While researching their blockbuster movie Saving Private Ryan director Steven Spielberg and star Tom Hanks kept coming across references to Easy Company, the legendary US paratroopers who featured in every major battle of World War II. It led to one of the greatest war series about one of the greatest units in the history of war.
In the pantheon of good war films, there is a special place for this 10-part miniseries about the remarkable exploits of the parachute battalion of American airborne infantry who took part in all the major battles of the Second World War, from Normandy to Operation Market Garden. They played a key role in the Siege of Bastogne (known as the Battle of the Bulge), liberating a concentration camp, and finally securing Hitler’s Berchtesgaden alpine retreat, the Eagle’s Nest.
Based on the book of the same name by celebrated war historian Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers is epic in scope and equally epic in how it depicts the horror of war.
The 10-part miniseries would make stars of a bunch of previously unseen actors, including Damian Lewis, who Spielberg and Hanks chose for precisely the reason that they wouldn’t be known for earlier work and give more authentic performances. And that they did.
Lewis played the company’s iconic commander, Richard Winters, while Ron Livingston gave an equally strong performance as another, captain Lewis Nixon. Livingston later played a small cameo as Carrie Bradshaw’s boyfriend in the final two seasons of Sex and the City.
The most high-profile actor in the series – David Schwimmer of Friends fame – had the shortest screen time. The series would give rise to many good acting careers, including Blue Bloods star Donnie Wahlberg, a founding member of boy band New Kids on the Block, and older brother to his much more successful sibling Mark.
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Band of Brothers is a captivating miniseries that not only shows the legendary Easy Company as it wrestles its way through Europe to defeat Hitler but also the terrible tragedies that confront young men in war.
The production quality is immensely good, which you would expect given the calibre of director and producer, while the storyline is all the more captivating because it’s based on what really happened.
The HBO series that first aired in 2001 was the most expensive TV miniseries at the time, with a budget of $125-million or about $12.5-million per episode.
It was eclipsed by a sister series about similar heroic exploits by American soldiers in the Pacific theatre in WWII, called simply The Pacific. Even though this series depicted war with the same gritty honesty, it never matched the intensity of Band of Brothers – which won Best Miniseries Emmy and Golden Globe awards in 2001 – nor would it receive as much critical acclaim.
One of the reasons it is so good – and resonated so well with audiences – is that each episode cleverly follows a central character’s experience and encounters. This gave each of the battles a more personal, intimate feel as you watched the trauma and courage of one man, amidst the overall tapestry created by one of the greatest ensemble cast series ever produced. This really is television at its best.
