It took me long enough to get to Band of Brothers and it was well worth the wait.
Somehow I missed this mini-series despite watching it win awards all over the place and hearing people talk about how amazing it was. The fact that it premiered two days before September 11th, 2001, might have been a factor in why I wasn’t interested in seeing it at the time.
In reading some articles about it back then, HBO lost 26% of their viewers for the second episode even though they showed it without any commercials out of respect for the events on 9/11.
I think watching it at the time would have been difficult. Heck, watching it now was a solemn experience, one that evoked all kinds of emotions.
I’m not going to go into too much detail about the series, but I do want to make one thing clear about it:
This was the best mini-series I’ve ever seen period. It actually is probably one of the best productions I’ve ever seen, be it TV or cinema.
I’ve seen a lot of war movies, but being only 33, the recent films stick with me more than the old classics. But even though this isn’t a film, I rank it with Schnidler’s List and Saving Private Ryan as my top 3 favorite war movies/series (although The Pianist was unbelievably good) of all-time.
It might have even been better then both of those. It almost defies words to describe how brilliant it was.
Band of Brothers just felt so real, so raw, so THERE. You lived with these guys in every single moment, felt their pain as if you were right beside them.
I think my home theater system also helped, because the blasts of artillery and whizzing bullets sounding all around me totally set the mood.
The characters were awesome, the acting just damn good. So many guys were in this series that you’ve seen in many other places, but I’ll bet they will always remember Band of Brothers as the most important work they have ever done.
Damien Lewis was particularly great. I love the show Life, but if I’d had seen Brothers before seeing Life, I’d probably like it even more. He was just so good. Leadership oozed from him in every scene.
There were two things in the series that really stood out to me, besides Lewis’ performance.
The first was the interviews with the actual members of the 101st Airborne Division who are still alive to this day. What they lived through out there, and to be alive today to talk about it, is unbelievable to me.
Lastly, part 9 of the series shows us the first scenes of a Jewish concentration camp. I had gotten so sucked into the first 8 parts being solely about Easy Company and their battles and deaths, that I just didn’t see the Holocaust stuff coming. It snuck up on me and whacked me over the head.
Schindler’s List showed us that horrific part of Hitler’s regime in a way we’d never seen it before. Yet in Brothers, the way that it also “sneaks” up on Easy Company themselves casts a whole new light on it. It was devastating and sickening to see, but so very important.
This series was an amazing experience for me, I’m so very glad I got to finally see it and I’ll never forget it.
The book is also quite good, but the mini-series tracks fairly well with it. You’d probably like a couple of Ambrose’ other books on the same theme, though one is kind of a re-hash and summary of the others.
Wow, never knew you hadnt seen this series, very good stuff for sure!!! Great write up!
Damien Lewis makes me think of Steve McQueen in a big way. In fact, I’d heartily nominate him to take the starring role should the remake of Bullit ever materialize.
I also really liked Ron Livingston’s performance in this. And it’s always a treat to see Dale Dye, who is often featured in cameos on movies where he’s served as a technical combat advisor.
This was indeed an excellent miniseries! I really felt connected with these guys and was kinda sad when it was over.
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@ Robert – Yeah, I think I’d like to read the book this was based off for sure.
@ Cap’n – Sadly, yeah, never saw it until now. But glad I finally did!
@ Rob – Nice comparison…I agree with you…he was born for that role and could really take McQueen’s place in a lot of those films. He was mostly serious in this film, but he also has that humorous wit about him that we see in Life that could really help him be McQueen in like The Great Escape or something.
You’ll want “D-Day”, “Band of Brothers”, and probably “Pegasus Bridge” by Stephen Ambrose then.
Glad you got to finally see it Mike – definitely one of my all-time favorites. I loved this series. Really great all the way around.
One of the things that they did with the casting as much as possible was to select actors that looked like the actual people. For example, if you have the book take a look at the picture of Captain Lewis Nixon drunk in the bed at Berchtesgaden and then at Ron Livingston in the same scene in the movie.
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I actually thought that Frank…I mean, the Gonorrhea nicknamed guy had the same accent and demeanor as the old man they talked to afterwards.
That’s pretty cool.
This was one of the reasons we kept HBO at the time.
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I absolutely need to add this to my “to watch” list.
Glad you liked it Mike, now I can get the DVD’s from you.
With summer coming, it’ll be the perfect time to catch up on this one.
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I think Band of Brothers is the best TV ever produced; the entire cast are terrific but Damian Lewis is a standout as Major Winters. You might also be interested in his first major television role, a BBC production called Warriors. It won the BAFTA (the British Emmy or Oscar) for the Best Drama or mini-series. It is very different from BOB; it is about UN humanitarian forces stationed in Bosnia and the impact on the soldiers who had to witness the barbarism without the ability to act or interfere. In addition to Damian Lewis it stars several other excellent British actors – Ioan Gruffudd, Matthew MacFadyen, Jodhi May and others. You can see a clip from the program on YouTube that features Damian Lewis at the url below:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cILcSLKKZUk
Dude, you just now saw Band Of Brothers!? Sometimes it’s like I don’t know you at all…
Seriously, though, I think watching it on DVD for the first time was a far superior experience to watching it on HBO and having to wait a week in between episodes. I saw the whole series over the course of about three nights and it’s something that stayed with me for a long time. The book was incredible as well.
I was sure we had all talked about it before, but maybe I’d only done it with a few friends off the web, so who knows.
But yeah, I think you are right…seeing it all at once would have to be a better experience.
I’m trying to watch some of the special features too before I return the DVDs.
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