Band of Brothers

I just finished watching “Band of Brothers” (“BoB”) for probably the fifth time and even though it premiered 22 years ago, I believe it holds up as one of the best shows ever made. Based on the book by Steven Ambrose of the same name “BoB” chronicles the lives of the soldiers from Easy Company, 2d Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the fabled 101st Airborne Division during WW2 and the war they fought across occupied Europe. This is not a documentary and their are some inaccuracies but most of what is depicted actually happened and the soldiers we see were real people. If you ever served in any branch of the US military and made it past basic training, then “BoB” will resonate with you. Because of Ambrose’s meticulous research, interviews with Easy Company veterans and the careful adaptation of his work into the screenplay the authenticity portrayed on the screen is palpable. The way the guys joke and complain will be familiar to anyone who wore a uniform regardless of when, from WW2 to OIF/OEF you will recognize these soldiers. I will say the profanity has been slightly dialed back for television to some extent but otherwise feels legit. Beginning with Easy Co’s paratrooper training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia under the weasely 1LT Bernard Sobol (David Schwimmer) the early bonds of the unit are forged as the men endure the same hardships and petty tyranny of Sobol. Soon enough Easy is off to England and additional training to prepare them for their jump into Normandy on 5 June 1944 kicking off the D-Day allied invasion of Nazi occupied France. In my opinion, three episodes standout in particular; #6, “Bastogne”, #7 “The Breaking Point” and #9 “Why We Fight”. In “Bastogne” during the epic “Battle of the Bulge” the story is told by focusing on the actions of the company medic, Corporal Eugene ‘Doc’ Roe (Shane Taylor) during one of the coldest winters on record for the area. The soldiers of the 101st Airborne were hastily deployed to the Ardennes Forest without proper cold weather gear and supplies and they were low on ammo and rations. Viewers watch CPL Roe as he moves between the Easy Co. foxholes checking up on the paratroopers dispensing advice and care as best he can with sparse supplies. Later in a nearby village where a casualty collection point is established Roe strikes up a friendship with a young local civilian nurse as he scrounges for bandages and morphine. He is devastated when on a return trip he finds the building has been hit by German artillery and the nurse is killed. CPL Roe is really just a kid but his maturity, compassion and dedication to his buddies is both deeply moving and impressive.In “Breaking Point” events are seen through the point of view of the Easy Co. First Sergeant, C. Carwood Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg). Easy is still freezing and fighting in the Belgian forest as 1SG Lipton makes the rounds taking care of his troops. By this time their CO, Captain Dick Winters (Damian Lewis), is now the battalion commander and another officer who did not train with Easy at Toccoa, 1LT Norman Dike (Peter O’Meara) is the Easy Company commander. Dike is well-connected and has been sent to the front lines to get some combat leadership experience to burnish his resume. Sadly, Dike is utterly unfit for the position leaving the 1SG to pick up the considerable slack. I felt that the portrayal of 1SG Lipton was perfect and he personifies every trait a professional non-commissioned officer should have in spades. Having been both an NCO and an officer myself I think I know what a good senior enlisted leader looks like and Lipton (who later gets a battlefield commission) is an exemplar. You could show this episode to any service NCO academy class as a “how-to” guide. “Why We Fight” is a gut punch; as Easy Co. forges on into Germany they stumble upon a satellite facility of the infamous Dachau concentration camp. Any student of history knows well the horrors of the Holocaust and has seen the images but that does not mitigate the impact of watching the reenactment of Easy Co. liberating this camp. As shocking and terrible these scenes are, what is truly striking is that you know the reality was far, far worse. I’ve been to Dachau a few times and it is a sobering experience that everyone should have at some point in their life, you will never forget it. Easy Company’s elite paratroopers were at the front of America’s fight against Nazi Germany. Normandy, Holland (Operation Market Garden), The Bulge, and Berchtesgaden (The Eagle’s Nest), the men of Easy Company had a unique campaign seeing action in legendary engagements that any casual historian is familiar with. It was especially poignant how Spielberg starts off most episodes with snippets of interviews that were done with surviving Easy Co. veterans. You can hear in their voices as they remember that time the impact the war had on them and their lives. Watching in 2023 it is sad to think that all of these heroes are no longer with us. Spielberg’s direction and the overall production are just superb; at the time it was released on HBO “BoB” was also the most expensive show every made and you can tell. The cast is terrific, actors were chosen because they actually resembled the young paratroopers they portrayed. Damian Lewis as MAJ Dick Winters turns in a stellar performance as the quiet leader who took a bunch of boys to war where they fought in nearly every major engagement and brought many of them home. I cannot recommend “Band of Brothers” strongly enough; you cannot help but be touched by the camaraderie, courage, and humanity of these soldiers and Americans can never forget their sacrifices in restoring the freedom of so many oppressed people.

About ~11 hours of some of the best WW2 TV you will ever see. There is no other like this and honestly outranks all over TV series, movies, dramas, and documentaries on the subject of WW2. It's action packed, it's heart breaking, it's funny, it's everything you could want and more. I only wish I could forget it all and rewatch it again.

Great mini series!

I am writing this review in memory of my Grandfather, 1st. Sergeant Oda (pronounced Odie) Patton. He was in the heavy artillery division. At first, he wanted to join the navy because he heard that they had better food, but he was colored blind and didn't pass the physical requirements, so he volunteered for the Army instead. I asked him one time if we were kin to General Patton, and my Grandfather said, only distantly. He said he saw Patton during the war only once and it was from far off, the General being driven away in a jeep. I think my Papaw had a rough time with the name Patton on his uniform. People either expected something out of him, or disliked him for that name. My Grandfather would not speak of the war to me in any detail until late in his life, and it was just bits and pieces of what sounded like regret not bravado, and his words were vague at best about that time in his life. He said that he was a different man over in Europe and spent his life after the service as a Baptist minister; I suspect in atonement for self perceived transgressions. He was a hard man, but fair. I told him one time that I don't believe I could have made it through what he did. He said that I would have been alright because of the soldiers I would have been surrounded by. Though he didn't talk about the more horrible things he'd seen or did, he did mention a few names and times. I know that he was part of Patton's third army, and was part of a hundred mile march that nearly killed him, and his toes had only stumps of nails on them because of it. He was at or around several of the locations in this film. I remember him speaking of a place called Bastong (not sure of the spelling) he spoke of being cold and hungry. He spoke of the sound of shrapnel thumping into the snow banks around him. He said being a country boy helped him survive, he kept his men alive by killing cows and tying them across his half track. It was so cold the carcasses froze and they would chop pieces off with a hatchet to cook when they could, and eat raw if they could not start a fire; thawing bites out in a rag in their pockets As he grew sicker with cancer, he revealed a few things. I will not speak of them because he would not want people to know the horrible things he had to do over there. It honestly sounded like Hell to me. I would not have recognized my "Papaw". Ironically, the one thing that seemed to bother him more than anything else was about a soldier that had been killed; an explosion had buried the body under a stack of wood by an old house. My Grandfather, could see the poor soldier from high atop his vehicle as they rode past...he said that he hoped that man got the burial he deserved and was not left behind. My Grandfather did not want a military funeral. But the family placed a plaque at the foot of his grave anyway: Oda Patton served in World War 2, and Korea. After the Victory, he trained artillery squads until his twenty years was up. He retired a twenty year veteran just months before deployment to Viet Nam. He died three days after the attack on our country on Sept 11. He would not watch movies like Band of Brothers. I saw him get nearly sick when he watched the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. He was at my house watching the movie. As those troops were cut to pieces trying to deploy from the amphibious assault vehicles, he got up to leave and said that he "didn't want to see that"...that's all he would say, and he left. Three days before his death, and we were watching the twin towers in New York burn on the endless broadcasts, he asked me to turn off the t.v. I have a folder. A THICK folder of situations for exemplary performance where he trained men at Fort Sill in Oklahoma. I remember seeing his ribbons and decorations in a drawer. They were not on display. They were in there with old broken wrist watches, fingernail clippers, and lose change. Years later, after his burial, and I was a grown man and had a family of my own, I went to that drawer and looked for those ribbons that were meant to be worn on a uniform. The family wanted those ribbons and pins. They were not there. I looked everywhere. They were never found. Now that I look back, I think my Grandfather threw them away; not out of disrespect or contempt, but because they were so painful to look at. He never kept in contact with any "Army buddies," he had no mementos or spoils of war. He didn't want to see people that had known him when he was a vicious soldier whom was doing what it took to try and keep himself and his fellow soldiers alive. I think he just wanted to forget. But as I turned the t.v. off that day, and the folks at the hospital was lowering the flag to half mast for the poor people in New York, I realized that though he spent over forty plus years (after his retirement) trying to forget anything that had to do with the Army, he never could.

Everything about this is simply astounding. The story is pacy and gripping (given that it is true), the characterisation and the bond between teh characters and the empathy between the viewer and the characters, the production and effects, the pace of it and the mix between fighting and training/resting/reflection on the war. And then it is made even greater by interviews with the real cast of characters, the real Mjr Dick Winters and others from the 101st talking about the actual events that the series portrays.Without a doubt the best thing i have ever seen on a silver screen. Better than any WW2 movie (or any war movie in fact).Also, if you like this, you will probably like 'The Pacific'. A sister series by HBO following the Marines in the Pacific arena as they invade Japanese occupied islands. If BoB is 5 stars, then the Pacific is 4.5 stars, and pretty much all other TV / Movies can only achieve a max of 4.5 stars in comparison.

Its all been said... but we all have our own take on an experience such as B of B. I first saw it on TV when it first came out... video taped it and watched it again. Then 10 years later bought the DVD set and have watched it all plus the extra features disc over the last week. It still remains the best, most evocative story I've seen, clearly enhanced by the support of the real troopers who offer snippets of interview before each part. Don't miss out on getting the discs with the additional features as one major aspect of B of B success is the manner in which the actors are shown preparing for the filming through the video diary of Ron Livingstone (Lt Nixon) and the interviews for the Normandy premiere. The actors are clearly in awe of the real men of E company and clearly give their whole body and soul into honouring the memory of the events portrayed. I worked with one of the smaller part actors a couple of years after its release and even then he remained in awe of the whole project and was proud to have featured in the experience... I think this is a major part of its realism and success. Poignant stuff to watch, particularly as Dick Winters recently passed away... an unmatched salute to those who fought for freedom in WW2

A series of superb quality from the outset, the influence of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg is stamped all over it. With production values approaching the Saving Private Ryan class (praise indeed) it follows the fortunes of Easy Company's troops from their training back in the US before they hit mainland Europe. David Schwimmer plays against type as a memorably sly, unbending martinet, but overall BoB is dominated by a stellar yet understated performance by Damian Lewis as the quietly heroic Richard Winters, a natural leader of men. The battle scenes are enthralling, with the associated effects graphic but never gratuitous in the portrayal of the terror of war. The other members of the company are no mere cyphers, and you're genuinely interested in their fate as the fight their way across France. Put it together with a top class score by Michael Kamen, and you're watching a true all time classic. The Pacific is another much heralded WW2 epic, but it can't possibly eclipse its illustrious big brother in my view. Outstanding.

Words cannot describe how good this TV series is so i'm not even going to bother.It's far and away the best War based tv series on the market and is in the style of saving private Ryan which is only a good thing. Plenty of extras are included which includes an 80 minute documentary which is well worth ta watch.The steel book case is really classy and preserves the fold out dvd case really well helping to preserve it. Although £25 may seem like a lot its really worth it if you're going to keep hold of this series and use it numerous times over the years.

whether you like war dramas or not you can't help but find this series a stunning piece of work. beautifully told this series takes you on a journey with 'easy company' as they fight for freedom against the Nazis.based on true accounts from the surviving members of easy company this highly addictive drama keeps you watching til the very end.unlike some hollywood productions which can just focus on making the effects look good without telling any kind of story, this focuses on telling the stories of these men with some stunning special effects thrown in. this seems so true to life and you really get a feel for what the men of ww2 went through.