David Leland, who also directed the WWII drama The Land Girls, took the helm for "Bastogne," the sixth installment of the painstakingly realistic HBO miniseries Band of Brothers. The script, by Bruce C. McKenna, does a superb job of capturing the small details that effect the lives of the men of Easy Company. Through the eyes of medic Eugene Roe (Shane Taylor), the audience sees the vital importance of basic medical supplies like the morphine and scissors that Roe spends much of the episode searching for, and the brief pleasures offered by such items as the pack of Lucky Strikes one soldier passes around on Christmas, and the chocolate bar Roe gives to the guilt-stricken Babe Heffron (Robin Laing). The creators of the series have obviously gone to great lengths in the name of verisimilitude. For this installment, massive, heavily detailed sets were constructed to represent the town of Bastogne and the nearby woods where combat occurs. This attention to detail extends to the real-life character of Renee (Lucie Jeanne), a Belgian nurse that Roe has a few quietly touching moments with. These moments are presented in a low-key and realistic manner, and give the audience a welcome respite from the testosterone-drenched brutality that has comprised much of the series to date. Taylor's strong and moving performance in the pivotal role adds another welcome reminder of the human cost of the war. As a medic, Roe chooses to separate himself from the men he treats, perhaps to make his job less stressful, but in the end he finds it impossible to avoid becoming personally involved, and his detached competence gives way to a somewhat uneasy camaraderie.
