Does Webster understand German or not?
In some episodes, Pvt. Webster is an interpreter for the unit. In others, he doesn't understand german. What gives?
share"Band of Brothers" is a terrific miniseries, but the show is has its share of flaws; Webster's inconsistent command of German is definitely a problem area.
Webster is first shown speaking and interpreting German in "Replacements" (episode 4); he does the same in "The Last Patrol" (episode 8), where he's established as one of Easy Company's two German interpreters. However, in "Why We Fight" (episode 9), Lesniewski tells Webster what a German baker is saying during a particularly tense scene. Given what the viewer knows about Webster, and the fact that the baker's words could be interpreted by someone with even a rudimentary knowledge of German, it's a baffling, head-scratching moment, and one that's compounded by a checkpoint scene in "Points" (episode 10) in which Webster is shown speaking German again.
The inconsistency might be attributed to the fact that episode 9 was written by someone who wasn't associated with either episodes 4, 8 or 10. Still, that's the kind of continuity error a supervising script editor is expected to catch; failing that, I can't imagine Eion Bailey (who played Webster) NOT bringing this discrepancy to the director's attention. Were the two episodes filmed so far out of sequence that even Bailey didn't notice the error? Or was additional dialogue left on the cutting room floor that made it clear Webster knew what the baker was saying, but simply didn't believe him?
After glancing at the scene again, and noticing the very obvious cut after Lesniewski tells Webster what the Baker has said, I'd say the latter is the most likely explanation. But until an interview (or a commentary track) surfaces that explains the inconsistency, I can't say for sure; maybe someone else can supply the relevant info.
In reality, David Kenyon Webster was a member of his school's German Club; however, in his memoir "Parachute Infantry," he describes his command of the language as "linguaphone German."
I think it's more the writers feeling that the scene wouldn't have the same emotional impact if Webster was speaking German and we either had to read subtitles or guess what they were trying to say. If you watch the scene, Webster clearly understands what the Baker's saying. But in his shock and fury at discovering the camp, he's yelling to the Baker in English.
There would have been no reason for the episode to use subtitles; the audience had already seen Webster speaking German (in episode 8) without them.
The problem here is a scene in which Lesniewski is shown translating the words of a German baker to Webster, when it's already been established that Webster understands German & is one of the company's German-English translators. This moment has thrown many first-time viewers off - and as I've said, the confusion is understandable.
At the very least, the viewer expects Webster to turn on Lesniewski and respond, "I KNOW what he's saying; I just don't buy it."
Like I said before, it's either poor script continuity or (more likely) a scene that was trimmed in the final edit.
webster did say *beep* to the german baker about him not knowing about the camp.
bird signs you want to plan a strategy based on bird signs.