Movie Recommendation: Band of Brothers

I've wanted to watch Band of Brothers for years now. I even rented the first couple of episodes from the video store to begin them a few years ago. However, for some reason or another, I never really fully committed to watching the entire series. Last week, I completed Band of Brothers, and I dare say that I'm not sure that I've watched anything better.

Thanks to a friend of mine (to protect his identity, we'll just call him Brenden) who allowed me to borrow his DVD set of Band of Brothers, I watched the ten episode series over the last month and a half, spacing it out between classes and Xperience events.

Band of Brothers was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and was presented on HBO in 2001. It was based on the book by Stephen E. Ambrose which chronicled Easy Company in the 101st Airborne. This particular company was one that parachuted behind enemy lines on D-Day in Normandy and stayed at the front lines for pretty much the remainder of World War II. The miniseries is a stunning achievement in direction, acting, cinematography, and writing. The series' greatest achievement, however, is its telling of the story of those brave men of Easy Company and the hardships they faced together fighting to secure the freedom of Europe, and ultimately, the rest of the world.

It is a compelling story of a group of normal guys that decided to fight for their country and became heroes and comrades. Watching the documentary on the actual men of Easy Company in the special features, I realized how perfect the casting was and what a fantastic job the actors did in their portrayals of the soldiers.

Spielberg and Hanks created a World War II movie that far surpassed Saving Private Ryan in every way. Band of Brothers gets my highest of recommendations.