‘Band of Brothers’ is a war drama miniseries that revolves around E Company of the 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, also known as “Easy” Company, and their participation in World War II. The series begins with Easy Company’s jump training at Camp Toccoa, Georgia, and follows the exploits of Major Richard Winters and the men under his command as they drop behind enemy lines to complete more and more dangerous missions.
Created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg, the 2001 miniseries features an ensemble cast that includes the talents of Damian Lewis, Kirk Acevedo, Eion Bailey, Michael Cudlitz, Dale Dye, Rick Gomez, Scott Grimes, Frank John Hughes, Ron Livingston amongst many others. ‘Band of Brothers’ gives an up close and personal look into the lives of the brave US soldiers who stormed the beach at Normandy, as well as conducted many such dangerous operations on enemy soil.
An unprecedented and unfortunate conflict, World War II has been the subject of many film and television productions, each striving to be as accurate and respectful as possible to the stories of the veterans who fought in that great war. But is ‘Band of Brothers’ also one such series, with its storyline rooted in history? Read on and find out!
Band of Brothers: A Homage to WWII Soldiers
Yes, ‘Band of Brothers’ is a true story. The 10-part series was written by Erik Jendresen, Tom Hanks, John Orloff, E. Max Frye, Graham Yost, Bruce C. McKenna, and Erik Bork. The writers based it on the eponymous non-fiction book by Stephen E. Ambrose, first published in 1992, which chronicles the lives of the members of the real-life Easy Company from their training days to the end of the war.
Ambrose never approached Easy Company with a book in mind, to begin with. During a reunion of the veterans of Easy Company in New Orleans, in 1988, the author had gone there to record the former soldiers’ experience on D-Day. He had been assigned the task as part of an oral history project for the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans. When he noticed the closeness, the bond between the former riflemen, Ambrose was intrigued. He had previously written a biography on Eisenhower himself, as well as Richard Nixon, so he was no stranger to the work either.
The story of Easy Company begins at Camp Toccoa, where the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was established. “Officers would come and go. You would take one look at them and know they wouldn’t make it. Some of these guys were just a bowl of butter They were so awkward they didn’t know how to fall. This was typical of the men trying for the 506th…It took 500 officer volunteers to produce the 148 who made it through Toccoa, and 5,300 enlisted volunteers to get 1,000 graduates,” said Richard “Dick” Winters, who is portrayed by James Lewis in ‘Band of Brothers.’
Each of the original members of Easy Company had volunteered to become a paratrooper and was put through hellish training to do so. But once out of the training camp, they soon distinguished themselves as capable soldiers. “By the late spring of 1944, they had become an elite company of airborne infantry. Early on the morning of D-Day in its first combat action, Easy captured and put out of action a German battery of four 105-millimeter cannon that were looking down on Utah Beach,” Stephen E. Ambrose said in an interview with the New York Times, recalling his conversation with the World War II veterans.
The author added, “The company led the way into Carentan, fought in Holland, held the perimeter at Bastogne, led the counteroffensive in the Battle of the Bulge, fought in the Rhineland campaign, and took Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at Berchtesgaden. It had taken almost 150 percent casualties. At the peak of its effectiveness . . . it was as good a rifle company as there was in the world.” ‘Band of Brothers’ chronicles these exact same battles with painstakingly accurate details.
Shot entirely in England, the production and costume design for the series was on a massive scale. Entire villages were constructed and subsequently blown up, and original World War II vehicles and weapons (including tanks) were restored to be used in the production. The costume design team also went above and beyond as they went through Europe and the United States for period clothing to make the uniforms as historically accurate as possible.
All of the aforementioned things wouldn’t have been possible, however, without the assistance of Bill Guarnere, Ed “Babe” Heffron, and Amos “Buck” Taylor, World War II veterans and former members of Easy Company, who acted as unofficial consultants on ‘Band of Brothers.’ The historical accuracy of the weapons used during combat, as well as the way the soldiers wore their uniforms in battle – attachments and all – were directly conveyed to the production design team by the three veterans, as well as a few others who corresponded with them over the phone.
But while making the weapons, vehicles, and uniforms historically accurate is all well and good, it wouldn’t serve any purpose if the actors themselves weren’t as close to their real-life counterparts in mannerisms and in combat as well. To help them nail down the nuances of their respective roles, Dale Dye — a former marine who’d previously acted as a consultant on ‘Saving Private Ryan’ as well — served as the go-between the veterans and the actors. Dye also portrayed the role of Colonel Robert F. Sink in ‘Band of Brothers.’
“We did a lot of independent research to tell us what the record says happened, and then we went back and asked the vets what they remembered. Sometimes they were in conflict; sometimes we got anecdotal information that gave us a deeper insight. I think they are trying very hard to tell us the truth, but they’re reaching back 50-some years, and memory dims,” Dye told New York Times.
Emphasizing the need for keeping the series as close to the account of Easy Company’s veterans as well, co-creator Tom Hanks said, “We are definitely going for as much authenticity as we can possibly muster, and it’s very hard sometimes. There are a lot of recollections out there, and sometimes they’re not the same.” He further added that because of this, he himself had been forced to let go of many of the tropes that are associated with war in Hollywood – such as a scene where a new soldier is put through some sort of hazing as part of his initiation into Easy Company, but the truth was in fact, the opposite.
The actors themselves took their roles very seriously, having had men in their families who had fought in World War II themselves or had lost their lives while fighting. Frank John Hughes, who portrays Bill Guarnere in ‘Band of Brothers,’ revealed that he put himself through intense training by digging foxholes in his backyard in order to prepare for the role. By the time of his final audition, he’d already been in touch with the real Bill Guarnere.
“He’s an incredible man, who lost his leg and it never slowed him down. He was determined never to feel like a cripple, and he went on with an active, vigorous life. No one ever took care of him,” said the actor about his character’s real-life inspiration. “I told him very early on that I was not going to do a Rich Little impersonation of him. I needed to capture his South Philly dialect, but the main thing I needed to capture was his spirit. But it’s crushing, the responsibility.”
‘Band of Brothers’, created with respect and sincerity, records the true-life account of the members of Easy Company, who fought with valor to ensure the freedom and rights of people across the world. Though nowhere near enough in repaying the sacrifices made by those during World War II, the miniseries certainly stands as a befitting homage to the lives of these brave soldiers.
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