Print Media – Page 99

Band of Brothers: Too close for comfort, The Guardian, September 24, 2001

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Band of Brothers: Too close for comfort

The Guardian
24 September 2001
by Matt Seaton, The Guardian, September 24, 2001

With talk of the US drafting men to fight its ‘crusade’ against terrorism, the second world war mini-series, Band Of Brothers, has suddenly become all too relevant. Matt Seaton reports from the set

Captain Dye of the US Marine Corps stubs out another Marlboro and pauses to consider the question of what he did when he retired after 22 years of military service.

“The mafia wasn’t hiring,” he says dryly, “so I went to LA.” Continue reading Band of Brothers: Too close for comfort, The Guardian, September 24, 2001

Band of Brothers Media Print Media

Brothers in Arms, Time Out, September 19, 2001

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Brothers in Arms

by Tom Howard, Time Out, September 19, 2001

Spielberg’s $120 million WWII drama ‘Band Of Brothers’ comes to BBC2 next month. The series may be awash with American heroism, but its trump card is rising British star Damian Lewis.

The famous British inferiority complex- normally aired after sporting occasions – has never been as misplaced as our reaction to ‘Band Of Brothers’. American films such as ‘U-571′ tried to rewrite history, but this $120 million ten-part HBO-produced series is rigorously accurate. It’s the story of Easy Company, a crack American unit who parachute into Normandy in 1944, and then, at least according to the Daily Mail and others, proceed to win WWII single-handedly.

Continue reading Brothers in Arms, Time Out, September 19, 2001

Band of Brothers Media Print Media

The Art of War, Salon, September 8, 2001

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The Art of War

by Gary Kamiya, Salon.com, September 8, 2001

HBO’s massive and bloody miniseries, “Band of Brothers,” attempts the impossible and nearly succeeds.

The history of serious movies about war, from “Paths of Glory” to “Johnny Got His Gun” to “Apocalypse Now” to “Saving Private Ryan,” is a history of attempts to do the impossible: turn the unthinkable into art. The problem, always, is truth. If a work of art about war does not tell the truth, it is obscene — but how can one tell this truth? And what is it, anyway? Is it a former human being who has been turned into pieces of bloody meat by large fragments of metal? Or is it the soaring words of Abraham Lincoln: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain …”? Falstaff or Prince Hal? Hideous death or trumpets and brass? What form, what story line, what aesthetic approach can capture war’s nihilistic horror and still contain some larger meaning?

Continue reading The Art of War, Salon, September 8, 2001

Band of Brothers Media Print Media

Easy Company’s Hard Times, Los Angeles Time, August 26, 2001

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Easy Company’s Hard Times

by Susan King, Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2001

HBO’s ‘Band of Brothers’ miniseries re-creates the bonds forged in a unit of American GIs during bloody European fighting in World War II.

HOLLYWOOD — It’s hard not to be struck by the silence when watching Tom Hanks’ war, as played in the 10-part HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” which begins Sunday.

Although millions were spent in filming the series, which aims to capture the three-year odyssey of the U.S. paratroopers of Easy Company up to and through D-day and on to the ultimate defeat of the Germans in World War II, the result is a study in how powerful restraint can be. Shot from the point of view of a fighting man, “Band of Brothers” puts one in the trenches, in the chaos and often in the silence of war. Continue reading Easy Company’s Hard Times, Los Angeles Time, August 26, 2001

Band of Brothers Media Print Media

This American Platoon is Led by a Brit, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2000

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Damian Lewis survived a slew of tests to win the role of a war hero.

by DAVID GRITTEN, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2000

HATFIELD, England — “I’ve really screwed up my hearing,” grimaces Damian Lewis. “I should have had earplugs in.”

The mud-spattered Lewis, in a World War II paratrooper uniform, has spent the morning shooting blanks (24 for each take) from an M-1 rifle at a crowd of extras dressed as German soldiers.

It is a deafening business, and everyone else on set either wears earplugs or covers their ears whenever director Tom Hanks yells “action!” Continue reading This American Platoon is Led by a Brit, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2000

Band of Brothers Media Print Media

Watch Out for The Young Dudes, Evening Standard, July 8, 2000

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Young, gifted and British: the new crop of Brit actors seems to have been cast in the mould marked “Good-Looking — But In An Unconventional Manner”. And there is nothing the film industry likes more than faces that stick in the mind long after they’ve smiled or scowled their way across a screen. Continue reading Watch Out for The Young Dudes, Evening Standard, July 8, 2000

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In Rank with Spielberg and Hanks, The Evening Standard, May 16, 2000

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In rank with Spielberg and Hanks

by Kensal Green, The Evening Standard, May 16, 2000

It’s incredibly easy to spot Damian Lewis as he wanders into the gastro-pub near his flat in Kensal Green. Not only is his hair very ginger – brazen- coloured, really – but he’s wearing a khaki jumper and trousers which make him look, from a distance, like a soldier without the boots.

Most people will know 28-year-old Lewis as a soldier – Lieutenant Neil Loughrey, the morally-compromised British Army officer in the BBC’s acclaimed drama Warriors. This was the kind of TV event which provoked debate (about the UN’s role in Bosnia) well after its broadcast date and thus bestowed instant fame on its actors. In its wake, Lewis was offered a part in the BBC’s current late-twenty-something series Hearts and Bones. He plays Mark, miserably married to Dervla Kirwan (as if that were possible), desperately trying to leave his early-twenties behind, but not making a very good fist of it. I get the feeling that this pub on the Harrow Road is full of Marks. Continue reading In Rank with Spielberg and Hanks, The Evening Standard, May 16, 2000

Media Print Media Warriors

Warriors: Oh what a lonely war, Daily Mail, November 22, 1999

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Warriors: Oh what a lonely war

by Peter Paterson, Daily Mail, November 22, 1999

OVER the past two nights, we have seen, in Warriors, a deeply moving, alarmingly realistic and powerfully acted drama about a war in Bosnia-Herzegovina that occurred less than a decade ago, yet has been almost wiped from the memory by subsequent Balkan troubles.

Given this collective amnesia and magnificent as it was in many respects – Warriors had no time to explain the witches’ brew of Serb versus Croat, Moslem versus Orthodox, the bitter legacy of World War II, the Tito dictatorship or the collapse of communism. As a consequence, the complexities of who was fighting whom, and why, were barely intelligible to anyone who had not at least seen the shortened, three-hour version of that great documentary The Death of Yugoslavia. Continue reading Warriors: Oh what a lonely war, Daily Mail, November 22, 1999

Interviews Media Print Media Warriors

Fighting Talk, New Woman – October, 1999

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Love Wars

by Staff | New Woman | October, 1999

Ioan Gruffudd and Damian Lewis play soldiers in a new BBC drama, so we thought we’d check out their basic training in the love wars.

We love a man in uniform, and they don’t come much better-looking than Ioan Gruffudd, 25, and Damian Lewis, 27. They’re officers in “Warriors”, BBC’s new hard-hitting series about Bosnia. But if they were really in the army, would they lead the charge or get beaten up in the showers?

Right, you ‘orrible men, we’re taking you over the NW emotional assault course to see what you’re made of…

Continue reading Fighting Talk, New Woman – October, 1999

Hamlet Media Print Media Theatre

Hamlet: Swordplay the Serious Way, New York Times, July 2, 1995

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Hamlet: Swordplay the Serious Way

By Matt Wolf, theater critic and journalist in London, New York Times, July 2, 1995

LONDON— “A HIT, A VERY PALPABLE HIT!” cries the courtier Osric during the climactic duel of “Hamlet.” And in the Broadway production now at the Belasco Theater, those hits are palpable indeed.

Productions of “Hamlet” are often distinguished by verse speaking or physical design. Jonathan Kent’s current staging, imported from the Almeida Theater Company in London, offers an additional virtue in the face-off between Hamlet (played by Ralph Fiennes) and Laertes (Damian Lewis). Beginning on a white rectangular fencing mat, the fight soon spills beyond it, weaving among the chairs of Claudius’s dismayed court as the two combatants become increasingly fevered.

Continue reading Hamlet: Swordplay the Serious Way, New York Times, July 2, 1995

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Great British Hopes: Damian Lewis – Feb 11, 1995

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Great British Hopes: Damian Lewis

by Kate Bassett – The Times – 11 February 1995

Damian Lewis

Profession: Actor

Age: 23

Claim to fame: The New York Times hailed him as “The new Ralph Fiennes? The next Hugh Grant?”

Distinctive features: Six foot three. Flaming red hair. “I wasn’t aware of my hair until critics started talking about it as part of the performance,” says Lewis good-humouredly. “Maybe there’s a whole play going on on top of my head.”

Continue reading Great British Hopes: Damian Lewis – Feb 11, 1995

Hamlet Media Print Media Theatre

Who Will Be The New Ralph Fiennes, The Next Hugh Grant? – Jan 1, 1995

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Who Will Be The New Ralph Fiennes, The Next Hugh Grant?

By Matt Wolf – New York Times – January 1, 1995

LONDON— NOT LONG AGO, DANIEL Day Lewis and Kenneth Branagh were the British names on everyone’s lips when it came to actors; more recently, Hugh Grant and Ralph Fiennes have dominated Hollywood’s imagination. Which raises the inevitable question: Who among current British actors are poised to become the next Hugh Grant and the next Ralph Fiennes?

Continue reading Who Will Be The New Ralph Fiennes, The Next Hugh Grant? – Jan 1, 1995