Band of Brothers: A movie that never gets old

Pocket Review, Title Band Of Brothers, Studio HBO, Rating 5.0,

	Band Of Brothers (2001) Director: Steven Spielberg Pocket Review

Band of Brothers is intimate, sobering, and gives some sense of the bonds formed in war by soldiers facing death together. It is an account of a cohort of U.S. airborne troops, beginning with their training through their World War II combat experiences in Normandy, Holland, the Ardennes Forest, Alsace and Bavaria, culminating in the post-war occupation of Bavaria and central Austria. This is the best war movie ever made.

Full advantage was taken of the 10 hours of film length to develop a full range of characters and intensify the sense of the emotions and difficulties of living with death, and living with the task of destroying others. So much so that it rivals the Stephen Ambrose book from which it was adapted.

Technically, it was an HBO “mini-series”, but the writing, directing, acting and production values are all of feature movie quality.

Spielberg and Hank’s production is particularly sharp, better even than their excellent Saving Private Ryan. It is superb in bringing realistic emotional depth to the effects of combat on a soldier, on par with the films The Big Red One and Platoon.