"[...] he who today sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."
I just finished watching the HBO series Band of Brothers, which is, for the uninitiated, a series of 10 episodes (about one and a half to two hours long each, I believe) about the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, otherwise known as "Easy Company," during World War II. The series aired on HBO in 2001, but this was the first I've ever seen it; I've heard the name mentioned before, but had no idea what it was about, so I went into the 10-part "movie" without too much knowledge about what it was about. The series is packed full of familiar faces (actors), such as Ron Livingston, David Schwimmer, Colin Hanks, and more (whose names may be unknown, but you've definately seen these guys in movies before); yet, oddly, most of the cast is from more than a couple comedies I've seen before, yet show their power as actors in this epic.
The series takes the viewer from the Airborne training camp, to the invasion of Normandy a night before D-Day to the capture of Hitler's "Eagle Nest" towards the end of the war. One of the amazing things is that this series, in part, shows the true brutal nature of war. The battle sequences are ferociously fast-paced with the trademark film style that Steven Spielberg used for Saving Private Ryan, except with a more sweeping story that's simply not possible in a mere two-hour time frame.
I won't extend this review to epic lengths, simply due to the fact that the series was released more than 2 years ago (so, in part, it's considered "old news"), but if you take an interest in history/WWII, you need to see this series. It will definately take a chunk out your daily life, but put it into perspective: you could be learning about the story of a number of men that served to keep our country safe more than 50 years ago, or you could watch another shitty reality show. Weigh the possibilities.
"I treasure my remark to a grandson who asked, "Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?" "No", I answered, "But I served in a company of heroes"."
- Maj. Richard Winters
"From this day to the ending of the world we in it shall be remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today sheds his blood with me shall be my brother."
- 2nd Lt. C. Carwood Lipton, quoting Shakespeare