BAND OF BROTHERS

Part Four of My Examination of War in Film

"From this day to the ending of the world we in it shall be remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."

If SAVING PRIVATE RYAN is war told the way an audience wants to see it, and THE THIN RED LINE is the poetic way to look it, then BAND OF BROTHERS is war in its truest cinematic form.

An eleven-hour saga chronicling the events of Easy Company's campaign during World War II, BAND OF BROTHERS is the most intimate, yet still the most epic event in the history of television. More than $125 million was poured into the Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks
-helmed project, and the authenticity of the sets and costumes are a reflection of the budget.

From their training in American and Britain to their final tour in Austria, the audience goes everywhere with Easy Company. Each episode chronicles a character, although a core group is established over the entirity of the series. After just a few minutes, each character seems real and relatable. They aren't just cliched parts in an expansive setting. These men are real.

After all, this is a true story. Each episode starts with a series of veterans relating their experiences in certain battles and the toll it took on them. Only after the final episode ends are the veterans' veils of anonymonity lifted. These men are brought to life by a cast of mostly no-names, but whom many have gone on to bigger things since. Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Colin Hanks, and Donnie Wahlberg all play soldiers who aren't sure whether or not to be heroes like the ads at home say, or to just try and survive their fighting.

While it isn't an anti-war series, BAND OF BROTHERS does show the messy side of war. Their is as much blood in it as in SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, but the blood doesn't seem quite as exploitative or unneeded. The effects that this violence has on the psyche of the soldiers is disheartening as well. Almost every man in the company is wounded at one point or another. In fact, one soldier is given a hard time because he took two days off from the line after getting shrapnel in his leg. The constant state of fear, masked fear, eats away at the men as their body count steadily grows. They gradually become the first line in the direct Ally attack on the Germans, and this responsibility is daunting, even if they don't talk about it much.

It's been over a month since I concluded BAND OF BROTHERS. It had sat on my shelf for over a year before then. I never thought I would have enough time to get through all eleven hours of material. Towards the end of the series though, I found myself making time. I have only revisited a few bits and pieces of a few episodes since then, but the characters still stick out in my mind. Their journey through hell and back is phenomenal to watch. The simple but powerful acting and story, the sharp direction, and the visceral impact the series had on me is burned into my brain. I'm glad Stephen Ambrose's novel was adapted into a miniseries and not a film. It is because of this that the story is so completely fleshed out, and characters are not just bit parts who come and go without and emotional attachment being made between them and the viewers. Every man is real, and there is a general concern for them, as to whether or not they will make it out of the war alive. The emotional invigoration, is above all, why BAND OF BROTHERS is the single greatest accomplishment in television history.

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