DVD Shop: Buy Band of Brothers Online

Average Rating:

"Band Of Brothers" tells the true and incredible odyssey of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st "Screaming Eagles" Airborne Division, U.S. Army - from their formation in Georgia (1942), to Berlin and the end of the war in Europe (1945). The demand for, and on, elite paratroopers was unending and they were deployed as "the tip of the spear" of every major allied offensive (and many minor ones too) on the Western Front. Jumping behind enemy lines, often without critical equipment and supplies or lacking enough rest and under terrible conditions, they saw more than their share of hard combat and E Company itself took nearly 150% casualties. (Statistically at least, that's 100% of the company - 140 men and 7 officers - and half again of their replacements, lost).

The scope of the war is limited to E Company - the German POV is vanishingly small, life stateside, after their training and deployment in Normandy, is only referred to, usually in connection with mail call (or the wounded), and, apart from the brief and infrequent visit and/or pep talk from their company commander, the top brass is never seen. But the impact of the war on E Company, the civilians and other outfits they meet along the way (and on us) is anything but limited! The effects are as awesome as they are devastating.

There are so many reasons why it's effective. For one, as I've said, the story is true. If you've read the book you're in for a treat. The series follows the book to an unprecedented degree for movies. Not everything that's in the book is in the series, but everything that's in the series is in the book - finally, directors that understand the drama in real-life events! Even if you haven't read it, you're still in for a treat. Thanks to meticulous directing, you're rarely allowed to feel comfortable about the ultimate fates of the individual characters. Even when you are allowed, the directing is a very sure-handed affair. But most of the time you find yourself in the kind of war in which you never quite know what will happen next - who's going to be wounded and sent back into combat, promoted, demoted or transferred, wounded seriously enough to be sent home, captured, separated from their unit, killed, either in combat or by accident, or even murdered (though not in E Company itself). After all, this is not fiction-based material where the author is 'choosing' who survives. Here, when one character can no longer tell the tale, another member of the company will tell the story through his own eyes and few if any POV are left out.

The subtext is on the war within one's self and the loss and value of meaningful humanity. The wonderful cinematography replaces slow-motion effects with high shutter speeds in adrenaline-charged sequences - without bothering to stress formal compositions within the frame. It conveys a vivid "you are there" sense of immediacy. And yet at the same time, the overall vision is SO superbly and fully realized from start to finnish. The non-combat scenes will easily hold your attention and the battle sequences themselves are not only utterly convincing, but truly harrowing. And the whole thing is filled with potent, poetic imagery - the simple act of enclosing a violin within its coffin-like case - a metaphor for the humanity claimed by a world war, or the closing of a blood-smeared ambulance door during the high-water mark of E Company's casualties, or, the drawn-from-life moment of fatal hesitation - and doe-eyed look of disbelief - in the face of a clearly under-aged Nazi boy/soldier - the first victim in a bloody surprise attack - vibrantly resonate, like so many sounds and images in this work, with profound, often devastating meaning, and haunt the soul long afterward. Trust me, it's an absolute knockout.

Additionally, Spielberg and company engage in a judicious amount of cliche busting. I won't give things away here, but if you've seen your share of war movies, you won't be disappointed.

Since the head-honcho behind this 10 hour event is none other than Spielberg, comparisons with his "Saving Private Ryan" are bound to come up, especially since the directing and production values are of similarly high standards, and at first glance maybe, seemingly familiar. But at least one reviewer at Amazon criticizes "Ryan" for being fundamentally a war film made by, and for, pacifists (citing its first half hour as an example), and that since the war is basically evil and all the men are inherently good, it's difficult to believe their comments on the war. I think there may be something to that. But, in "Brothers", the war seems a little more necessary than evil, even if it is not always so clearly understood nor as well rationalized by its participants, as in "Ryan". Here, the weight of combat is far more personally affecting through its undeniable impact on the men of Easy Company. There is much cause for empathy here. Although I've never seen combat, this series makes me want to send a BIG thank you to ALL our servicemen and women. And again, though I wasn't there, I sometimes talk to and read from and about those who were, and to me at least, "Brothers" edges out "Ryan" and leaves all the rest behind as the best depiction of WWII on film to date.

My brother and I were raised on my dad's war stories (he was with the 11th Armored Division during the Battle of the Bulge) and they stuck in our heads. As a result we grew up with a shared interest in all things WWII. As a WWII buff I was hard pressed to find much of anything amiss in the series from artillery, aircraft and armored vehicles to small arms and field equipment - right down to the uniforms - U.S., British, French or German. There are big and small suprises everywhere you look - even an operational Jagdpanther, no less(!).

I hope the interviews I saw on HBO will be included on the DVD - it would be a crime if they weren't. If they are, you'll not only come to know, respect and appreciate the characters in the series (by the way, the acting is superb all around and David Schwimmer is great as Capt. Sobel!), but, appreciate the men of E Company even more through the eyes of the survivors, themselves. In fact, I'm astonished at how little difference there seems to be between the actors in the series and their real-life counterparts. As a footnote, I recall reading somewhere that Stephen Ambrose (who wrote "Brothers"), while interviewing a subject, was hoping to get permission to use some of the man's war stories in a book (non-fiction of course). When Ambrose, whose eye for courage is arguably unmatched, prompted him, the veteran said "Well, ok, but don't make me out to be some kind of hero or something" - to which Ambrose replied "I don't make heroes, I just write about 'em".

Like some others here, I subscribed to HBO just to see this show. Having read the excellent book, which, by the way, I also strongly recommend since it illuminates a bit more that the series can easily focus on, my expectations of the series were either matched or simply blown away! All in all it is a stunning and masterful tribute to E company, paratroopers and to all those involved with that war. I'm tempted to say it will not be equalled for a long time to come. Whether you are familiar with this story or not I can't recommend this mini-series highly enough! If I could, I'd give it fifty stars!!

I had no idea of what was in store for me when I dropped the first disc in the DVD player. I was simply mesmerized: I could have sat through the entire series non-stop except for the fact the five movie discs plus one specialty disc took up about 12 hours. I could hardly wait for the next day to arrive to watch the next segment.

The series is about a group of men that volunteer for the newly formed parachute regiment and eventually drop in behind enemy lines in Normandy, France on D-day, June 6, 1944. They eventually end up capturing Hitler's Eagle's Nest retreat in Austria as WWll ends.

When I saw "Saving Private Ryan" I didn't think that any war movie could be better: I was wrong. Band of Brothers is well acted, incredible realistic and shows you what a prolonged campaign must have been like with the constant stress and tension that turned boys into men and men into.....

As this series develops, from one story to the next, you begin to appreciate the meaning of the cliche " the fog of war": sometimes simple sorties turn into unexpected nightmares and then other times when all seem lost, something or someone, completely unexpected, will turn up and save the day. You just can never predict in war what will happen: who will turn in a hero or a man paralyzed with fear or fatigue. Nothing is ever a 100% sure bet.

Adding to the drama of the story are the interviews with the actual participants who lived through this horrific period and are still alive today. You can still see the agony in some of their faces when they recall old events and missing friends that didn't return home with them. Unbelievably touching!

All in all an incredible series: something everyone should see just to make you realize what these men (and women) went through for us. We owe them a debt that can never be repaid.

The highly effective style pioneered by "Saving Private Ryan" (steady-cam with washed out colors) suffuses the entire series with a gritty documentary feel. Occasionally an obvious CGI or studio shot will clash with lush location shooting, but overall the production values are staggering. Even minor historical details are studiously reproduced, but, like "Private Ryan", the camera never wallows in indulgent spectacle. The miniseries format is used to full advantage to present a truly comprehensive account of war from a wide variety of viewpoints that normally can't be appreciated. Since the events of history itself do not neatly line themselves up in the sort of dramatic arc viewers are accustomed to, some may leave the series with a sense that it is dramatically uneven. Each episode, usually a bit over an hour long, is elegantly introduced in both mood and content by interviews with actual survivors from the company.

Like the best of war films, the emphasis is not on bloodshed and action, but on human relationship and suffering within the company. The performances, by a dedicated cast of largely unknown players, are uniformly excellent, but very little help is given to the first time viewer in identifying the multitude of war-weary faces (often, even after several important appearances, a character's full name is never mentioned). While this can be frustrating for new viewers, it allows for dialogue unencumbered by forced introductions and creates immense replay value, with new insights appearing with every viewing.

The character confusion is alleviated nicely by some of the DVD's reference features. Accompanying each episode is a picture gallery of the important names and faces in that episode, as well as a glossary of terminology and the general locations within Europe. A somewhat less useful timeline is included, and a few of the most important characters are given nice dramatic collages (perhaps used when promoting the series).

The DVD offers 5.1, DTS, and surround sound, all of which are richly spectacular. Only Spanish is offered in subtitle, and (unfortunately) no commentary tracks accompany any of the episodes. A 30 minute "Making Of" feature briefly describes techniques used in filming in a promotional sort of way, but it is not as promotional as a feature describing the gala screening at Normandy (very few of the veteran's reactions are shown) nor as obnoxious as a Jeep advertisement that somehow snuck onto the disc.

Two further wonderful additions are provided in the DVD: a full and moving documentary, consisting solely of the gripping interviews of Easy Company's survivors, and Ron Livingston's (Office Space) thorough and very likeable video diary of the actor's boot camp.