Carentan: Band of Brothers (TV Episode)

Plot

The third installment of HBO's acclaimed fact-based WWII miniseries, Band of Brothers, is entitled "Carentan," and details Easy Company's involvement with wresting control of the eponymous French town from the Germans. The town is critical strategically, because it is where the forces from Utah Beach and Omaha Beach will link up before moving further inland. The gritty, gore-splattered episode was directed by Mikael Salomon (Hard Rain) and written by E. Max Frye (Something Wild). It begins as a few soldiers from Easy, still lost after the chaotic night jump into Normandy, come across Private Albert Blithe (Marc Warren), standing alone in a field, staring into space. As the soldiers start discussing the skirmishes they've been in, and displaying the grim souvenirs they've obtained, Blithe is nervously evasive. He later hears some soldiers discussing rumors about Lieutenant Speirs (Matthew Settle), who has joined Easy Company. Some have heard that he cold-bloodedly murdered some German POWs (an incident shown in the previous episode). There is also a rumor that Speirs shot one of his own men for drinking. When the troops reach Carentan, they find the Germans waiting. There is a bloody fight for the town, and Blithe panics and collapses. The Germans, outnumbered, begin to retreat. Blithe is examined by a medic, who finds nothing wrong with him, despite his claim that he can't see. Lieutenant Winters (Damian Lewis) has a few compassionate words with him, and Blithe recovers. Winters knows the Germans will try to retake the town, so Easy Company waits in the trenches, to attack the similarly entrenched Germans at first light. That night, one soldier mistakenly bayonets another from the company, and the panicky Blithe, perhaps unwisely, tells Speirs of his inability to fight. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi

Review

With its third installment, "Carentan," HBO's docudrama miniseries Band of Brothers continues to be a challenging, but rewarding program for attentive viewers. "Carentan" focuses on Private Albert Blithe (Marc Warren), who turns up in the French countryside alone and staring up into the sky. We later learn that after Blithe landed far from the DZ (as did many other soldiers, as dramatized in the previous episode), he wandered around in a frightened daze, and made no effort to find his unit. Like Corporal Upham (Jeremy Davies) in executive producer Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, Blithe repeatedly panics and freezes up during battle. Unlike Upham, his character is viewed sympathetically. We can certainly understand his fear, and it doesn't have the direct causal impact of costing other soldiers' lives. The interaction between Blithe and the cold-hearted Lieutenant Speirs (Matthew Settle) is a dramatic highlight of this episode. Speirs has been shown murdering a group of German POWs. Some troops have discussed rumors that Speirs killed one of his own men for getting drunk, so there's tremendous tension in the scene where Speirs offers the panic-stricken Blithe a drink. By focusing on the small-scale drama within the larger tableau of world war, the filmmakers keep the series from being merely a realistic reenactment, and maintain audience involvement. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi