Reviews

4/10. The idea that Josephine Bonaparte had any power is well understood by historians to be a British calumny against Napoleon. In the long war against Napoleon the Brits thought up an applied practically every insult. That is fine, every side does that. But we don't have to believe it. And Scott did not need to make a film centered on laughable and debunked claims.

Napoleon was, simply put, in the top five military and political geniuses in human history. Yet this is given second tier in Scott's soap opera treatment. We see some tactical genius, but in this film we get none of the strategic genius.

Finally we get no picture of Napoleon as the ultimate self made man, and for whatever motive, the pinnacle of actual export of revolution; which is exactly what he was, and why he was hated and feared by the early 19th century status quo.

It is hard to criticize this episode, since everything about the attack on Foy, as a piece of series TV, is just astoundingly dramatic. Even the musical score that accompanies Speirs run though the farm outside of Foy would wake the dead with its rousing drama.

But this episode also falsely makes Donald Hoobler look like an idiot who shot himself with a trophy Lugar pistol, which is not true but plays into Hollywood views. Worse yet this episode also grossly slanders Lt. Norman Dike, who was awarded two bronze stars for heroism in combat and who was admired and well like by his men for his courage and self sacrifice while under fire.

The fact is according to interviews done after Winter's book, the Foy attack, and Dike's initial command, is badly misportrayed in the series in several elements. Dike was sent in with almost no support, there was not even covering fire nor mortars from the rest of company. Dike sent two platoons on a flanking maneuver, which was textbook tactic, but they hit up against armored defenders and were taking murderous fire, and and the three sergeants let their men to take cover and not advance due to the murderous fire. As Winters sent in Speirs to relieve Dike, he also ordered several companies to move up, and to open up in support. So what really happened was Winters sent in a seriously inadequate, lightly armed force, that attack failed to advance due to it not being powerful enough to dislodge the defending Germans, and after seeing his mistake Winters sent in Speirs, but also tripled the attacking force, added a huge amount of support, several times the firepower. In fact if you watch this episode you would not even know that Lt Dike was himself shot, and heavily bleeding from the wound, trying to get to and help the squads he (again properly) sent on the flanking maneuver

It bears emphasizing that Lt. Dike was mentioned in orders for courage in action in the Normandy jump. He also was awarded a Bronze star for heroism in Market Garden, when he was under heavy fire from very strong German elements attacking Eindhoven while Winters was celebrating with civilians in Eindhoven. Dike later received a second bronze star (the oak leaf award is for a second Bronze Star) for personally exposing himself to fire pulling three injured men from exposed positions while under a murderous 88mm arty barrage.

Not to take away anything from Speirs, but in order to achieve the goosepimple Speir's run moment, complete with rousing musical score, Ambrose and Hanks grossly slandered an heroic, battle tested, honorable veteran. As the case with several other gross misportrayals in the series, they chose the veterans who were already dead and whom they could slander without repercussion.

Less egregious but still a nasty falsehood is the claim that Hoobler was "playing" with a captured pistol and shot and killed himself. This is apparently used for irony by the writers. In fact every single soldier with him at the time stated Hoobler was climbing through some heavy brush, while advancing, encountered barbed wire and his rifle was caught in the barbed wire and discharged into the femoral artery with his rifle, not the captured pistol. The claim about the pistol was only made by personnel that were nowhere near the event, and in fact were likely motivated by jealousy for Hoobler having acquired the Luger.

Sadly the reliance in the series on Stephen Ambrose has resulted in quite a few others being slandered as well. Even Sobel is portrayed falsely, and the dislike of Sobel was largely based on his rigorous training, and anti-Semitism of some of the men, including, indications are, of winters. That anti-Semitism was common, so I am not picking out Winters and some of the Sargent's, but several Easy company veterans have noted that the dislike of Sobel, and the "Sargent's revolt" had that at its core. In fact most of the Easy company combat veterans interviewed by historians other than Ambrose described Sobel as a top officer and credited his rigorous training for their survival and success in combat. One could watch all of Band of Brother and not know that in fact Sobel did jump into Normandy on the evening of June 5, and organized a combat team and -- while outnumbered -- attacked and destroyed a set of machine gun nests, and in fact, in the dark properly navigated himself and the men with him to his proper assembly point in Carantan.