Band of Brothers

I've just finished watching the Band of Brothers series and it is possibly one of the most emotional and inspiring programs I have ever watched. The series focuses on the exploits of 'Easy Company', who are Paratroopers of the 101st airborne division, as they fight Hitler across Western Europe. Lots of well known actors take part in the series including the likes of David Schwimmer, Simon Pegg and Kirk Acevedo, and it has won several awards such as a Golden Globe and six Emmy awards.

The series charts ‘Easy Company’ all the way from the landings at D-day to the end of the war and the overthrow of Hitler. All of this is a true story and is based exactly on the accounts of the surviving members of ‘Easy Company’, and each episode starts off with a testimonial from the survivors about what actually happens. This adds a different dimension to the series and so makes the horrific situations of fighting war so much worst but so real. What this group of soldiers went through is unbelievable, and the fact that some were even able to survive to tell the tale is a miracle in itself. These were the men who were dropped behind enemy lines on D-day to help take out the German resistance on the beaches. These were the men who then parachuted into Holland completely unaided at first to try and liberate the country. These who bravely stood their ground in the Battle of the Bulge at Bastogne when all other soldiers had fallen back and so stopped the German advance from taking back the initiative in the war. They who liberated the Landsberg concentration camp from the brutal tyranny of the SS in the poignantly named episode ‘Why we fight’. And ever after all of this fighting and bloodshed where the company were completely decimated at times, they were still the first Allied troops up to Berchtesgarden to find the last of the SS troops who had been ordered to form a last stand there.

All of these events are wonderfully portrayed with the reunited Directing team of Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, and the only thing missing from this series is one or two recognisable characters as at times it becomes difficult to follow who each of the characters are due to deaths and changing story lines. Yet it makes up for this through having such amazing special effects, a strong story line and the link between reality and Hollywood. This is an absolute must see for everyone, not just history or military buffs. Once you see this you won’t ever think about World War 2 in the same way as Band of Brothers vividly shows the true nature of war and you can only hope t nothing on the scale of the World Wars will ever happen again.