I just finished watching Band of brothers

Hi everybody. I just finished watching the TV series "Band of brothers".

I greatly appreciated it and found it very realistic. I am a newbie at world war 2 but this tv series gave me a better appreciation of what our soldiers did at that time and I am really thankful for them.

And you, have you seen this series?

 

It's good that you finally had the chance to see the series in it's entirety. I have the collection at home, and watch it from time to time myself. There has already been "mucho" discussion on the subject matter to date, so the best thing to do is to use the search function in the top right of the page and delve into the wealth of information already posted to avoid creating duplicate threads. If you have something to add that has not been covered, then feel free to post it for us to comment on. Good luck!

 

Hello, HellWarrior,

Excellent series. The Pacific is also excellent. And Hanks and Spielberg are going to be starting on a series based on the Eighth Air Force, as well!

 

Even a Brit can give this series...and its not just a series...its a unit history the plaudits it deserves.

 

It's a TV series, good though it is, it is still a TV series. There is a lot left out due to cost & time constraints - Market Garden is almost wholly glossed over. Don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed BoB, it is just far from a "unit history" with all that is left out.

A good overview between fact and fiction can be found here: http://www.101airborneww2.com/bandofbrothers.html over at Mark Bando's "Trigger Time" website on the 506th/E Company.

 

It also has to be seen with the associated book and other books as Takao says...but that is the same for all war drama/historical programmes. Even My favourite A Bridge Too Far. You cannot possibly replicate something so big on the small screen...although You tube these days has some good attempts in parts.

Edit....And the Devils Advocate in me has to state...it has skewed somewhat the understanding of ww2 and pushed its way into present conflict understandings when perhaps it should not have done.

 

HI

If you enjoyed Band of Brothers I suggest you check out Combat! on DVD. It is very good.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0055666/

Dave

 

I always have to read the book(s) also....I generally prefer the books anyway.

But, HellWarrior, I hope you got to watch a version of the series that included the interviews with the Easy Company men, as well. If you caught it on TV, they usually show a few, but there are more on the DVDs. Those are priceless.

There are also a number of books written by and about the men of Easy Co. Read them all!

 

Thanks everybody for your comments.

Hi Clementine. What is the Eight Air Force?

I just started watching the interviews with the men of Easy Company. It's very interesting to learn from those guys.

 

The Eighth were a bunch of overpaid, oversexed over here yanks that OK.....I can't go on with that line...They were the hero's of Daylight bombing from the UK. And many are buried in Cambridge war cemetery England.

http://www.abmc.gov/cemeteries/cemeteries/ca.php

The Pdf's at the bottom of this site are worth you viewing too.

 

That's it. I have also watch all the interviews with the Easy Company Men. Great DVD box set.

 

You might consider "The Pacific" as well.

 

Yes somebody told me that also. I would have to take a look at my videostore to see if they have it.

 

Urgh wrote: The Eighth were a bunch of overpaid, oversexed over here yanks that OK.....I can't go on with that line...

My English mother often repeated this assessment of our American boys, I think she was trying to irk my father, but he remained decidedly mum about it....Granted she was just a child when my father was there in WWII, they didn't meet until he went back over in the 1950's, but she was still ticked off at the things he might have done...

HellWarrior, the "Mighty Eighth Air Force" was part of the Army Air Forces, the precursor to the US Air Force. The Eighth was activated in 1942 and, as Urgh said, executed the daylight strategic bombing campaign against Nazi-occupied Europe.

It is my understanding that Hanks and Spielberg are going to base their series on the book Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany, by Donald Miller.

 

So your British once removed....Clem....Hows it going cousin....Ask your dad if he ever had ....any gum chum....

 

Thank you Clementine for your explanation. I understand now.

 

I'll ask him about the gum, chum. That's probably about the extent of what he'd tell me, anyway.

He did mention getting to Paris and seeing long, long lines of men standing in line to, um, visit some working women. He recalled one such scene when a German plane flew over and the long lines of men went ducking for cover and then there was a mad rush as the men tried to get back, but get closer to the front of the line.

I did hesitantly ask him if he was standing in one of those lines himself, I wasn't sure if he would tell me or if I even wanted him to, but his response was that while he wasn't going to pretend he was a saint, he said that it wasn't too appealing to him to think about being at the end of that line...so to speak.

That was his story and I am sticking to it, because there are just some things you don't want to know about your dad.

Sorry to shanghai your thread, HellWarrior....I love Band of Brothers myself. Major Winters is the person I'd aspire to, but could never, be. But I also have a great affinity for Eugene Sledge's story, which is told in The Pacific. And now I'm reading Miller's book (as well as having read other books on the Mighty Eighth) and I can't wait to see what they do with that.

(Btw, when I say I have an affinity for Sledge's story I don't mean to say that his story is the only one of significance - I appreciate all of the stories told in each series, each book, etc. All of which are so worthy of being told.)

 

Clem...just brought the Pacific series on dvd on your recommendation...tomorrow is pacific day....Must remember to eat.

 

I agree with your assessment of the sex scenes. While I understand why such scenes get added to films/series, obviously it sells, but I was uncomfortable with them because I felt they were disrespectful to the Basilones, specifically Mrs. Basilone. I obviously did not know her, but just feel she would have really disliked being portrayed in that way. By and large, they were a generation who tended to keep their private lives private.

I specifically liked The Pacific because I thought it correlated to Sledge's life, not perfectly, but well. I read With the Old Breed about a couple of years prior and then I re-read it while watching the series. It condensed some of the people and stories Sledge related (for instance, that gruesome scene with Snafu tossing the pepples at the dead Japanese soldier) and I am a traditionalist, if you will, I don't like dramatization added to my history. But I think it captured Sledge and his experience fairly well.

I also read Helmet For My Pillow and it did seem to capture Leckie (Lucky) and his quirky humor (and pain). And I didn't know anything about John Basilone prior to that series, so it spurred me to read about him. I really don't have a feel for the "definitive" Basilone story, there are so many told my many points of view.

I have heard the comment that from several people that they didn't like The Pacific as well as Band of Brothers. I fully get that it was very difficult to top the affection we feel for the men of Easy Company, having followed them all of the way from Taccoa through the end of the war, that story was as much about that relationship as it was about the war. And The Pacific didn't give us all of that face time with the characters in The Pacific before they just got tossed right into the battle. And, you're right, it was just brutal. Non-stop brutality. I guess I just felt it was in keeping with what those men went through.

And I will fully admit to being prejudiced. I have a softspot for Eugene Sledge, so I went into the series with a built-in affection for him, much like I have for the Easy Co. men. The series didn't need to create it.