Categories Band of Brothers Media Print Media

Band of Brothers: Too close for comfort, The Guardian, September 24, 2001

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Band of Brothers: Too close for comfort

The Guardian
24 September 2001
by Matt Seaton, The Guardian, September 24, 2001

With talk of the US drafting men to fight its ‘crusade’ against terrorism, the second world war mini-series, Band Of Brothers, has suddenly become all too relevant. Matt Seaton reports from the set

Captain Dye of the US Marine Corps stubs out another Marlboro and pauses to consider the question of what he did when he retired after 22 years of military service.

“The mafia wasn’t hiring,” he says dryly, “so I went to LA.” Continue reading Band of Brothers: Too close for comfort, The Guardian, September 24, 2001

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Brothers in Arms, Time Out, September 19, 2001

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Brothers in Arms

by Tom Howard, Time Out, September 19, 2001

Spielberg’s $120 million WWII drama ‘Band Of Brothers’ comes to BBC2 next month. The series may be awash with American heroism, but its trump card is rising British star Damian Lewis.

The famous British inferiority complex- normally aired after sporting occasions – has never been as misplaced as our reaction to ‘Band Of Brothers’. American films such as ‘U-571′ tried to rewrite history, but this $120 million ten-part HBO-produced series is rigorously accurate. It’s the story of Easy Company, a crack American unit who parachute into Normandy in 1944, and then, at least according to the Daily Mail and others, proceed to win WWII single-handedly.

Continue reading Brothers in Arms, Time Out, September 19, 2001

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The Art of War, Salon, September 8, 2001

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The Art of War

by Gary Kamiya, Salon.com, September 8, 2001

HBO’s massive and bloody miniseries, “Band of Brothers,” attempts the impossible and nearly succeeds.

The history of serious movies about war, from “Paths of Glory” to “Johnny Got His Gun” to “Apocalypse Now” to “Saving Private Ryan,” is a history of attempts to do the impossible: turn the unthinkable into art. The problem, always, is truth. If a work of art about war does not tell the truth, it is obscene — but how can one tell this truth? And what is it, anyway? Is it a former human being who has been turned into pieces of bloody meat by large fragments of metal? Or is it the soaring words of Abraham Lincoln: “That from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain …”? Falstaff or Prince Hal? Hideous death or trumpets and brass? What form, what story line, what aesthetic approach can capture war’s nihilistic horror and still contain some larger meaning?

Continue reading The Art of War, Salon, September 8, 2001

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Easy Company’s Hard Times, Los Angeles Time, August 26, 2001

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Easy Company’s Hard Times

by Susan King, Los Angeles Times, August 26, 2001

HBO’s ‘Band of Brothers’ miniseries re-creates the bonds forged in a unit of American GIs during bloody European fighting in World War II.

HOLLYWOOD — It’s hard not to be struck by the silence when watching Tom Hanks’ war, as played in the 10-part HBO miniseries “Band of Brothers,” which begins Sunday.

Although millions were spent in filming the series, which aims to capture the three-year odyssey of the U.S. paratroopers of Easy Company up to and through D-day and on to the ultimate defeat of the Germans in World War II, the result is a study in how powerful restraint can be. Shot from the point of view of a fighting man, “Band of Brothers” puts one in the trenches, in the chaos and often in the silence of war. Continue reading Easy Company’s Hard Times, Los Angeles Time, August 26, 2001

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This American Platoon is Led by a Brit, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2000

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Damian Lewis survived a slew of tests to win the role of a war hero.

by DAVID GRITTEN, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2000
HATFIELD, England — “I’ve really screwed up my hearing,” grimaces Damian Lewis. “I should have had earplugs in.”

The mud-spattered Lewis, in a World War II paratrooper uniform, has spent the morning shooting blanks (24 for each take) from an M-1 rifle at a crowd of extras dressed as German soldiers.

It is a deafening business, and everyone else on set either wears earplugs or covers their ears whenever director Tom Hanks yells “action!” Continue reading This American Platoon is Led by a Brit, Los Angeles Times, August 20, 2000