Maybe it's my ignorance to what Captain Sobel was like in real life; but after reading the BoB book, I felt like Schwimmer nailed the character. Sobel from my understanding was petty, sadistic, and power hungry. What exactly did people not like about Schwimmer?
shareSchwimmer's acting was fine. The problem was that every time I looked at him I was seeing Ross Geller. I spent ten years watching him play ross geller so when " Sobel" screamed I was expecting him to end each sentence with " WE WERE ON A BREAK".
Like a lot of people have already said, I didn't think he was going to be good in the role, but he really was. He had a lot of really good lines.
"Are you planning to kill Germans? Not with this rusty piece of sh*t!" (or something like that).
---
I'm just expressing my opinion.
You may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas.
Like a lot of people have already said, I didn't think he was going to be good in the role, but he really was. He had a lot of really good lines.
"I'm losing Easy Company?"
Agreed, murph. In that scene, for just a moment, I felt tremendous sadness for him. That Schwimmer was able to inspire that kind of sympathy for such an otherwise thoroughly loathsome character indicates that he did his job.
The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.
I would not agree that the hatred for Sobel is associated generally to Schwimmer. People hate Sobel based on the story portrayed. He is after all basically the antagonist in the story (in the Mini-Series) up until Easy Company gets into the war. It was fully intended for him to come off like this to the audience.
Band of Brother's in the case of the series is a morally engrossing epic. Also consider that this series came out during a time of great patriotic fervor. Many people forget or don't realize that BoB debuted on HBO on September 9, 2001. Because of that it makes people hate the antagonist that much more.
David Schwimmer is obviously a great actor....he was hilarious on Friends. I loved Ross. But, I really hate Sobel... If an actor can make me love him in one show and hate him in another...he is good actor.
shareHe just seemed like Ross pretending to be Sobel.
shareShort answer, I thought he did a great job. Certainly a departure from the goofy Ross Gellar. If they felt they were taking a risk on him, I's say they won that roll of the dice.
~~~"Who do you think you're dealing with? Guess again."~~~
Ross was WAY out of his element. He was awful on this show. Than again, all he did was friends. Not very impressive.
Cult Leader my minds frightening, I drink blood from a human skull like a Viking
Actually, Schwimmer had quite a few acting credits to his name prior to Friends, including some sitcoms and some hour long dramas. Plus, between the start of Friends and BoB, he had more acting credits, including movies.
Do you think his being "awful on this show" had anything to do with the character he was playing? His character wasn't a smooth guy. He was a good drill instructor, but a prick. He was horrible as a tactician.
I think his performance made everyone feel like Sobel was an azzhole.
Good point, the character he was playing was a dick, and yeah, Worst tactician in the last 100 years.
Cult Leader my minds frightening, I drink blood from a human skull like a Viking
It could be that he takes you a bit out of the series because he is so recognizable but I think he did a great job.
shareThe fact that so many here seemed to hate David Schwimmer as Sobel means that Schmimmer the actor was highly effective. Sobel was a loathsome character, that's what we're meant to take away.
I don't think he's particularly strong actor, but the directors coached him up very well, as they did with all these young actors.