Tag: Dick Winters

Band of Brothers at 15: Damian Lewis at Boot Camp

‘It’s very authentic, dripping in sincerity, there’s nothing sensational about it. It had a docu-drama feel to it which people responded to. — Damian Lewis on Band of Brothers

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We earlier blogged about how a 29-year old British actor Damian Lewis got cast to play all-American WWII hero Dick Winters as well as the deft and the charisma with which Damian Lewis came to immortalize Dick Winters on small screen. However, we still have a black box between the casting and the shoot: How did Damian Lewis TRANSFORM into Dick Winters?

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Well… Once he gets the part, the two Hollywood giants Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks leave the room and Tony To, the executive producer, asks: “Hey Damian, how’d you like to go to boot camp in March?”

Ha! The boot camp… It is, in fact, what FILLS the black box I’ve been talking about… The Transformation, quoting Damian himself, from “a rice pudding” to a “celery stalk” 🙂

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Band of Brothers at 15: Episode 9 Why We Fight

By the end of the World War II, it is estimated that 6 million Jews and another 5 million people (consisting of Gypsies, Poles, Homosexuals, Soviet PoWs and the mentally and physically disabled) were murdered by the Nazis.

During World War two many Nazi Camps were liberated. A fair number of the camps were liberated during April 1945, as World War II approached its end. The sheer number of camps is staggering and horrifying. Continue reading “Band of Brothers at 15: Episode 9 Why We Fight”

Band of Brothers at 15: Bastogne

battle of the bulge, bastogne, band of brothers
Source: http://yalebooksblog.co.uk/2014/12/22/held-bastogne-2-americans-strike-back/

The Seige at Bastogne was a pivotal confrontation in Battle of the Bulge, which saw the Allied forces assert their most courageous and bloody defense against the last big push by Nazi forces in WWII.

The Bastogne episode of Band of Brothers was arguably the most emotionally intense and beautifully filmed of the series. It was like watching a dream sequence through a filter of constant snow, a bitter cold that you could almost feel in your bones as you’re watching. Or an opera of bodies, bent over, running for cover, crouching near trees, or frozen solid to the ground. You could watch all the action without sound and still feel it viscerally.

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Band of Brothers at 15: Episode 2 Day of Days

After successfully parachuting into Normandy on June 6, 1944, Dick Winters leads an attack on a German artillery position at Brecourt Manor where he and his men disable 4 German heavy guns that have been threatening Allied forces coming from Utah Beach. Winters is awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for his service at Brecourt Manor.

This very medal and much more is on display indefinitely at the Gettysburg Museum of History exhibition “Major Dick Winters Collection” honoring Winters.

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Lancester Online quotes museum curator Erick Dorr: “Winters personifies the World War II combat leader. In my opinion those men literally saved the world. We need to honor that. We need to remember that.”

We cannot agree more with Mr. Dorr. And, the 15th anniversary of Band of Brothers gives us a unique opportunity to make a tribute to this real-life hero and his Easy Company. We bring our favorite episodes of the series to the blog this week.

My personal favorite is Episode 2: Day of Days.

As I already told you in my Memorial Day post, there is no way I can comprehend the mind set of a soldier on a boat approaching the shores of Normandy or on an airplane about to make a jump into Normandy. What do these guys think? What thoughts go through their minds? Home? Family? Death? Or do they just try to get it all out of their minds and focus on getting the job done? How can one pull it off knowing his own death may arrive the moment he lands? Continue reading “Band of Brothers at 15: Episode 2 Day of Days”

Band of Brothers at 15: Before and After 9/11

onecollageFifteen years ago today, September 9, 2001, a documentary-like mini-series tribute to D-Day and to WWII, Band of Brothers, aired its two first episodes. Two days later that same year the world turned upside down. It was very difficult for any entertainment to be very entertaining in the days after September 11, 2001. If there were people who looked at ratings, advertising revenue, critical reviews and other such metrics to gauge the success of a series, chances are that they, like the rest of us, were distracted by other headlines. On this anniversary, I wanted to examine how Band of Brothers was perceived by critics, before and after September 11, 2001.

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