TV Review
'Brothers' serves as testament to WWII heroism

By Jack Garner
Gannett News Service

•	"Band of Brothers" 6 p.m. today, HBO. (Two episodes will air tonight, with one-hour segments broadcast the next eight weeks at 6 p.m. on Sundays.)

"No," the man replied. "But I served in a company of heroes."

That company's story is detailed in a riveting and vastly rewarding 10-part miniseries (airing over nine weeks), created with the same artistic integrity as "Saving Private Ryan."

If the beautifully produced 10-hour drama seems a follow-up to Steven Spielberg's powerful film about the fictional search for a sole surviving son in the wake of the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy on the coast of France, that's only natural.

"Band of Brothers" marks a continued collaboration among Spielberg, Tom Hanks and "Saving Private Ryan's" adviser-historian, Stephen E. Ambrose.

Spielberg and Hanks co-produced "Band of Brothers," and Hanks also co-wrote a couple of the scripts, and directed the fifth episode. And the source material was Ambrose's book of the same name (Touchstone books, $16), one of several histories the best-selling author has written about World War II.

"Band of Brothers" is a dramatized, but factual account of the exploits of Easy Company, a U.S. Army rifle company of the 101st Airborne Division.

The paratroopers were dropped on D-Day in advance support of troops arriving by sea in an armada of Allied forces on their historic mission to free western Europe from Nazi occupation.

Superbly cast actors portray real figures of the campaign — mostly the foot soldiers, and a few of their company leaders — though the now-aged real men are shown in brief testimonies at the start of each episode and at the conclusion of the series.

Easy Company's story provides an effective microcosm of the European campaign.

The unit was fated to take part in much of the major action on the continent — the taking of Normandy, the failed Operation Market Garden in the Netherlands, the deadly, freezing winter horrors of the Battle of the Bulge, the liberation of horrific concentration camps, the move across the Rhine into Germany, and the capture of Hitler's Eagle's Nest stronghold. After the opening episode, which details the unit's arduous training, the subsequent programs spotlight specific incidents or battles, shown almost exclusively from the perspective of the foot soldiers.

Using hand-held cameras, intricate special effects and high-intensity filmmaking, the viewer is drawn into the action, whether it's jumping out of a plane into enemy fire or jamming into a snow-covered fox hole while the trees everywhere around you seem to explode.

But the stories also involve us because of their personal dimension. Although various soldiers come and go — often tragically — we come to know a few closely.

They especially include Dick Winters (Damian Lewis), who rises from "grunt" to company commander, thanks to well-earned battlefield commissions; and his friend, Lewis Nixon (Ron Livingston), who grows more cynical, and drinks harder the longer the campaign is waged.

Other episodes concentrate on the exploits of a nearly shell-shocked medic, the failings of a replacement officer, the tragic efforts of one of the soldiers to secure a German weapon as a souvenir and a soldier's weekend pass in Paris where even a ride on the subway becomes a haunting experience.

The cast is largely unknown — except for David Schwimmer ("Friends"), who effectively plays the cruel, small-minded training officer the men all come to hate.

Although the "Band of Brothers" segments come from more than a half-dozen writers, two cinematographers and seven directors, the series maintains impressive cohesion, creating the illusion of a single-minded creation.

It was shot primarily in England on an expanded version of the "Saving Private Ryan" sets. Final sequences of Hitler's Eagle's Nest were shot on location at Berchtesgaden, Germany. If you're planning to videotape it, you should note that each show's running time is not exact. Some segments are a little less than an hour; a few are a few minutes over an hour.

Certain stories deserve expensive, prestigious and extremely artful presentation. Certain stories deserve to be seen.

"Band of Brothers" is filled with those kinds of stories.