WWII via Hollywood

I got a copy of the DVDs for Band of Brothers given to me. I've really enjoyed them. It is a superb series, lovingly recreating the experience from boot camp to the end of WWII of a company in the famous 101st Airborne. The quality of the recreation is great. They do get the gritty feel and the insanity of war down. This carries on the "in your face" intensity of the film Saving Private Ryan. But here you get 10 hours of immersion in WWII with the story following this one company all around Europe. They preceed and follow each episode with the old survivors of the company talking a bit about their experiences. This is an amazing video. Well worth seeing.





My only quibble is that present more of war crimes like killing of prisoners that I believe really happened. In my youth no war picture ever hinted that the "good guys" did bad things. But the pendulum has now swung too far the other way. It is good to acknowledge that bad things happen in war, but I don't believe it happened as often or as gratuitously as presented in this film.

I had a father and an uncle who fought WWII in the Pacific. Another uncle in the Air Force. And one uncle on the ground in Europe. None of them talked much about the war. It was just too hard. None of them went to "reunions". They all wanted to forget the experience as soon as they got home and didn't want to bring it up again. Watching this video, unlike watching "war films" from 1945 to the 1990s gave you a sanitized view of war. A war of heros and good guys and nothing ugly. This video lets you see the ugly along with the wonderful. It is a pretty honest view (at least that's how it appears to me, a guy who would never ever want to be sucked up in the killing madness of modern wars).

Oops! I have another quibble. Stephen Ambrose, the guy whose book was used as the basis for this film, is notorious for plagarism. But watch the video. It is good. Too bad they used Ambrose's "work" as the basis of the film.