December 14, 2002.

"- It looks like you guys are going to be surrounded."

"- We're paratroopers Lieutenant.  We're supposed to be surrounded."

Starring Damian Lewis, Donnie Wahlberg, Ron Livingston, Matthew Settle, Rick Warden, Frank John Hughes, Scott Grimes, Neal McDonough, Rick Gomez, Eion Bailey, James Madio, Kirk Acevedo, Michael Cudlitz, Richard Speight Jr., Dexter Fletcher and many more.  Music by Michael Kamen.  Written by Erik Jendresen, Tom Hanks, John Orloff, E. Max Frye, Graham Yost, Bruce C. McKenna and Erik Bork.  Based on the book by Stephen Ambrose.  Produced by Stephen Ambrose, Erik Bork, Billy Fox, Gary Goetzman, Tom Hanks, Erik Jendresen, Gene Kelly, Mary Richards, Ivan E. Schwarz, Steven Spielberg and Tony To.  Directed by David Frankel, Tom Hanks, David Leland, Richard Loncraine, David Nutter, Phil Alden Robinson, Mikael Salomon and Tony To.  Released by Playtone, Dreaworks and HBO in 2001.

In World War II, there existed an American army division whose main job was to parachute behind enemy lines and fight the German army from their side of the border, weakening their defenses which would allow the allied troops to move forward against the Nazis.  They were the men of the 101st Airborne, a division consisting of volunteer soldiers ready to lay their lives on the line in the pursuit of freedom and justice.  That, and it paid an extra fifty bucks a month.

This series follows company 506 a.k.a. "Easy Company" through Northern Europe from the D-Day Invasion all the way to the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest high atop the Austrian mountains.  Over a two year period, the men of Easy Company had to endure just about everything the German army could throw at them.  And what Easy Company had to endure at times is nothing less than insane.  We might complain when the weather turns bad in our neck of the woods, but try surviving enemy shelling while you're hidden away in a foxhole wondering if one of those shells will find its way to you, wiping you out of the face of the Earth in the blink of an eye.

In episode 1, we follow Easy Company through their harsh training at camp Toccoa under the guidance of the cruel and mean-spirited Captain Sobel.  Episode 2 sees Easy Company parachute into Normandy on D-Day over heavy enemy artillery.  It's up to Easy Company to take out a nest of guns which continually fire upon the allied troops on the beaches of Normandy.  Get rid of the guns and the allied forces can move ahead.

In episode 3, Easy Company has the dubious task of taking over the town of Carentan only two days following their arrival.  It isn't an easy battle with German snipers firing from all vantage points.  In episode 4, suffering heavy casualties, Easy Company receives a fresh set of replacements just before the ill-fated military deployment known as Operation Market Garden.  Easy Company's next job is to take a town a short distance away from Eindhoven.  Following this, Easy Company is sent back to England for some much needed training.

Episode 5 sees Easy Company accomplish an incredible victory along the dikes of Holland.  This gives the battalion executive officer a chance to grab some R&R in Paris shortly before the German army executes their final major offensive against the allied troops in The Battle of The Bulge.  Episode 6 sees Easy Company fight the Germans in the town of Bastogne, Belgium under extreme conditions.  Short of supplies and warm clothing, the men of Easy Company endure a very harsh Christmas.  Is this the Hell Freezes Over scenario one would imagine?

No yet.  At least not until episode 7 when Hell pays Easy Company a visit in the form of German shells set to explode in the middle of the tree line just outside the town of Foy!  Even worse, no one is sure if the enemy is the Germans or their new company C.O.!  In episode 8, "volunteers" of Easy Company are sent across the river to the town of Haguenau in order to capture and bring back alive a few Germans for interrogation.

Episode 9 is a heartbreaker.  Starting with very sad music, the episode's feeling is intensified when Easy Company encounters their first concentration camp.  No one could believe that a whole country could show such cruelty towards a large portion of their own population.  Episode 10 sees the final end of World War II, but not without Easy Company losing a few men to acts of sheer stupidity or bad luck.

Costing a total of $120 million to create, this is arguably the most realistic and nerve-wracking series ever made about any war, making us understand the kind of hell a paratrooper had to endure once they've landed in enemy territory.  Most war movies over-dramatize the smell of death, but Band of Brothers is possibly the first mini-series to show exactly how a soldier dies on the battlefield.  Some soldiers die instantly, others die an agonizing death.  It all depends on how the enemy's weaponry hits you.  Because of the realism of the violence, this is not a series for the more sensitive among you.  Yet this is the kind of series one would want show in an American high school history class, swear words and all, if you want the kids to understand exactly what their forefathers had to accomplish and endure in order to guarantee the rights and freedoms many nations enjoy today, rights and freedoms which are now being eroded by irrational actions brought on by paranoid and status-seeking politicians (don't get me started).

Featuring a cast of mostly unknown but highly talented and motivated actors, written and directed by an army of equally talented writers and directors, this is a series that's truly astounding and reasonably easy to follow although some moments may be so intense that you start wishing for yourself that the fighting would stop.  The last time HBO offered us anything this entertaining, accurate  and complete was the series "From The Earth To The Moon", an 8 part mini-series based on the Apollo missions available on four DVDs which like this series was also produced by Tom Hanks, a man whose knowledge of history can sometimes exceed the knowledge of the historical consultants hired for the series.  This time, we get a historical account of World War II as seen by the men of Company 506 of the 101st Airborne, delivered to us in ten episodes and many documentaries spread across six DVDs loaded to the max and packaged in a beautifully designed tin box.

War has never been pretty.  But through it all, Band of Brothers shows what can be accomplished by a team of courageous men under the most extreme of circumstances.  This series honors them and their accomplishments against incredible odds.

Picture

1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen.  And it's quite impressive although you should be warned in advanced of the filming style used in the making of the series.  Most of the battle scenes are filmed using a very high shutter speed, almost eliminating any motion blur in the images, producing a truly eerie and terrifying atmosphere.  This effect is further enhanced by the severely faded and cold color palette along with the excessive grain that is so evident throughout much of the series.

All this is no accident.  This whacked-out style is a perfect match to what a soldier must have been seeing from their own eyes as they faced death each and every minute of each and every day.  Only the first and last episodes show any real signs of color in the image, presenting us with a reasonable color palette and enough motion blur to make everything look a bit more normal.  As for the black level and shadow detail, I have no complaints.  Then again, with everything blowing up around the troops as it was happening in the series, you don't exactly pay much attention to things like shadow detail.

Sound/Subtitles

And what's a great picture without great sound!  We have for our listening pleasure both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio tracks in each and every episode.  And both of them are fantastic, rivaling soundtracks from many major motion pictures.  The sound is so impressive that in more than one occasion I was startled when enemy shells started to explode over the heads of the troops!  One moment it's quiet, then suddenly BOOM!!! splinters from the exploding trees start to rain on top of you!

There are some moments where you feel the sound has gone a bit out of sync, but these moments are usually brief and don't really mar the overall presentation.  Even during the battle scenes, it was always easy to understand what everyone was saying at any given time.  And all this is accompanied by what I would call a traditional Wartime score, able to communicate the general mood of the scenes wherever music is played in the background.  A truly impressive track for a mini-series.

Alternate language tracks include an English Dolby Surround track, French and Spanish stereo tracks, and Spanish subtitles.

Features

Every disc contains a mission summary of the episodes along with a field guide showing the road Easy Company has followed during their battles in Europe and the work they accomplished.  The sixth disc of the series contains the remainder of the extra features including an 80 minute documentary with the surviving members of Easy Company, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the series, Ron Livingston's video diary of the Actors Boot Camp (This ain't no sissy stuff mister!), the series premiere presented in Normandy, a Who's Who of the men from Easy Company, a photo gallery, DVD-ROM content and a Jeep commercial.

The documentary and video journal were more than enough to give this series top marks in the features department.  The extra items are simply icing on the cake.

Final verdict

John Wayne movies were nice in their time frame, Oliver Stone did a decent job with Platoon, Steven Spielberg had a hit with Saving Private Ryan...  Band of Brothers beats them all.

The box set normally sells for just over $100 Canadian, and it's worth every penny.  Not only do we get an excellent portrayal of what life must have been for an American soldier fighting in Europe during World War II, we get all of this in an unbeatable package including fantastic picture and sound quality and high quality extra features.  Realistic war movie buffs, your time has finally come.

Picture		Video	1.77:1 anamorphic widescreen
Sound		Audio	ENGLISH: DTS 5.1 ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 ENGLISH: Dolby Surround FRENCH: Stereo SPANISH: Stereo
Story		Subtitles	Spanish
Features		Features	Documentary on Easy Company Behind-the-scenes documentary Series premiere in Normandy Mission summaries with field guides Actors Boot Camp Video Diary Who's Who of Easy Company Photo gallery Promos DVD-ROM content
Value		Final word	One of the best and most realistic series ever made about soldiers fighting during the Second World War.