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With four new flicks to catch, whats going to get you in theaters? Suck to Be Jennifer Aniston This Weekend? KEEP READING Lionsgate; Universal Pictures; François Duhamel/Colubmia TriStar; Macall Polay/Columbia TriStar Copyright 2011 E! Entertainment Television, LLC. A Division of NBCUniversal. E! International Edition: Rent movie reviews presents Band of Brothers movie review a 2001 film starring Damian Lewis, Donnie Wahlberg and directed by David Frankel, Tom Hanks The story of Easy Company of the US Army Airbourne Paratrooper division and their mission in WWII France during Operation Overlord. Miniseries based on renowned WWII historian Stephen Ambrose s nonfiction book about an Army rifle company that parachuted into France on D-Day. An impressively rigorous, unsentimental, and harrowing look at combat during World War II, Band of Brothers follows a company of airborne infantry Easy Company from boot camp through the end of the war. The brutality of training takes the audience by increments to the even greater brutality of the war; Easy Company took part in some of the most difficult battles, including the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the failed invasion of Holland, and the Battle of the Bulge, as well as the liberation of a concentration camp and the capture of Hitler s Eagle s Nest. But what makes these episodes work is not their historical sweep but their emphasis on riveting details such as the rattle of a plane as the paratroopers wait to leap, or a flower in the buttonhole of a German soldier and procedures from military tactics to the workings of bureaucratic hierarchies. The scope of this miniseries 10 episodes, plus an actual documentary filled with interviews with surviving veterans allows not only a thoroughness impossible in a two-hour movie, but also captures the wide range of responses to the stress and trauma of war fear, cynicism, cruelty, compassion, and all-encompassing confusion. The result is a realism that makes both simplistic judgments and jingoistic enthusiasm impossible; the things these soldiers had to do are both terrible and understandable, and the psychological price they paid is made clear. The writing, directing, and acting are superb throughout. The cast is largely unknown, emphasizing the team of actors as a whole unit, much like the regiment; Damian Lewis and Ron Livingston play the central roles of two officers with grit and intelligence. Band of Brothers turns a vast historical event into a series of potent personal experiences; it s a deeply engrossing and affecting accomplishment. Bret Fetzer With the number of reviews of Band of Brothers standing at over nine hundred, and the average rating being five stars, there is really nothing I can add to what has already been said. But I will weigh in anyway and say Band of Brothers is by far the best WWII film I have ever seen. Produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, the ten-part HBO miniseries follows the men of Easy Company, 101st Airborne, from boot-camp through D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge to the taking of Hitler s Eagle s Nest. Each episode has a different director and focus, but the series maintains an overarching storyline with a common theme and common characters. Hanks and Speilberg s involvement with the project make comparisons to Saving Private Ryan inevitable; like many other reviewers, I think Band is an improvement over Private Ryan, as the longer format allows for greater character development, and ultimately offers a more realistic psychological portrayal of what these particular soldiers endured. The film is also notable because for many it will serve as an introduction to the work of Stephen Ambrose, whose book of the same title is the basis for the miniseries. I absolutely recommend the Band of Brothers DVD box set to anyone who is at all interested in WWII history, or to anyone who is simply interested in seeing a great film. All of the extra features, especially the documentary which features interviews with the real life survivors of Easy Company, are excellent. The only oversight by the producers is the lack of English subtitles; beyond that, everything in this set is golden. Like so many other reviewers here, I believe Band of Brothers is destined to become a classic. Lots of Hollywood efforts toward dramatizing WW2 look too glossy, make the death too sanitized or far flung gore. Human relations are usually lost, and love stories thrown in to grab the girls. It becomes about the grit, the determination, and the supermen on the line. But, in this mini-series you get actual relations of people in the military ranks, to leadership, to each other, and shows them dealing with the chaos of war in a very human approach and without piles of blood and intestines strewn through the shots to hammer home the idea that someone died. Made by the Private Ryan heads, I found this film much better.