I swear I wrote a review of this somewhere but I cannot find it. I guess it's possible I wrote it long enough ago that it was on zip.ca and I lost it when the site went offline.
I think my initial rating was an 8/10 because I had some reservations about the "noble grunt" nature of the show. And it's true, it's a "noble grunt" war "film" in the classic tradition of the genre. But in a miniseries, the "noble grunt" thing feels more earned.
But what also helps it is its source, a reported book about what actually happened. And the decision to include the actual soldiers, though it could be an issue in terms of narrative quality, gives the whole thing a strong docudrama feel that helps with how "noble grunt" the whole thing is.
Also, "Bastogne" is one of the great episodes of TV of its era.
PS For fans of Saving Private Ryan, it's worth watching this and thinking about how different it is. (I would say how much better it is.)
Shout by rnhaasBlockedParent2024-03-24T15:07:47Z
I swear I wrote a review of this somewhere but I cannot find it. I guess it's possible I wrote it long enough ago that it was on zip.ca and I lost it when the site went offline.
I think my initial rating was an 8/10 because I had some reservations about the "noble grunt" nature of the show. And it's true, it's a "noble grunt" war "film" in the classic tradition of the genre. But in a miniseries, the "noble grunt" thing feels more earned.
But what also helps it is its source, a reported book about what actually happened. And the decision to include the actual soldiers, though it could be an issue in terms of narrative quality, gives the whole thing a strong docudrama feel that helps with how "noble grunt" the whole thing is.
Also, "Bastogne" is one of the great episodes of TV of its era.
PS For fans of Saving Private Ryan, it's worth watching this and thinking about how different it is. (I would say how much better it is.)