Jensen Supplemental Post #1

For this supplemental post, I wanted to talk about a couple of television miniseries that are among my favorites: Band of Brothers (2001), The Pacific (2010), and the upcoming Masters of the Air. Yes, for those of you who know me better, I am talking about WWII stuff again. Apologies that I have been re-watching these instead of the Twilight film series...

Regarding these series, I wished to discuss the theme of historical memory. The two which have been released so far, BoB and Pacific, depict the war from an American perspective, following the events of the global conflict from the points-of-view of an American paratrooper company and various individual Marines respectively. Both series utilize first hand descriptions of the battles and subsequent events, either through interviews with veterans (which were also included in the episodes) or nonfiction memoirs such as With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa (1981). These elements lend a certain rhetorical ethos to the series, as horrors are made more real for the audience coming from those who experienced them and seeing how those experiences affected them in later life. This blend of fiction and nonfiction elements allows the viewer to experience the conflict from the perspective of an American fighter on the ground, and the decisions which had to be made by them seem rectified by the intense depictions of combat. 

That being said, there has been some critical disagreements surrounding these sorts of depictions of warfare. Perhaps the most controversial is that the limited perspective granted by these portrayals do not offer a holistic look at the overall complications and historical/political backgrounds which went into the conflict, offering in turn a biased perspective of the war. While certainly these series showcase a primarily American point of view, I would argue that the point of the series was to emphasize the emotional and physical toll which the events of the war had upon those who fought it, and it is assumed by the filmmaker that the viewer has a basic understanding of the events leading up to and during WWII. If the creators wanted to offer a more objective point of view, they would not have drawn from the personal/individual sources which they had. That being said, it is important to note that these series could have taken a deeper look into the trials which the civilian populations during the war suffered, as they are among the most negatively affected populations of such conflicts and are too often overlooked in the war film genre. 

I am super excited to see what Masters of the Air has to offer, and how the change in production companies (the first two being released by HBO, but with this being released through AppleTV) effects the content produced.