Band of Brothers - Fratelli al fronte

I am an 80 year old combat veteran (88th Inf. Div. Italy).

I watched BOB on the History Channel. I was so overwhelmed, indeed a bit panicked by the authentic nature of 90+% of the uniforms, signs, noises (I take exception to the sound of incoming artillery).

I cried several times at the authentic staging - for them and me.

I cannot believe I'll watch it again. It's too much. Too real.

We never had so much water allowed in a shower.

Rate: 10/10

There aren't much TV-series which have left such an impression on me as Band of Brothers did. From the moment I saw the first episodes, I knew I had to buy this on DVD.

This series, telling you the story of Easy Company of the US Army Airbourne Paratrooper division is so unbelievably realistic, so authentic... There has been put so much effort in taking care of all the details that it makes you believe that you are right in the middle of all the action. This is an outstanding achievement. It's about ten hours long, but I wouldn't mind if it was a few hours longer.

Each episode opens with interviews with several of the actual men from Easy Company, talking about some of the experiences that that episode deals with. When you buy the special edition DVD box (a metal case with 6 instead of 5 DVD's), you will find the complete interviews with these men on the extra DVD. These interviews certainly aren't to be missed!

As you may have guessed, I'm one of the biggest fans of this series. I could go on for hours about it, but our time is limited and instead of reading this you better watch the series yourself. According to me, there is only one score appropriate for a masterpiece like this one and that is 10/10. Amazing!!!!

I have read virtually all of Ambrose's WWII books, and this mini-series faithfully follows one of his best. The experience of these men of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne, was mirrored throughout the many divisions of Army and Marine ground troops in WWII. I feel that this series represents that collective experience in the finest, most forthright manner possible and pays tribute to them all. The acting, mostly by previously unheralded actors, was superb--particularly that of Damien Lewis (Capt.Winters). Winters had to mature along with his increasing command responsibilites, had to learn to turn over his initial company-level responsibilities to others as he was promoted to battalion commander. It was clearly tough for him, particularly when he had to order attacks on heavily defended objectives, without being to lead his former command directly. All of the characters were developed enough that you cared about each of them as individuals, and felt the loss of each of them through the attrition during the brutal fighting in the Northern European Theater. They cared for each other as fighting men do (confirmed by my own experience in the infantry in Vietnam), but at the same time they had to carry on with the mission regardless of loss. Replacements are regarded warily at first, but then managed to blend in with the veterans if they showed they were worthy of joining this band of brothers. The plot is real, and as such is neither macho nor macabre--it just is presented as it really happened. The truths of combat are stranger than fiction. The interviews with the actual veterans, interspersed throughout the series, added authenticity, verified what the series was showing. These representatives of "The Greatest Generation" did themselves and this nation proud. Though I knew the story well, I eagerly looked for to each new episode to see how well it tracked with the book and how well the actors and director portrayed it. Up to this series, I had thought that "Once an Eagle" (starring Sam Elliot) was the best war series, but this one is now at the top of the class in my view.

Band of Brothers finds us following the exploits of Easy Company throughout their campaign in Europe, from their inception all the way to the end of the war. The commentary from the actual soldiers that were in those situations is touching, to say the very least. These commentaries also help to move the character development along quite a bit, as it lets us into their own personal thoughts on the situations they faced. This project, to the best of my knowledge was undertaken at roughly the same time as Saving Private Ryan, using many of the same locations and also employing DreamWorks special effects, giving it a very familiar feel for anyone that has seen Private Ryan. As I've already touched on, the character development is greatly due to the fact that this story is not told in a two hour segment, but throughout several hour long intervals, giving us the chance to truly "get to know" the characters personalities as the story develops. In my humble opinion, the only other military type mini series' that even come close to the scope of this one are The Blue and The Grey, and North and South.

All of the actors in this series do and excellent job at playing the roles appropriately and making us believe the hell these men were put through. The thing I also appreciated about the cast is the lack of any "real" names, leading to us not knowing who may or may not be making it out the scenes alive and unscathed.

This mini series is everything Saving Private Ryan was, as well as everything it wasn't. If you're a fan of war time stories and "army" movies, this is hands down the best of the best… I don't even think I could name ANY movies about WWII that could even compare to this one… A bold statement, I know, but I'm making it any how.

This week I saw three things based on WW-II novels. The first was 'The Pianist' about the Warsaw ghetto in the war and the survival of a Jewish pianist in that ghetto. The second was 'De Tweeling', a Dutch film about two twin-sisters, separated in 1926. One of them grows up in Nazi-Germany, the other in The Netherlands. That movie shows us more of the common persons during the war, Germans and not-Germans. The third was 'Band of Brothers', a true story about combat in the war. All three things are great, the films I mean, and you definitely should see all three of them.

'Band of Brothers' follows Easy-company from their training in England, through D-Day, the rest of France (including Bastogne), Holland (including operation Market Garden), Germany and Austria. This story is shown to us in ten different episodes. Every episode starts with the real men from Easy-company telling about their experiences and ends with a short written update of Easy-company. Between beginning and ending of episodes one of the best things I have seen on screen is presented to us.

The casting is amazing. Even David Schwimmer (from 'Friends') as the bitter Captain Sobel is great. Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston are superb as Major Winters and Captain Lewis Nixon. Every actor seems to be perfect for his character. The photography and direction is great also. I especially loved the direction of the episode done by executive producer Tom Hanks, possibly with some help from the other executive producer Steven Spielberg. 'Saving Private Ryan' was great for showing us the horror in combat, 'Band of Brothers' does the same thing but adds some other things. You really learn to know the characters (in 600 minutes you can do that), you sympathize with them.

If you have the chance to see this masterpiece, do so. It is long but you can spread the episodes over some days. But if you start watching it is very hard to stop. Definitely one of the best WW-II movies or series out there.