Watching Band of Brothers Series today man what abunch of movies.

[ONEBIGDADDY]

I am listening to the comments of the soldiers who were there...At Part four...OBD

[Scurvy]

Borrowed the DVD set off my bro a year or so ago. Awesome series.

[Morgan]

bought the series from some Afghans at a bazaar - they sell them cheap - have yet to watch them or a ton of other DVDs that I bought when over there.

[corruptpirate]

Great series. Very moving.

[John Galt?]

IMO, the Best Miniseries of all time. Everything about it is good. Acting is very good, directing is great, cinematography is awesome, writing excellent. Really hard to find a flaw with the whole series. Maybe David Schwimmer as the sadistic/incompetent commander in Eps 1+2, I kept expecting him to crack a joke out of character (type casting is real) 

[The White Tiger]

incredible series - what makes it more terrifying is that no one knew what the outcome. We were trying to catch up to a military that had been building up for 4 years while we were attempting to spend our way out of a bone crushing financial crisis where unemployment averaged around 20%. Our military was in bad shape and the estimation by the enemy was that America didn't have the means or the will to repel their ambition - and that the only fighting force capable of putting up a fight (British) were too over-committed to put up much of a fight.

It was clear that we faced a man that was bent on taking over the world by military conquest...and he actually had the means to do it. It was a herculean effort, by mostly farm boys without proper training, without proper equipment in extremely adverse conditions that they were not prepared for. The soldiers were further debilitated by trenchfoot...if the war were fought today our political leaders would ensure that the official language of Europe would be German...

These guys did what no one else on earth could do - beat them and forced them to give up. After the war Europe was destroyed - ALL of it - so we sent billions of dollars to them for free to re-build what they destroyed.

It's why we are owed MORE than a pittance from our "allies" who want our troops to help them fight their wars - but never seem to show up in any numbers to help us defeat terrorists or finish-off jobs requiring bllod to defeat evil men bent on evil intentions.

It's why evil men attack us first - if we're out of the way they won't have any trouble, doing more evil.

[RedAlert]

I've watched that series completely thru 4x. Never tire of it.

[The White Tiger]

I'm with you RedAlert - Just finished my 3rd time. Never tire of it, just have to be ready for it - and every time I watch it I watch all the way through until it's done.

Have you guys watched the companion disk about the making of the series? After I finished it for the second time I ran across it - it was done by the guy that played Nixon in the series, HBO contracted him to do a behind-the-scenes video-diary during the filming. It was really good too, the actors had to go through a boot-camp, using their screen names, ranks, etc., conducted by a crew of former military guys that acted as trainers/advisors - it was pretty awesome.

[BucsGuru]

I agree Galt.  I own the series and can attest IMO nothing I have ever watched comes close to capturing the reality of war from the soldier point of view.  Saving Private Ryan is a close second.

[Scholty]

incredible series - what makes it more terrifying is that no one knew what the outcome. We were trying to catch up to a military that had been building up for 4 years while we were attempting to spend our way out of a bone crushing financial crisis where unemployment averaged around 20%. Our military was in bad shape and the estimation by the enemy was that America didn't have the means or the will to repel their ambition - and that the only fighting force capable of putting up a fight (British) were too over-committed to put up much of a fight.

It was clear that we faced a man that was bent on taking over the world by military conquest...and he actually had the means to do it. It was a herculean effort, by mostly farm boys without proper training, without proper equipment in extremely adverse conditions that they were not prepared for. The soldiers were further debilitated by trenchfoot...if the war were fought today our political leaders would ensure that the official language of Europe would be German...

These guys did what no one else on earth could do - beat them and forced them to give up. After the war Europe was destroyed - ALL of it - so we sent billions of dollars to them for free to re-build what they destroyed.

It's why we are owed MORE than a pittance from our "allies" who want our troops to help them fight their wars - but never seem to show up in any numbers to help us defeat terrorists or finish-off jobs requiring bllod to defeat evil men bent on evil intentions.

It's why evil men attack us first - if we're out of the way they won't have any trouble, doing more evil.

While agree with 99% of your sentiments please be aware that Germany did repay it's monetary debt.  The debt in blood can never be repaid.

[The White Tiger]

Unless you count a story listed by wintersonnenwende (referenced by neo-Nazi groups), only Finland has ever repaid their Marshal plan "debt". Truman used US taxes to fund programs for the Marshall Plan - the debt was retired via profits to private companies selling American products in Europe. The debt "repayment" was accounted for by agreement in this manner.

The Marshall Plan was augmented by "American aid packages" that were not assigned to the Marshall Plan's debt-load for participating countries. Over the years the "debt" was assigned to the various national debts of the participating countries and was never repaid.

The way Europe repaid America was by promising to be our allies and not becoming communists...except when each country regained it's economic footing it found ways around any obligation - till it ultimately actively worked against AMerican interests globally. It became a favorite tactic of the Soviet Union to wedge the debt and expectations of America against the countries they were trying to seduce - until ultimately America simply ignored the debt and looked on our allies as equal democracies that we hoped would consider what we had done when contemplating American requests.

It saved the globe from outright communism (most of which resorted to the much softer form of "tyranny of the masses": socialism), it benefited a few multi-national corporations and was used in some cases to get America into other conflicts around the globe (France used some of it's MP funding for it war in Indo-China, which became our war in Vietnam)...so it seems to be the gift that keeps on giving!

Not to get too far off track - Band of Brothers was a phenomenal series and the best production on WWII that I've ever seen!

[kevabuc]

You have to believe that Tom Hanks was a big fan of Combat! growing up. I am sure he did not miss a Tuesday night at 7:30 in front of the tube.