Band of Brothers [2001] (REGION 1) (NTSC)

Amazon.co.uk Review
A genuinely epic achievement, the 10-part World War II drama Band of Brothers is a television series that makes big-screen Hollywood war movies look small in comparison. Based on the book by historian Stephen Ambrose, the series follows the US 101st Airborne Division's "Easy" E-Company from initial training through D-Day and across Holland, Belgium, Germany and Austria until the end of the war. Coproduced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks the series takes its initial inspiration from Saving Private Ryan and borrows that film's visceral visual approach to combat scenes too. But where Band of Brothers scores over Ryan and almost every other war movie is in its scrupulous attention to historical detail and the unprecedented accuracy of its depiction of military life (retired Marine Captain Dale Dye, who also costars, is the man to credit). Helping the verisimilitude is the absence of big-name stars and the constant emphasis on the company not the individual--Easy saw some of the fiercest action of the war and suffered some of the worst casualties of any Allied unit and this terrible attrition is seen unflinchingly from the soldiers' own point of view.

After the high drama of the parachute drop on D-Day, Easy's greatest trial comes during the Battle of the Bulge when they are besieged at Bastogne in the depths of winter. In one of the most harrowing and credible depictions of war ever committed to film we see the men enduring the repeated artillery attacks of the German forces and experience, if only vicariously, some of the sheer terror of the assault while being humbled by the soldiers’ courage and determination. Such feelings are enhanced by the series' masterstroke--bookend interviews with the surviving members of Easy Company who talk with barely suppressed emotion of the experiences we see recreated. The endorsement of these veterans elevates Band of Brothers beyond any mere "war film"--its extraordinary achievement is that it shows the horror and savagery of war without gloss or jingoism and yet celebrates the fraternal bonds and dogged heroism of the men who fought. --Mark Walker

Saving Private Ryan [1998] DVD ~ Tom Hanks