Band of Brothers

[Munch]

I never saw this before because it came out when I was single and had a life but after watching "The Pacific" and hearing everyone say how it didn't compare to BOB I thought I should check it out. Spike had a marathon yesterday and I was recovering so I laid on the couch all day and watched it. It was really friggin good! The story, characters, action scenes, everything was really good and everyone was right, it was waaayyyy better than the Pacific. I had to Tivo the last episode but I will watch it later tonight or tomorrow.

In closing, band of Brothers was great!

[NEVRL8T]

Absolutely awesome series. Matches the book almost perfectly. Easy company was an exceptional group and there will never be another PIR like them again. Of course, there will never be a set of circumstances that brought them together again either. I have BoB on video and every time I see it it makes me damned proud to be an American.

[1TZSLO]

Originally Posted by Munch

In closing, band of Brothers was great!

I watched a few episodes myself good stuff, but I kept turning back to Willy wonka

[vettex2]

I find myself watching it everytime I find it while channel surfing

[BuckyThreadkiller]

The fact that it's a true story makes it even more amazing.

[Vet4jdc]

Originally Posted by BuckyThreadkiller

The fact that it's a true story makes it even more amazing.

[ApexOversteer]

Ok, yes, everything that happened in Band Of Brothers happened to someone, somewhere in Europe between June 6th 44 and VE Day. That said, not everything we see happen to the men of Easy happened to the men of Easy. There was quite a bit of artistic license taken in both Band Of Brothers and The Pacific. Both projects are very close to their source materials, but both make use of events that happened to other Soldiers/Marines.

A good example would be John Basilone on Iwo Jima in The Pacific. Several heroic acts by Basilone are omitted from the episode and the manner of his death is completely different to the real events.

Still, these two series are the greatest works of television on the subject of WWII. I can't chose between the two because they are intentionally different. Band Of Brothers is not better than The Pacific, IMO.

I think most of the reason that people prefer one over the other is one of personal connections or because they relate to a specific character. The two projects are so different because the two theaters of war were so different and the branches of the military involved were so different.

Personally, I think that both series should be part of the history curriculum for our kids. They're that good.

[BuckyThreadkiller]

I think the visual and audio style of BoB is lightyears ahead of The Pacific. The look of the washed out color, the impact of the camera placement, the soundwork - like the hollow sound of the snow covered downtime at the Battle of the Bulge, all work to make a very engaging piece. When they are attacking the German 88s, and when Dick Winters is leading the assault on the dike where they encounter an entire company of Germans - the shakey-cam combined with the raspy sound of the the soldiers breathing makes you feel like you are right there.

In The Pacific the colors are bright - the film has a video feel to it that looks almost artificial to me. There are some aspects where the Marine green is just waaaay too glaring as opposed to the incredible sameness of the OD green used in BoB.
When Basilone is mowing down the hordes of Japanese, the camera placement doesn't give the feel that he's about to be overwhelmed, it's more like a video game. The Pacific never puts you in the shoes of the character they way BoB did. That and some of the characters in The Pacific are just strange fellows. Perhaps they are more dimensional and less cut and dried than the characters in BoB, but that doesn't make them people you want to spend an evening with.

[1TZSLO]

It reminds me of Saving Private Ryan