Band of Brothers

Band of Brothers is a ten-part television miniseries about World War II, co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Much of the action of the miniseries centers on the exploits of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, U.S. 101st Airborne Division and one of its early platoon leaders, Lieutenant Richard Winters (later Major Winters).

It is based on a book of the same name written by acclaimed historian and biographer Prof. Stephen Ambrose. The events portrayed in the miniseries are generally historically accurate and are based on Ambrose's research and recorded interviews with Easy Company veterans.

All of the characters portrayed in the miniseries are based on actual members of Easy Company; some of them can be seen in prerecorded interviews as a prelude to each episode. The miniseries first aired in 2001 on HBO; later reruns were also shown on The History Channel. The series was also shown in Britain on the BBC.

Awards

The series was nominated for 19 Emmy Awards, and won six, including prizes for "Outstanding Mini-Series", "Outstanding Casting for a Mini-Series, Movie or a Special", and "Outstanding Directing for a Mini-Series, Movie or a Dramatic Special". It also won a Golden Globe for "Best Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for Television", an American Film Institute award, and was selected for a Peabody Award for "...relying on both history and memory to create a new tribute to those who fought to preserve liberty." It also won a Writers Guild Award for Episode Six and a Christopher Award.

Synopsis (Spoiler warning)

As an outline synopsis, the episodes in the series are as follows:

1. Currahee (directed by Phil Alden Robinson) — Easy Company undergoes paratrooper training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia. The major characters are introduced, particularly Lt. Dick Winters and Lt. Lewis Nixon. The episode focuses largely on the men's reaction to Capt. Herbert Sobel, the egocentric and harsh original commander of Easy Company. However, Sobel's leadership during training exercises leave the men uneasy about following him into battle. The NCOs, in an act of mutiny, say they no longer wish to serve in Easy Company. As a result Col. Sink removes Sobel as company commander and replaces him with Lt. Thomas Meehan. At the end of the episode, the company is shipped to England and prepares to drop into Europe as a part of the Operation Overlord D-Day invasion.
2. Day of Days (directed by Richard Loncraine) — D-Day arrives and Easy Company participates in the Battle of Normandy, including the Brécourt Manor Assault despite losing Lieutenant Meehan, its new commander. This episode is shown mainly from the perspective of Lt. Dick Winters and shows his attempt to reach his assigned target after being dropped several miles off course.
3. Carentan (directed by Mikael Salomon) — Easy Company takes the French town of Carentan and repels the ensuing counter-attack. This episode is shown from the perspectives of Private Blithe, who struggles with fear and feelings of letting his compatriots down, and Lieutenant Welsh, who becomes one of the most valuable leaders of Easy Company.
4. Replacements (directed by David Nutter) — Back in England, Easy Company gets green replacements; Winters, now a captain, leads the company as it is air-dropped into the Netherlands in support of Operation Market Garden. The episode is shown mainly from the perspective of the new men. As well as the perspective of Sgt. "Bull" Randleman who is missing in action and takes shelter in a barn surrounded by German forces, before making it back to Easy Company in the morning.
5. Crossroads (directed by Tom Hanks) — Still in the Netherlands, Easy Company takes on a German offensive, told in flashback from the perspective of Winters, now battalion XO. Easy Company is taken over by Lt. Heyliger then Lt. Dike.
6. Bastogne (directed by David Leland) — Easy Company is holed up near the Belgian town of Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge. This episode is shown from the perspective of Tech. 5 Eugene Roe, one of Easy company's two medics.
7. The Breaking Point (directed by David Frankel) — Illustrates the stress felt by the men during the fighting in and around the town of Foy, Belgium. This episode is shown from the perspective of First Sergeant Carwood Lipton. Capt. Ronald Speirs becomes Easy's new CO when Lt. Dike breaks down during the assault on Foy.
8. The Last Patrol (directed by Tony To) — Easy Company pushes on to the town of Haguenau. This episode is shown from the perspective of David Webster and a replacement lieutenant played by Colin Hanks, son of the executive producer, Hollywood actor Tom Hanks. Winters is promoted to Major, Lipton to 2nd Lt.
9. Why We Fight (directed by David Frankel) — Easy Company crosses into Germany and discovers a Nazi concentration camp near Landsberg.
10. Points (directed by Mikael Salomon) — Easy Company captures Hitler's Eagle's Nest and contemplates a possible redeployment in the Pacific Theater. The war ends and the men of Easy company return home.

We Stand Alone Together (directed by Mark Cowen) is the companion documentary to Band of Brothers, featuring detailed interviews with the real members of Easy Company.

Trivia

• Almost all the main actors were cast because of their close physical resemblance to the real-life soldiers they were portraying.
  
  
• Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, and Stephen Ambrose showed each of the scripts around to real-life soldiers of Easy Company to guarantee authenticity.
  
  
• UK Prime Minister 'Tony Blair' personally met 'Steven Spielberg' to request that the series be filmed in the UK. In return Spielberg gave Blair's son, Euan Blair, a job as a runner in the production.
  

• More than 2,000 extras worked on the miniseries during the course of production
  
  
• Around 700 authentic weapons and almost 400 rubber prop weapons were used in production
  
  
• A heavy day of filming required up to 14,000 rounds of ammunition
  
  
• The Hatfield Aerodrome in Hertfordshire, previously host to part of the Saving Private Ryan (1998) shoot, became the principal location, and sets of the English, Dutch and French sites, including a river and massive dykes, were created there.
  
  
• Hatfield offered 1,000 acres of open space as well as empty airplane hangars - perfect for indoor sets and construction needs - as well as office space.
  
  
• The actors endured a grueling two-week boot camp where they learned the basics, from how to wear a uniform and stand at attention, to sophisticated field tactics and parachute jump training. The average day was 16 hours long, beginning at 5:00 a.m., rain or shine, with strenuous calisthenics and a three-to-five-mile run, followed by hours of tactical training, including weapons handling and jump preparation.
  
  
• The village (Carentan), which became 11 different European cities and villages, was 12 acres - the size of nine American football fields.
  
  
• By the third episode of shooting, the special effects department had used more pyrotechnics than were used in the entire production of Saving Private Ryan (1998).
  
  
• The art department reconstructed four World War II-era tanks, using the frames of Soviet T-34 tanks from WW II and British Army Personnel Carriers as the foundations.
  
  
• The wardrobe department hired the Corcoran Boot Co. to manufacture 500 pairs of paratrooper jump boots to the original Army specifications.
  
  
• 2,000 German and American uniforms were purchased or manufactured.
  
  
• All of the 1,200 civilian costumes were authentic vintage clothing.
  
  
• All of the insignia are either originals or exact replicas, down to an identical stitch count on the "screaming eagle" patch, and "wings" pins cast from original molds.
  
  
• The forest set, recreating the Bois Jacques in Bastogne, was built in an airplane hanger using real trees, as well as 250 trees created by the special effects department.
  
  
• One-third of a million pounds of recycled paper were used to create the snow for the forest set - the largest ever used in a production
  • and it took four weeks to dress the entire set. The total budget for the miniseries was $120,000,000. Of that, construction costs were $17,000,000.
    
    
• The 10-part miniseries features 500 speaking roles.
  
  
• One important special effects innovation was the use of human dummies on electromagnetic bases, which could be posed in any position, holding weapons and gear.
  
  
• The dummies were modeled after auto crash test dummies, so they had the proper weight and dimensions, and their joints behaved like human joints. When the dummy took a hit, the electromagnet was released and the dummy crumpled as a human would.
  
  
• Five kitchens ran simultaneously to feed the concurrent film units.
  
  
• Several innovations involved the use and firing of squibs, the small charges that cause the bullet holes in costumes and sets. The special effects team came up with a firing mechanism using compressed air, instead of the traditional pyrotechnics, so that actors could be much closer together when a squib went off without the dangers inherent in conventional squibs. They also invented a new firing system, whereby an actor was pre-wired with up to eight hits, controlled by a button he activated that was hidden in the sleeve of his costume.
  
  
• There were two soundstages, measuring 50,000 square feet each.
  
  
• The backlot measured 1100 acres.
  
  
• Fifty "special ability" extras worked throughout the course of the production. These extras were trained in weapons handling and served as both German and British soldiers.
  
  
• The title of the series (and of Stephen Ambrose's book) is from William Shakespeare's "Henry V": "This story[of the battle] shall the good man teach his son, And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by From this day to the ending of the world But we in it shall be remembered We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he today that sheds his blood with me Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition."
  
  
• The series was previewed for the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University several weeks prior to its air date.
  
  
• "Currahee" is the American aboriginal Cherokee Indian equivalent for "Stands Alone". The original members of the 506th were trained at Currahee Mountain Georgia. "Currahee" was the cry of the 506th paratroopers as they cleared the door on their first jump, and it continued to be their cry when in combat.
  
  
• In "Day Of Days" when the company first attacks the German gun position at Brecourt, there appears to be some kind of cinematic error when it looks as though an American soldier throws a grenade and it explodes upon hitting a fleeing German soldier. Grenades don't explode on contact; they have timed fuses. However, this actually happened: 'Buck Compton' had been an All-American catcher for UCLA and threw that grenade at the enemy with no arc and it exploded as soon as it struck.
  
  
• The hard shock that many of the paratroopers spoke of when they jumped at Normandy--causing them to lose their leg bags, helmets, and other equipment--was caused by the parachute the troopers were using (not the type shown in the film). That parachute was called a T-1, and as it deployed out of its pack the canopy came out first, then the suspension lines and finally the risers connected to the harness. With this design, by the time all of the lines are fully deployed the canopy has completely filled with air, acting as a brake for the lines, causing the paratrooper to come to an abrupt stop at the end of the deployment. The heavier the paratrooper and the more equipment he was carrying, the more sudden the stop or shock. Current design parachutes deploy in the completely opposite way (lines first, then canopy), greatly reducing the opening shock.
  
  
• The white "PT gear" (physical training) tee-shirts worn in the first episode and seen again in the closing scenes of the last episode with the parachutist and the legend "U.S. Paratroops - Camp Toccoa, GA". are exact reproductions of the ones worn during training. The Stephens County museum in Toccoa has an original on display as well as uniforms, Normandy maps, and other Airborne exhibits. The originals were printed with black ink, while reproductions sold at the museum as a fund-raiser are in a very dark blue and have a small copyright legend at the bottom right of the design.
  
  
• The site of the actual Camp Toccoa is now partly occupied by an industrial plant near the highway above Toccoa, Georgia, with the remaining areas now overgrown by a pine forest. A flagpole and monument are located by the highway at what was once the camp's main gate. Locations of former camp streets are denoted by street signs named for personnel and terminology of the paratroops (Curahee Street, for instance) but have a tendency to disappear to souvenir hunters. The winding trail up Mount Curahee is named for Colonel Sink. It is accessible but the last few hundred feet are extremely rough and part of it passes over a bare rock outcropping. Not recommended driving for low-slung vehicles. Communications antennas surmount the crest of Curahee.
  
  
• During the liberation of Eindhoven in episode 4, the real Pvt. Edward "Babe" Heffron can be seen in one of the shots. He is sitting down and waving an American flag.