Press

Evening Telegraph
22 September 2001
by Marion McMullen

WEEKEND TV: From Friends to the field of war

SECOND WORLD WAR epic Band of Brothers cost a record-breaking $120 million to make and tells of a group of American soldiers who played a key role in the campaign in Europe. TV writer MARION McMULLEN finds out how a real-life story of heroes inspired Hollywood.

WHEN Oscar-winners Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg decide to join forces then the project has got to be big.

And projects certainly don’t come much bigger than Second World War drama Band of Brothers.

Which is why Friends star David Schwimmer found himself alongside British actors Damian Lewis and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels’ Dexter Fletcher in the mud of a British airfield in the middle of winter.

They help to tell the remarkable true story of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Regiment. Band of Brothers is the meticulous record of that unit, which took 150 per cent casualties on the way to becoming outstanding war heroes.

“It’s important to keep their memories alive,” says Schwimmer. “A lot of my family fought in the Second World War. I grew up listening to their stories.”

His role as the hated Herbert Sobel in the mini-series is a complete departure from his part as Ross in hit comedy Friends and has already won him critical acclaim in America.

Film star Tom Hanks also steeped himself into the period as co-executive producer on the mini-series and says he was determined to get the details right.

He directed one of the episodes, co-wrote another and even makes a cameo appearance as a British paratrooper in the mini-series which begins on BBC2 on October 5.

“There are two types of authenticity,” Hanks reveals. “There is one that says that all the buttons are right and all the ammunition is correct and all the buildings look like they did in the photograph. That’s a relatively easy matter to accomplish.

“The thing that’s much harder is the motivation and the nature of the interplay between the characters. So we were always forcing every page of the script and every moment of the project through this sieve of authenticity.”

The drive to get things right even led to the cast being sent to boot camp for two weeks to learn the basics, from how to wear a uniform and stand at attention to sophisticated field tactics and parachute jump training.

The actors toiled for up to 16 hours a day and were woken every morning at 5am for exercise and a three-to-five-mile run. The actors ate twice a day - if they hadn’t upset military adviser Captain Dale Dye, and spent the nights in foxhole digs sleepingon cold, wet ground.

The training ended with a trip to the Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton where each actor jumped from a 40ft jump tower to earn his wings.

“No actor who hasn’t walked a mile or two in a soldier’s boots can adequately emotionally and psychologically portray a soldier,” insists Captain Dye. Spielberg, at least, was happy to be back on British soil. A confirmed Anglophile, who has been awarded an honorary knighthood, he was delighted the series was able to be made in Britain.

“I was so pleased to be working again in the UK, which has been the spawning ground for so many of my productions, from Raiders of the Lost Ark to Saving Private Ryan. For Band of Brothers is a combined operation, a true jumping-off point, just as it wasin 1944 for the 101st and the thousands of Allied forces.”

Members of the original Easy Company and their families attended the first screening of the mini-series along with Hanks and the grandchildren of Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and Dwight D Eisenhower.

Hanks says he hopes the mini-series will touch viewers. “As filmmakers we certainly hope to entertain those in search of a great story. We also hope to enlighten those who are unaware of history and those who are unappreciative of the human cost of preserving our great freedoms.”

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Hearts and Bones star gets call-up

THE last time Damian Lewis was on TV he was playing a Coventry guy who lived for the Sky Blues in Hearts and Bones.

Band of Brothers sees him as American war hero Richard Winters who led Easy Company with almost unbelievable bravery.

“When I first sat down to watch the world premiere with other veterans it was incredibly nerve-wracking,” says the former Royal Shakespeare Company actor. “At the end I was relieved because the other veterans came up and said ‘You nailed him’. That tooka lot of the pressure off.”

Lewis would be the first to admit that he was also pretty nervous at his audition for the mini-series in Los Angeles. “I met Tom Hanks on the Friday and he was very enthusiastic,” he recalls, “but I didn’t think I had got the part. So I went out on thelash with a mate until five in the morning, only to be woken at eight by the casting director saying: ‘Mr Spielberg wants to see you at 12′. I had four showers, but I still felt drunk.

“When I got to Spielberg’s office they had photographs all over the wall of Dick Winters as a young man and I sat down next to a guy who was the spitting image of him. He said: ‘I’m here for Dick Winters’, and my heart sank. I thought ‘They have broughtme all the way over here to tell me this guy who looks like Dick Winters’s love child has got it.

“Anyway when I went in, it was surreal because the first thing Steven said was ‘I’ve got to go to my son’s soccer match this lunchtime. Do you know anything about the game?’

“I thought ‘I am happy to talk about that, but I’m having a weird time here because I thought this was an audition.

“It turned out they just wanted to see what kind of bloke I was and when I came out of the office Steven’s assistant said: ‘Are you ready for the boot camp in March?’ I jumped up, shouted ‘Sure am, buddy’, and kissed everyone in the room.”

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Band of Brothers fact-file

MORE than 10,000 extras worked on the mini- series, which cost $120 million to make.

FILMING took place at the Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire. The location was also used for the movie Saving Private Ryan.

THE 1,100-acre lot incorporated a river, a forest and a town which doubled for 11 European cities and villages.

ABOUT 700 authentic weapons and almost 400 rubber fakes were used in the production. A heavy day of filming required up to 14,000 rounds of ammunition.

A TOTAL of 500 pairs of paratrooper jump boots were made to the original army specifications.

ALL of the 1,200 civilian costumes were authentic vintage clothing.

ABOUT 2,000 German and American uniforms were bought or made.

FOUR army tanks were built using the frames of modern Russian T-34 tanks and British Army personnel carriers as starting points.

THE mini-series is based on the best-selling book by Dr Stephen E Ambrose.