IIt was September 9, 2001. Tom, a young history buff, sat down to watch the big new HBO series, Band of brothers. Like many Americans, Tom's family doesn't have an HBO subscription, so he had to go to his next-door neighbors, Earl and Doris. “I had been looking forward to it for a long time, but I wasn't prepared for how amazing it would be,” he says. He was in suitable company: Earl was on Omaha Beach on D-Day. He had met Doris in England, where she had suffered the Blitz, and married her before she was returned to the United States. And now, nearly 50 years later, Earl, Doris and Tom were sitting together, watching the most ambitious television representation of America's role in World War II ever put on screen — just two days before America's place in the world order changed once. once again.
Band of brothers, a 10-part depiction of the flight of the Parachute Regiment – Easy Company – across the Western Front and towards Hitler's Eagle's Nest outpost, was a landmark moment in television history. It formed the first part of a triptych examining American involvement in World War II. Band of brothers It tells the story of foot soldiers spread across Europe, while almost 10 years later, the show's creators come together to… Pacific, a vivid account of naval warfare in the Eastern Theater. Now, with another decade in the rearview mirror, the Air Force is having its time in the sun Air masters Starting this week on Apple TV+. This loose-lipped trilogy of shows, depicting the three main branches of the US military, was produced by Hollywood power duo Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, with key collaborators including Gary Goetzman and John Orloff, bringing together a unique vision of American military history. .
Back in 2001, Band of brothers It represents a huge gamble for the public interest in a war fought within living memory. a The New York Times “HBO is betting on a Pentagon-style budget for its World War II epic,” the article announced, shortly before the show's release. The figure of $125 million for the series — or $12 million per episode — was astonishing, even by the standards of prestige television.
“In the early days of HBO,” says Felix Gillette, co-creator of It's Not TV: The Astonishing Rise, Revolution, and Future of HBO“All of its original programs were made on threadbare budgets.” The dawn of DVD sales in the mid-1990s changed all that, as new revenue streams provided opportunities for television to challenge the visual superiority of cinema. “Band of brothers “It was an example of this new approach,” the Gillette jury said.
But before it could become a landmark work, changing the distinct landscape forever, it had to be a coherent part of the narrative. The series, which follows Damian Lewis as Dick Winters during the final years of the war, was created by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks on the back of their 1998 Oscar-winning film, Saving Private Ryan. This film — starring Hanks as a captain suffering from PTSD as he searches for a private young man played by Matt Damon — begins in the shell-strewn waters of Omaha Beach. This scene, in which landing ships arrive in Normandy amidst a hail of German gunfire, has been celebrated as one of the most visceral and realistic depictions of the horror of war. Roger Ebert called it “as graphic as any war footage I've ever seen.” One of the series' creators, Eric Burke, says the series was easy to “make primitive and compelling because of the constant battle and life-and-death stakes.”
The critical success of this brutal opening would shape the film's aesthetic sense Band of brothers, which continues in this nightmarish context. Death, when it comes, is often quick and unexpected. But sometimes it's messy and long, as when paratroopers arrive in France to find machine guns turning their parachutes into crampons. “We read a lot of books and watch movies where the brave general brings a bird's-eye view,” notes Marcus Brotherton, a writer who worked with veterans at Easy Company on a collective memoir. Company of Champions. “But war is led by non-commissioned officers, and war is won or lost by the success of the man with the gun in his hands.”
Working with veterans of the conflict, Brotherton had the unique opportunity to ensure their sense of authenticity in the drama. Did you capture their experience? Or wear it like a Hollywood costume? “The guys talked about how the battle scenes were very vivid and realistic and brought back memories. Many of those memories were painful but overall, they were very happy with the series. This is a view confirmed by Joe Moccia, an Iraq War veteran and Easy Company historian. He says:” “Viewers can look at these veterans as if they were people we know.” “It made that kind of connection.”
“Tom Hanks believed in the potential for success if it was done right,” says Burke, who co-wrote the final episode set deep in Nazi Germany. “The real events were already so rich and compelling that realistic simulation would always triumph.” For Burke, the process of writing one of the biggest shows ever made for the small screen was closely tied to telling the true stories of life at Easy Company. “We would sometimes tweak and shape how events and characters were presented for practical reasons or for clarity, but never to make them ‘more interesting,’” he says. “Maybe it's more understandable, or more personal and emotional, but never: 'This isn't exciting enough in itself.'”
Part of that excitement comes from the sense of momentum that builds throughout the show, from D-Day in 1944 to VE Day less than a year later. This little slice of history is America's war story. The events begin in 1942, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and so the drama begins In media resolution. When the men of Easy Company reach continental Europe, they find it a war-torn shell: the ground is already littered with the marks of years of mortar shells, and the people await star-spangled liberation.
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The BBC, which contributed an unprecedented £7 million to co-produce the drama, has become skeptical of the show, and in a notable move… Face times, moved it from BBC One to BBC Two just a few weeks before it was due to air. “It's not very bloody, but it's relatively niche and I run a major channel,” said Lorraine Heggesy, who was then in control of BBC One.
In hindsight, the BBC's cold shoulder looks like a failure of creative and commercial imagination. “The relationship that binds men of my generation Band of brothers “It's amazing,” says Robert Hutton, British author and co-host of the show. Pod too far, who will be 50 this year. For him, the show is about “what it means to be a man, to be a leader, and to be a comrade.” And while he was inspiring a group of young people to be more responsible (and re-watch podcasts of war movies), he was also launching the careers of a group of future household names: Simon Pegg, Tom Hardy, Jimmy Fallon, Stephen Graham, Andrew Scott, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender. They all appear, fleetingly, as part of Band of brothers“A sprawling ensemble. As a feat of speculative casting, it displays investment judgment that would make Rockefeller jealous.
Cast Air mastersAt the same time, it may reflect the bankability of the proposal. Among his heroes, Austin Butler and Barry Keoghan were nominated for Oscars last year; Meanwhile, both Ncuti Gatwa and Callum Turner have impressed at the majors Doctor Who And Harry Potter.
He watches Band of brothers Now, more than two decades later, the series has become a clear blueprint for HBO's success. Their successful shows from the pre-stageBand of brothers era – The sopranowhich was two years into its eight-year run, and Six feet under, which premiered a few months before the Spielberg miniseries — seems less symbolic of the future success of HBO than the Spielberg/Hanks adaptation. “The true legacy of Band of brothers At HBO,” says James Andrew Miller, author of Tinderbox: HBO's ruthless quest for new frontiers“It was reflected not only in her appetite for miniseries, but her comfort in taking big risks that required writing big checks.” For Miller, Rome, The west And most strikingly, game of thrones They all come from Band of brothers. “You can draw a direct line from Band of brothers “To these later ambitions,” he says.
However, perhaps due to its American character, or the proximity of its release to the September 11 attacks and changing social mores regarding the military. Band of brothers It feels, at times, like a forgotten chapter in modern television history. Some of the show's qualities noted by veteran Moccia — “It stresses service to your nation and faith in your comrades… There's a purity and goodness in that” — already seem old-fashioned. Recent critically acclaimed war films, e.g All is quiet on the Western Front or Dunkirkor more modern offerings such as Zero Dark Thirty or Pain locker, they deliberated more directly on moral ambivalence. And even long before that Band of brothers“War movies in the 1980s were about Vietnam, and they were full of complexity about why the troops were there,” Houghton says. In contrast, Spielberg's World War II drama is both Saving Private Ryan And Band of brothers, are classic “mission” stories. If war is hell, then Easy Company is Orpheus's descent into the underworld, on a tragic quest where there is only one direction to travel.
But looking back, which Orpheus shouldn't have done, the lack of a politicized angle to it Band of brothers It gives it a timeless quality. Unlike The best or American sniperThere can be no hint that it is recruitment propaganda for the US Army. But, likewise, no Detachment or The thin red line; There is no way it can be read as an anti-war diatribe. Released 60 years after the Pearl Harbor attack (and shortly after the Michael Bay film of the same name graced movie screens), Band of brothers It was an opportunity to relearn the experiences of a generation of veterans, in their twilight years.
“I hope we can continue to educate this generation and future generations,” says Brotherton, whose Easy Company oral history was one of the last opportunities for this cohort to tell their stories firsthand. Now, eighty years after D-Day, there are few left to tell the story of the liberation of France, of Europe, and of the survival of Western democracy today.
It's easy to see America in early September 2001, when the series debuted, as a paradise of naïve bliss. Two days later, the September 11 attacks replaced Pearl Harbor as the deadliest attack ever on American soil. However, if you look at Tom, Earl, and Doris huddled around one HBO subscription, watching that opening episode, the fantasy of innocence evaporates. It was Earl and Doris there, not in the itchy costumes and muddy makeup, but in the thrust of the narrative. For veterans, new viewers, and the HBO executives shaping the future of television, Band of brothers It provided a definitive end to a turbulent century—and became the final draft of a living, breathing history.
Masters of the Air will premiere on Apple TV+ on Friday, January 26