This series is brilliant. I get increasingly fed up that UK dramas concentrate on the negative side of war. Meanwhile, the US makes dramas like Saving Private Ryan which, while being excellent, gives the impression that they won our wars for us. This series tells the story of some of our heroes and is fantastic. Yes, war is a tragedy, but this country produced many heroes and this tells some of their stories.
WWII was “our” war as well, James. In case you forgot the US lost 400,000 men in that war. Saving Private Ryan wasn’t about who the war, but about a mission to save a man.
shareYou've misinterpreted my comments. It's not about ignoring the sacrifices but a frustration that the US makes many heroic dramas whereas the UK will usually concentrate on negative stories and not celebrate their heroes. I could name and have enjoyed many US films where "America saves the world". I just want to see some British ones.
Saving Private Ryan ignores the British and the 10 other allied nations involved in the D Day landings, but manages to make one derogatory remark about the British General Montgomery.
But no, I'm not ignoring the sacrifices of the 400,000 US soldiers in WW1. Although it's worth pointing out that many of those may have survived if the US generals hadn't ignored the experiences of the French and British and ordered mass charges at the enemy trenches (something that their allies had realised was futile by 1918).
Interesting.
shareInteresting.
shareHow dare American producers only make film about American military and bias toward American! Don't they know they should have focused on the British instead!?
shareThere's a difference between bias and manipulating stuff, American war movies (and books and any other media) may as well be classed as propaganda because all of it will gladly omit the actions of any other nation unless completely unavoidable. Oh, unless they are mentioning mistakes or screw-ups. I love Band of Brothers, but it's about as accurate as a sundial in a basement and on the three times that it portrays the Brits it is to show them as incompetent, because obviously troops that had been fighting for 2 years longer are clearly not going to understand how to spot a tank or will be getting themselves captured at every chance they get.
Half of the stuff in Ambrose's book has been debunked as hearsay and thanks to the need to flesh out the show only about 8% of the stuff in Band of Brothers really happened. The 101st sitting in the Eagle's lair or discovering a concentration camp when the closest they got to one was about 800km away... all nonsense based on other outfits and even some non-American outfits. Yet cleverly made to look like documented actions rather than 8 episodes of Saving Private Ryan... clever.
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