BAND OF BROTHERS: Blu-ray (HBO, Dreamworks, Warner Bros., 2001) HBO Home Video
From the executive producing, creative genius of Steven
Spielberg and Tom Hanks – director and star of 1998’s WWII Oscar-winning action/drama, Saving
Private Ryan, came Band of Brothers (2001); one of the unquestionably
first-rate mini-series to ever be made, winning a slew of Emmy's and Golden Globes, and
justly, to deserved both, as well as a hallowed spot as one of the most stirring
accounts of the European conflict and its impact on a company of American
soldiers, enlisted to fight the foe. In tandem, Band of Brothers is as passionately
gratifying as it proves a gut-wrenching knock-out entertainment, dramatizing
the marathon mêlées of ‘Easy’ Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th
Parachute Infantry Regiment, of the 101st Airborne Division. From
basic training, through to their participation in virtually all of the pivotal
battles in the war, Band of Brothers, based on Stephen E. Ambrose’s
novelization, and, heavily rewritten by screenwriters, Erik Jendresen, John
Orloff, E. Max Frye, Graham Yost, Bruce C. McKenna and Erik Bork, with an assist
from Hanks, brought into focus the unremitting calamity and conquests of this
closely-knit troop of men, dedicated to the liberation of Europe. Immensely
benefiting from the participation of surviving company members, some of whom
appear at the start of each episode as themselves, to provide both preamble and
context to what follows, Band of Brothers borrowed its title from Shakespeare’s
Henry V’s St Crispin's Day speech; Ambrose, directly quoting the passage
on his book’s first page; the series, quoting it directly as spoken by Carwood
Lipton for the series’ grand finale.
Even if one knows nothing of history, or presumably does
not go for ‘war movies’, it is virtually impossible not to become instantly
spellbound and enveloped by this compelling drama, developing its emotional ‘lump
in the throat’ as each episode steadily reveals the thought-numbing carnage and
camaraderie. Begun in its development by Hanks and Jendresen, who spent months ironing
out and dividing Ambrose’s prose into a manageable series of episodes, Spielberg’s
name attached to the project ensured – first and foremost, that it would see
the light of day – but also, stand above and beyond that level of quality
already exercised by Spielberg in Saving Private Ryan. In the late 1970’s
and early 80’s, the television miniseries became fashionable, with all three
major networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) producing their own sprawling epics,
invariable based on best-selling novels, concentrated more on the romance of characters
torn asunder during epic moments in the history of the world, or, if one
prefers to regard them, as expanded-upon in pure David Lean-esque fashion with as
much visual aplomb. But by 1990, both the cycle and the popularity of these drawn-out
sagas had cooled with audiences. Henceforth, cable giant, HBO would become home
base for Band of Brothers. At the time, this was the costliest
miniseries yet attempted, with a staggering $125 million budget, roughly
divided into $12.5 million per episode, with an additional $15 million
allocated for press and promotion. The Chrysler Corp., whose Jeeps appeared in
the series, anted up $5 million to attach their name to the project’s prestige.
This included a private screening for surviving war veterans in Paris. The
other partnership to buffet these staggering costs was with the BBC, who paid
roughly $10 million to air Band of Brothers on BBC Two as an uninterrupted
ten-week run.
Shot over ten months at Hatfield Aerodrome in
Hertfordshire, England, various full-size replicas of European towns were
recreated from scratch, depicting from Bastogne to Belgium, to Eindhoven, the
Netherlands and Carentan, France. North Weald Airfield in Essex also did its
duty, for take-off sequences during the D-Day Normandy landings. Hambleden, in
Buckinghamshire, subbed in for the company's training facilities, while
war-themed battles in Germany and Austria were actually photographed in Brienz,
Switzerland, and its nearby Hotel Giessbach. For historical accuracy, the
screenwriters also sought additional research, relying on Easy Company soldier,
David Kenyon Webster’s memoirs, re-published some 40 years after Webster’s
death in a boating accident. Granted permission from his estate, Ambrose had
liberally quoted from Webster’s diary. The writers also sought the advice of Dale
Dye, a retired U.S. Marine Corps Captain, who had been a consultant on Saving
Private Ryan, as well as to pick the brains of surviving veterans, Richard
Winters, Bill Guarnere, Frank Perconte, Ed Heffron, and Amos Taylor. The
production’s weapons master, Simon Atherton, was heavily involved in
maintaining a level of accuracy, as was assistant costume designer, Joe Hobbs;
the pair, interviewing veterans and relying on documented photographs to attain
their unimpeachable level of verisimilitude.
Whenever possible, actors spent time with the veterans
they would be portraying on the screen. For reasons of time constraint, history
itself needed to be severely condensed, the experiences of hundreds of
officers, soldiers, and other military combatants, reshaped as the life
experiences of a troop of ten to fifteen men. For vanity’s sake, as audiences
expect to see ‘stars’ looking like ‘stars’, the performers were intermittently
photographed without their protective head gear, something that would have
never occurred in real life. A pivotal episode, the liberation of the Kaufering
sub-camps at Dachau was overseen by German historian, Anton Posset, and re-conceived
on English soil, as a sobering victory for the 101st Airborne
Division when, in reality, it was the 134th Ordnance Maintenance
Battalion of the 12th Armored Division, who arrived first on April 27, 1945.
Despite the disappointment of Major Winters, who pre-screened the series in Tom
Hanks’ company, but fervently believed it had veered too much from its
authenticity, Band of Brothers was soon to be hailed as a visually arresting,
viscerally haunting, living testament to the valor, courage and bravery of
those fateful many who defended human dignity and honor during one of the
darkest moments in our evolutionary progress. Divided into 10-episodes, HBO’s
mini-series, arguably, has no equal; directed invariably by David Frankel, Tom Hanks,
David Leland, Richard Loncraine, David Nutter, Phil Alden Robinson, Mikael
Salmon and Tony To. Each episode opens with authentic first-hand recollections
of the European conflict, as told by its survivors. With a budget nearly three-times
that of Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers achieved for the
small screen, what ‘Ryan’ arguably did for the big one: providing
social context and a lasting memorial to those lives deeply altered by this
front-line conflict – an unvarnished manifest of an entire generation’s hopes
and fears, bottled together with their worst nightmares, ultimately to be
celebrated through the camaraderie of these fighting men in uniform.
Any assessment in review of such a series’ is
undoubtedly futile. As such, summary judgment will stand in its place. Our
story begins in earnest at a Georgian training camp where Capt. Herbert Sobel
(David Schwimmer) is mercilessly drilling the cadets of Easy Company in
preparation for the D-Day invasion of Normandy. Of his new recruits, Richard D.
Winter (Damian Lewis) distinguishes himself early on – proving he can endure
Sobel’s punishments while maintaining discipline among the men. Schooled in
parachute infantry – then a new concept in 20th century warfare –
Sobel begins to suffer a mental breakdown. He repeatedly cracks under pressure
and louses up tactical maneuvers. Ultimately, he is reassigned to a training
school at Chilton Foley. This shift in the balance of power forces Winter to
assume command of the airborne on their drop into Normandy. On the eve before
deployment, soldier Bill Guarnere (Frank Jone Hughes) learns his brother –
already fighting overseas – has been killed in combat. Determined he should
avenge his brother’s death, while not suffering the same fate, Guarnere adopts
a cocky devil-may-care exterior to shadow his true rage against the enemy - a
Teflon coat of valor to mask his absolute contempt for the enemy.
In Episode 2: Day of Days – Lt. Winter and Easy
Company suffer appalling casualties in an ill-fated night drop over the skies
of France. Reunited with fellow soldiers, Donald Malarkey (Scott Grimes), Buck
Compton (Neal McDonough), George Luz (Rick Gomez), Lewis Nixon (Ron Livingston)
and others, Winter moves his men into a crippling assault, destroying the guns
at Brecourt Manor and vowing to God that, if ever this war should spare his
life, he will return home and thirst for the sting of battle no more. In Episode
3: Carentan – Easy Company take a French town held under German occupation.
Lt. Carwood Lipton (Donnie Walberg) is near fatally shot in the crotch while
attempting to storm one of the civilian households under fire. Meanwhile Lt.
Ronald Speirs (Matthew Settle) tries to rehabilitate Pvt. Albert Blythe (Marc
Warren) of his combat fear – instructing the soldier to consider himself
already a casualty, thereby liberating his soul from the anticipation of death.
The ruse works and Blythe distinguishes himself during a Panzer attack – only
to been fatally shot later on. In Episode 4: Replacements – a troop of
fresh-faced paratroopers join Easy Company in Holland for Operation Market
Garden. Look for a then virtual unknown - James McAvoy - as Private James
Miller, headstrong and eager to engage the Germans without truly understanding
the grit and gruel of hand-to-hand combat. In Holland, Easy Company suffers its
worst round of casualties against the superior German blitz. In Episode 5:
Crossroads, Winter leads a risky, though victorious mission on a Dutch
dike. He is promoted to Battalion Executive Officer – a post that frustratingly
removes him from the daily rigors of combat. However, his new appointment also
forces Winter to contend with inferior officers, commanding beneath him in
their latest efforts within the Ardennes Forest.
Episodes 6: Bastogne and 7: The Breaking Point
are bookends of a brutal struggle to stave off the German army, while
contending with nature itself as a deadly adversary. In the stifling cold of
winter, the men endure frost bite in their summer uniforms with little rations
or ammunition to protect and sustain them. Medic, Eugene Roe (Shane Taylor)
develops a lasting romance with a Belgian nurse whom he later marries. In the end,
Easy Company takes the town of Foy under the most animalistic carnage yet
faced. In Episode 8: The Last Patrol – Winter breaks rank to send a
second patrol into the Alsacian town of Haguenan after rooky Lt. James – earnest
to distinguish himself in battle – narrowly escapes total annihilation. Episode
9: Why We Fight – is arguably the most devasting, if off-center
centerpiece, of the entire series. Encountering little resistance, Easy Company
enters Germany to discover a Nazi concentration camp with many of its emaciated
prisoners barely alive. This sickening revelation is compounded when Easy
Company enters a nearby town to learn the local citizenry disavow any knowledge
of the atrocities committed only a scant few miles from their place of
residence. This episode concludes with the announcement that Adolph Hitler has
committed suicide. Episode 10: Points finds Easy Company capturing
Hitler’s Eagle Nest stronghold; the once impregnable fortress where Nazi
generals conspired to launch WWII. Armistice in Europe is declared, though the
men are soon informed they will be deployed to the Pacific to take part in the
conflict with the Japanese. Comparing 'points' to decide who among them
has earned the right to go home, fortunately, Winter and Nixon arrive with the
bittersweet news that the Emperor of Japan has surrendered. WWII is over. Episode
10 spends its penultimate moments in summation of where glory’s path beyond
the battlefield will ultimately lead for these gallant men of its greatest
generation. A few standouts to consider: Compton, became a prosecutor in LA –
his most famous case, bringing Palestinian assassin, Sirhan to justice. David
Webster (Eion Bailey) who became a celebrated writer for the Wall Street Journal
and Saturday Evening Post, was mysteriously lost at sea in 1961 – his body and
boat never recovered. Carwood Lipton worked as a successful executive for a
glass-manufacturing company. Ronald Speirs remained in service for the rest of
his life, dying at the ripe old age of 86 in 2007. But perhaps the most heartfelt
of all epitaphs was reserved for Maj. Richard Winters – who moved to his farm
in Hershey Pennsylvania where he fulfilled the promise made to himself in Episode
2; to live in harmony, bittersweetly, to never be fully rid of these
memories from his harrowing past.
It is saying much of Band of Brothers that it
achieves and sustains its strange cacophony of conflicted emotions throughout
its lengthy 628-minute run time; hyper-feelings on high, that only ripen into
pride-inducing resolve as each episode builds toward the series’ inevitable
conclusion. As the audience, we begin our perilous journey with each man we
meet, earnestly praying for their hero’s welcome at war’s end; quickly disillusioned
when far too many of the central cast begin to perish on this muddy/bloody road
to victory. The queer and disquieting bond among the men, continues to ferment,
evolve and, at war’s last, defies vanquishing from the enemy, to become so
virulently ingrained in our collective investment in these lives, that even
with the survival of some assured, the disbanding of the unit drives a spike, tinged
with regret, through most of our hearts. We ponder – as these soldiers must
have for themselves – on all the uncertainties that, as yet, lay ahead in the
many long years of peace and prosperity to follow. How does one say farewell to
that era, or, in fact, this band of brothers we have come to regard so
intimately as among the finest life had to offer the world-weary in 1942? With
tears and a journey, I suppose, as one trip through this miniseries is, at
once, an emotional roller coaster ride and yet, sadly, unable to completely
satisfy our awesome and insatiable need to know and admire them more.
The late Michael Kamen’s intensely satisfying main title,
an anthem for the fallen as well as a victory march for war’s survivors, breaks
a groundswell of sentiment from the first note to its last – the final satisfaction
gleaned from seeing Band of Brothers again. HBO’s Blu-ray reissue of Band
of Brothers marked one of the distributor’s earliest efforts to embrace the
then ‘new’ hi-def format. And despite the passage of time leading to major advancements
in hi-def authoring, the quality of the 1080p transfers has held up remarkably
well. The stylized palette of
desaturated colors is vividly reproduced with maximum sharpness, clarity and
fine details evident throughout. Enhanced contrast, a hallmark of Remi Adefarasin
and Joel J. Ransom’s cinematography, creates a ‘postcard’ graphic depiction of
the conflict and carnage, strangely reminiscent of all those B&W photos
seen in countless history books about the war, while augmenting the experience
in living color. The 5.1 Dolby Digital audio is magnificent and enveloping.
Extras include a plot summary for each episode and an eloquently-produced
documentary on the filmmaker’s journey to bring Band of Brothers forth into
living memory. There are, and have since been other movies and miniseries about
the war. But Band of Brothers remains the high-water mark of them all,
and, a monument to superb picture-making in an era where such offerings are not
nearly as plentiful as they ought to be. Now, is the time for valor of a different
kind. Permit us to worship and honor the sacrifices made by another generation
in their hour of need so that we might find ourselves able to endure and go on from
the here and now. Very – very – highly recommended, indeed.
FILM RATING (out of 5 - 5 being the best)
5++
VIDEO/AUDIO
5
EXTRAS
3.5
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