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History By HBO
What we think we know about the past mostly comes from motion pictures. And since the ‘90s, many of those motion pictures debuted on HBO. That’s the point of History by HBO, which elevates “Band of Brothers” and “Deadwood” to the level of scholarly attention normally lavished on Schindler’s List or High Noon.
Author Rebecca Weeks lectures at New Zealand’s Media Design School but writes for a wider audience than the merit pay and tenure committees of academia. History by HBO is organized into four case studies—the aforementioned “Band of Brothers” and “Deadwood” along with “Boardwalk Empire” and “Treme”—and opens with an overview of HBO’s role in changing the definition of “possible” on television. Of course, she notes that television’s definition has become fluid in world of proliferating platforms. Narrowcasting is a better description than broadcasting, since “television” is less mass media nowadays than a medium of individual consumption.
Curiously, she saves HBO’s first breakout historical series, “Band of Brothers,” for last. Produced by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, “Band of Brothers” follows closely on the example of their World War II blockbuster, Saving Private Ryan. Like Private Ryan, it focuses on the experiences of a unit of “ordinary GIs,” but with 10 episodes, “Band of Brothers” provides a wider panorama that begins with basic training and ends in victory. Like other HBO productions, it was generously budgeted and aimed at an educated, affluent audience. Attaining the aura of “authenticity” was expensive. Weeks focuses on the series’ use of sound and music, emphasizing that television (and post-silent film) is an audiovisual medium. Remarking on the series’ production, “the soundtrack positions viewers right in the center of the action.”
The author makes a strong case for the importance of her subject. With programming sold in 155 countries (and pirated everywhere), HBO has assumed the role of Hollywood studios in propagating America’s national myths into global myths.
History by HBO: Televising the American Past is published by University Press of Kentucky. For more information on the Media Design School, visit (https://link.edgepilot.com/s/9eded68b/RJABox-v8EGcBmHf93B6CA?u=https://mediadesignschool.com/
