[roma]

Answering my own question...it is ol' freddy joe farnsworth from the Boot Camp who is the Trooper on the Horse in #3. I finally got the hang of my ff buttons on the dvd remote. ...and his name really is Freddy Joe.... I just thought that was what Ron L. was calling him in the diaries sort of facetiously since Farnsworth was the Cadre.. hm. freddy joe. nice parents.
--jonelle

[Kiwiwriter]

The most moving part of Carentan for me were two segments:

First, when the company is back in England and they get the word to be ready for a new jump. You see the life fall out of their faces as they realize they may die tomorrow.

Second is where Malarkey goes to get the clothing back from the laundry, and they still have the uniforms of all the guys who didn't survive Normandy. It's a roll call of the honored dead done in a different way than you'd expect.

However, there were so many excellent scenes in that episode (as in all the others), that I can't list them all.

[Captain RWF]

Hi all,
I agree with you Kiwiwriter about the scene with Malarkey. He's standing there as the shop assistant is reading off the names looking as if he is thinking of each of those men that were gone that he had spent so much time with.
Cheers,
Andrew

[marigold]

True. Malarkey's expression in that scene makes you feel what he was feeling at that time... :D


gold

[jtag]

Definitely a moving moment. It takes the "tribute by names" memorial method and allows it to be expressed in a particularly touching manner. It's also the next step in the war's attack on Malarkey's innocence. I just watched "The Patrol" last night and seeing the toll taken on the character is hard to watch. I'm glad the real Malarkey seems to have had that "long happy life in peace" mentioned in "Points".

jay

[appell8]

Jay, he has also carried a lot of baggage, as shown in WSAT. The writers picked up on that, quite effectively.

I thought the laundry scene was high risk, and a false note would have made it melodrama. But it was acted beautifully, by Grimes and by the laundress. It worked.

Unfortunately, the first time I saw it I was confused because I hadn't registered the transition from France to Aldbourne. Shoulda known.

[Kiwiwriter]

jtag, on Jan 8 2003, 08:36 AM, said:

I'm glad the real Malarkey seems to have had that "long happy life in peace" mentioned in "Points".

jay

What is the real Don Malarkey doing these days? It isn't in the Ambrose book.

[appell8]

Retirement in Oregon, with his college sweetheart, punctuated by trips such as the one to Washington for the November symposium.

More, BK?

[WhitfieldUK]

Still trying to work out why Blithe was staring up at the sky for so long.

[cat]

Just to venture a guess but I'd think it was because of shock and confusion mixed in with disorientation from the sleeping pills. He did say all he did when he landed was sleep.

Kelly

[jtag]

WhitfieldUK, on Jan 11 2003, 03:30 AM, said:

Still trying to work out why Blithe was staring up at the sky for so long.

Literally, probably what Kelly said, or incipient hysterical blindness. Literarily, well my guess is, with all the metaphors floating around this episode, he's looking to heaven for guidance or mercy or answers.


jay

[marigold]

i thought he was feeling sleepy again? j/k. might have been marveling at the clear sky and not the way it was the night/dawn they jumped?

gold

[Dirigoboy]

My guess is disorientation from the sleeping pills and the stress of jumping into the war zone. As to hysterical blindness, I think that that was how his body reacted initially to the stress of combat-----it temporarily shut down.

As a side note, no matter how many times I study the character of Blithe, I continue to come away with the feeling that he may have been a bit "slow" or sheltered by a rural existence perhaps that had left him unprepared for the instant decision making required of combat, though I do feel that he was trying to do his best as witnessed by him finally firing his weapon from his foxhole at the behest of Winters.

[appell8]

As I've posted before, I was, and continue to be, bothered by the Blithe character, who is so profoundly out of place -- as shown -- that it boggles my mind that he would not be sent back from the line. He could not be depended upon, and soaked up the attention of many other troopers and officers trying to make him functional. My father's review made the same observation.

Major Winters, though, told me that that's how it happened. That takes care of the history. Still, the Blithe characterization drags down, for me, what otherwise was a superb episode.

Dirigoboy, at least historically, you can't write Blithe's reactions off as "rural." He was from South Philly, right Tony? Maybe Warren played him as a Southerner because he could do that accent but not the Philly accent. There wouldn't have been any other reason for casting him as a Southerner, would there? Nah, I refuse to get defensive.

My thunks, Doug

[Jiggersfromsphilly]

Born and raised here. End of story. Hollyweird at its best again.

Yowser !
Jiggersfromsphilly