Band of Brothers Review

On September 9, 2001 - the Sunday night before the dreadful events of September 11 - subscribers to Home Box Office got their first glimpse of Band of Brothers, a monumental 10-part miniseries about the true story of an airborne infantry company during World War II's Northwest Europe campaign (June 1944 - May 1945).

Based on the best-seller by the late Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks (who had worked together in 1998's Saving Private Ryan) as a tribute to the real-life members of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, a unit which fought for 11 months from Normandy all the way to the capture of Hitler's "Eagles' Nest" - his personal retreat in the Bavarian Alps near the German-Austrian border.

The miniseries, which featured 500 speaking roles, the use of 2,000 extras, four painstakingly recreated World War II tanks, a "European village" set which could be re-dressed to recreate towns in France, Holland, Belgium, Germany and Great Britain, and hundreds of costumes and props to take the viewer back into those dark times when "(the men of Easy Company) depended on each other. And the world depended on them."

Because we only have basic cable here, I didn't see any of the episodes at when HBO originally aired Band of Brothers in 2001.  I tried making arrangements with a friend who had HBO and a VCR, but he often forgot to tape episodes for me, so I made do by getting Ambrose's book and reading it instead.

You've found in one another a bond, that exists only in combat, among brothers

Though - like most adaptations of this sort - the miniseries takes a few liberties with Ambrose's book, Band of Brothers vividly follows the story of E (Easy) Company, from its creation as part of the Second Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment at Camp Toccoa, Georgia in 1942 all the way through the many battles that followed its baptism of fire on June 6, 1944 and on to victory in Europe.

During the three-year period depicted in Band of Brothers, Easy Company's 140-man complement of officers and enlisted men endured many challenges and hardships, including training under a first commanding officer who was a martinet (Capt. Herbert Sobel, played by David Schwimmer), a month-long campaign in the hedgerows of Normandy, participation in the failed Operation Market Garden in Holland, and the harrowing stand of the 101st Airborne at Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge.

Assets and Features

In addition to Schwimmer, who makes you forget his more famous role as Ross in NBC's "Friends" as the tyrannical Capt. Sobel, the cast includes Damian Lewis as Maj. Richard Winters, Donnie Wahlberg as 2nd Lt. C. Carwood Lipton, and Colin Hanks (Tom's son) as 2nd Lt. Henry Jones -- there are many, many more fine actors featured in the 10-hour running time of this spectacular miniseries. The directors, which included Phil Alden Robinson (The Sum of All Fears) and Tom Hanks (That Thing You Do!), got outstanding performances from them all.

The writing of each episode is also top-notch, capturing the spirit and the essential facts from Ambrose's book perfectly.

Also worth mentioning are the amazing special effects and cinematography, and the late Michael Kamen (Die Hard) composed a hauntingly beautiful score that added emotional power to the stunning visuals of this monumental television miniseries. 

The 10 episodes of Band of Brothers are presented in five discs, with two parts in each DVD or Blu-ray disc.  The DVD edition comes in a metal case, with the six DVDs esconced in an accordion-type set of holders that folds in and out for easy removal/storage of the discs.
 

Disc 6 features The Making of Band of Brothers in which we discover that most of the authentic-looking locations were shot in a single set in England and using the hi-tech magic of computer generated images (CGI.). There's also a witty and revealing look behind the scenes provided by actor Ron Livingston (Capt. Lewis Nixon) in a series of short featurettes titled, naturally enough, Ron Livingston's Video Diaries. Capping off Disc 6 is the long-form documentary "We Stand Alone Together" which tells the true story of Easy Company via interviews with the survivors and documentary footage from World War II. 

Liabilities:

While the miniseries itself is relatively flawless, the folks at Playtone and Dreamworks Home Entertainment didn't really pay much attention to the hard-of-hearing demographic.  The only subtitle option in the menu is for Spanish; English-speaking viewers who are either partially or totally deaf can use the closed captions options on their TV, but this has mixed results depending on what kind of TV they have.  In older analog TVs, the captions will look incomplete, full of misspellings, or have bizarre symbols popping up; in newer TVs the captions will look okay but in all capital letters.

My Viewpoint:

I recommend Band of Brothers to anyone who wants to understand what the individual soldiers who fought in Europe during history's darkest period experienced when Easy Company was part of what the late historian Charles B. MacDonald once called the "mighty endeavor:" the liberation of Europe from Nazi tyranny.

Band of Brothers Episode List:

Part 1: Currahee! Written by Erik Jendresen and Tom Hanks; Directed by Phil Alden Robinson
Part 2: Day of Days Written by John Orloff; Directed by Richard Loncraine
Part 3: Carentan Written by E. Max Frye; Directed by Mikael Salomon
Part 4: Replacements Written by Graham Yost and Bruce McKenna; Directed by David Nutter
Part 5: Crossroads Written by Erik Jendresen; Directed by Tom Hanks
Part 6: Bastogne Written by Bruce McKenna; Directed by David Leland
Part 7: The Breaking Point Written by Graham Yost; Directed by David Frankel
Part 8: The Last Patrol Written by Erik Bork and Bruce McKenna; Directed by Tony To
Part 9: Why We Fight Written by John Orloff; Directed by David Frankel
Part 10: Points Written by Erik Jendresen and Erik Bork; Directed by Mikael Salomon

Update: If you have a Blu-ray player, get the Band of Brothers set on Blu-ray even if you have the original DVDs.  It has the same content as the original DVD set and comes in a similar tin container, but it's been remastered to 1080p video and DTS 5.0 audio standards which are amazingly vivid on a high-definition set.

Additionally, the Blu-ray not only has more subtitle options (including regular English subtitles and more detailed subtitles for the deaf and hearing impaired), but the interactive field guide has been updated and picture-in-picture commentary by the real surviving veterans of Easy Company is now available.