002009-06-21T22:30:47.531-04:00This (along with "The Breaking Point") i...This (along with "The Breaking Point") is my favorite episode of Band of Brothers. I really enjoyed the medic's POV and thought Shane Taylor did a great job showing how the job was wearing Roe down. The forest was hauntingly beautiful. <br /><br />Thanks Alan for reviewing the miniseries. Gives me another reason to watch it all over again!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-62440301272920766192009-06-20T10:57:05.247-04:002009-06-20T10:57:05.247-04:00There was a recent poll a couple of weeks ago on a...There was a recent poll a couple of weeks ago on a forum and Bastogne came top with 30%, followed by Why We Fight with 20% and The Breaking Point with 18%.Jeffreyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09581105527989790779noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-33451564487315940012009-06-19T15:35:12.352-04:002009-06-19T15:35:12.352-04:00I just have to say a few words about Tom Brokaw...I just have to say a few words about Tom Brokaw's phrase, called the generation that fought in WWII as the "greatest generation".<br /><br />Personally, I think it is not only bullshit, I consider it an insult to other generations of Americans who have endured a great deal of traumatic events in U.S. history. I'm not putting down this generation. But I'll be damned if I'll put them on a pedestal at the expense of other generations.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-81350879322367492662009-06-19T00:39:34.229-04:002009-06-19T00:39:34.229-04:00Alan, I know and respect your rule re. not posting...Alan, I know and respect your rule re. not posting without reading all the previous comments, but just had to chime in to say that I agree 100% that, IF Nurse Renee is/was merely an artistic device of choice, she was integrated PERFECTLY into world of BOB/Easy Company. I am one of the legion of BOB followers who put 'The Breaking Point' at the very top of my list of episodes, but think 'Bastogne' is the absolute perfect lead-in to my favorite hour of TV of all time. (The actor that plays) Doc Rowe (and all of his co-stars) perfectly lays the ground for all that is to follow.the Stanfield Org.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07794675562210920155noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-21791580116108480002009-06-18T22:29:08.265-04:002009-06-18T22:29:08.265-04:00The cutting away from the line as easy is getting ...The cutting away from the line as easy is getting rolled on by panzers always annoyed me too. It's heavily implied that the average easy guy has about 10 rounds for his M1 and not much else, let alone effective anti-tank weapons.<br /><br />When I read this recap I decided to look into it, and it turns out there was a fair bit of American armor and anti-armor in and around Bastogne, mostly quick m18 tank destroyers. They were actually, even in those circumstances, incredibly effective with hit and run actions, taking out even heavy panzers (Tigers etc.) in significant numbers. This led to the German commanders overestimating the resistance in Bastogne and holding back a bit. <br /><br />So I have to assume they got some assistance at some point after Roe leaves. As a general rule, man for man German armor was superior to American armor, but even with strength of numbers they couldn't break Bastogne. The defenders had that much more at stake, granted, what with the SS murdering POW's left and right during the battle of the bulge, you held the line or you died.kwignoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-32673089594693282312009-06-18T22:22:10.869-04:002009-06-18T22:22:10.869-04:00OK, one last one from Bruce McKenna:
"As one...OK, one last one from Bruce McKenna:<br /><br />"As one of the men (Shifty) said, we could completely redo the entire miniseries and focus on completely different men and not repeat one single scene.... My personal favorite is Ralph Spina at Bastogne, who was too cold and concerned to get out of his foxhole to take a leak...so he peed into a Condom, tied it off and threw it out into the snow...Where Wild Bill Guarnere found it the next morning, and amid the horrors of Bastogne, broke up the Second Platoon by intoning: "Hey, who's gettin' LAID out here?"Toekneenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-41534649457998343482009-06-18T22:16:30.986-04:002009-06-18T22:16:30.986-04:00Here's more from Bruce McKenna, about Earl McC...Here's more from Bruce McKenna, about Earl McClung:<br /><br />"The battle was also sufficiently long that McClung, Shifty and one other man (I'd have to check my notes) chugged down into the German woods and shot the sniper who hit Smokey. I had it in original draft. It was pretty cool, because Earl shot another German behind his back. (Shifty saw it). <br /><br />"Another thing: Earl hated the fact that the Germans had hot food. Every morning an older guy in a winter coat dragged a SLED along the edge of the German woods, the steam rising out of a big pot. <br /><br />"So, Earl snuck down in the night. Burrowed into the snow. And when the guy chugged by at dawn, Earl put a charge on the sled...and then watched as it blew up, peppering the old man with hot chow. <br /><br />"Earl got shortchanged by Ambrose and shortchanged by BoB. I was told by several men that he was, simply, the best combat soldiers in the war. He could literally SMELL the Germans (Because of their unique leather straps, which, when wet, gave off a pungent odor). <br /><br />"Anyway...I could go on for days about Earl. He's my favorite of all of'em. <br /><br />"Went AWOL everytime they got off the line. And I'm not sayin' where he went."Toekneenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-87865801627222081282009-06-18T22:14:19.679-04:002009-06-18T22:14:19.679-04:00The writer of this episode, Bruce McKenna, respond...The writer of this episode, Bruce McKenna, responded to similar criticisms on the HBO discussion boards back in 2001. Here’s what he had to say:<br /><br />“Understand your disappointment about the battle scene. In actuality, it was a single Tiger tank that came out of the woods, with about a Company of Germans. The Tiger was hit by a Sherman to the North/NorthWest of Easy's lines. Didn't hurt the Tiger. Many of the men of easy didn't see the tank (that's how spread out they were). The tank then apparently retreated back into the woods, which is why there was no wreckage. <br /><br />“The other thing they chose not to film was Shifty Powers and Earl McClung slinking down across no man's land into the German trees and shooting the sniper (and a few other Germans) that shot Walter Gordon. <br /><br />“No one could tell me why the Tiger stopped. It might have been the terrain. It might have been because they were losing so many infantrymen (more than 30 dead). <br /><br />“I chose to focus on Roe and the wounded. I think you'll all get enough combat in the next two episodes”<br /><br />And later he said this:<br /><br />“To fill in some of those holes: <br /><br />“Not much happened to Easy from December 18th to the 24th attack you saw in Six. Unlike many other companies, Easy was in a relatively quiet sector. You want to get a fuller picture, read Koskimaki's The Battered Bastards of Bastogne. The Germans really tried very hard to break through with lots of Armor to the South of Easy. Very bloody stuff. <br /><br />“So we were faced with a dilemma from a film making p.o.v. What do you show when not as much happens? <br /><br />“I made the conscious decision to focus on Roe, and avoid the same sort of combat sequences we've seen before (which was easy, because other than the one patrol where Julian died, nothing much happend until the German attack on the 24th). <br /><br />“Another thing missing from the show was the constant sound of German armor clanking around. The men heard it and it got VERY tiring and nerve wracking. <br /><br />“You'll get more than your dose of combat next week, I promise.”Toekneenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-41704070115918868322009-06-18T21:02:40.300-04:002009-06-18T21:02:40.300-04:00Another thought about watching this show on the Hi...Another thought about watching this show on the History Channel. One benefit to doing that is that you can turn on the closed captioning - a lot of times that helps you figure out what is being said, especially in the battle scenes. That is the biggets problem I have with the DVD's - no subtitles were provided. Maybe the Blu-Ray discs have it?Toekneenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-20621170288701739222009-06-18T20:27:28.046-04:002009-06-18T20:27:28.046-04:00Thanks to Marlene for the link on Renee Lemaire. A...Thanks to Marlene for the link on Renee Lemaire. Although she never really met Doc Roe, her part in this episode fit nicely with the overall story and it's a great tribute to another Bastogne war hero. Kudos to the writer. <br /><br />Alan, I teared up reading that. These guys affect me like no other. What a great series.greentaranoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-73817299428031724902009-06-18T18:56:48.556-04:002009-06-18T18:56:48.556-04:00That is very sad news Alan but thanks for posting ...That is very sad news Alan but thanks for posting it. <br /><br />This is yet another great episode, but I'd put it around #4 or #5 overall. But that's just my opinion, of course. <br /><br />As many said, you get a real sense of how brutally cold it was for them. Nowadays when I'm stuck outside on a cold winter day, feeling miserable, I think of this episode (and of what the real soldiers must have felt like) and somehow I don't feel quite so cold.<br /><br />And I agree with those praising Shane Taylor's acting. There are so many scenes where he doesn't say much but you still know exactly what he's thinking and feeling.Toekneenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-57019985731380385882009-06-18T18:48:42.413-04:002009-06-18T18:48:42.413-04:00Bastogne is, by a hair, my favorite in the series,...Bastogne is, by a hair, my favorite in the series, if only because of the complete 180 I did on it. After reading the episode description, I was incredibly disappointed that the episode would focus on just one character, and the rarely seen medic at that, but the episode itself was just so stunning and affecting that I felt a little shell shocked after watching it. Shane Taylor is amazing as Roe. I don't think the accent was over the top, but I liked the fact that it was definitely "Cajun" and not "Generic Southern." His Cajun French was very well done, I thought, but someone who actually speaks it might have some qualms. <br /><br />It's such a beautifully shot episode, really capturing how calm and silent a forest should be in the snow (despite being a soundstage) and just how awful the job of a medic could be. <br /><br />Is this the episode where Apollo shows up or is it not until The Breaking Point?Unknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07988820891346675368noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-2909225991647852852009-06-18T18:23:54.377-04:002009-06-18T18:23:54.377-04:00Thanks for the info, and I hope more and more peop...Thanks for the info, and I hope more and more people can watch this and the documentaries, and read the books, to learn and appreciate all he and these other men did for us. And this is coming from someone who is not remotely patriotic.Hatfieldhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01184680741873873714noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-91148158491648095782009-06-18T18:02:46.704-04:002009-06-18T18:02:46.704-04:00One of the Easy vets who survived in the war and a...One of the Easy vets who survived in the war and appeared in the "Band of Brothers" interviews (and "We Stand Alone Together") <a href="http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/208832" rel="nofollow">died yesterday</a>. Let's avoid discussing his identity here until we get to the end of the series, but I thought some people here might want to know.Alan Sepinwallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03388147774725646742noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-17517257.post-49303126858659989722009-06-18T15:25:16.897-04:002009-06-18T15:25:16.897-04:00The focus on Roe really bothered me the first time...The focus on Roe really bothered me the first time I watched the episode, but much less so after repeated viewings. For one thing, the heaviest of the fighting was not on Easy's front, but we saw enough of the battle to realize how hellish it was. And I have to echo what everyone said about how well the cold was depicted.<br /><br />All that said, the bit I felt was missing was how the airborne troops managed to fend off German armor. We see an armored attack start up near the end of the episode, but not how Easy managed to withstand it. Even after watching this series as many times as I have, I feel utter dread when the German tanks break through the trees.paulnoreply@blogger.com