Band of Brothers

While highly romanticized in style, I'd say the content was true and realistic. The amount of time spent on details was incredible, but that is to be expected of such a noteworthy historical remake. This series originally aired on HBO draws you in and creates a world of its own, which good cinema does. It's something else to create a lasting world after the DVD is turned off, which this also does.

The characters are all genuine, both in spirit, their acting, and in looks and language. This is one of the best rebuildings of history I've seen on any screen as far as authenticity. One expects some emotional buildup to the scenes in episode 9 of the Jewish camps they found, and there certainly was. It was an incredibly good choice to contrast the war-end atmosphere of American plundering, the concerns of a drunken Lieutenant about his ongoing problems at home and a divorce pending, and sexual escapades, with that of the new discovery of the death camps. It was portrayed accurately and without a great deal of aplomb in scope in order to demonstrate the real surprise of the findings. They also demonstrate the reality of the situation of not knowing immediately what to do with all those displaced men. There were no women shown at this particular camp that was found, as have other cinema expositions of the same nature, such as Schindler's List. But the emotions and realism were nonetheless clear and present. Animosity was dealt with fairly and I didn't feel that there was an attempt at creating a sense of "American scourge", or rather the slanting of the piece to make American involvement somehow look bad, as has been the case with so many other productions on Korea and Vietnam. The soldiers' real feelings, and justifiably so under the circumstances, were brought out in the scene where so many surrendered Germans were marching the opposite direction of the invading army. But Americans were not portrayed as a brutal or demoralizing force. I'd say this was a very fair representation of the actuality of the war, and in no way sensationalized. 5 stars.

Steve