grimaces gripes and plaudits

Seldom has a film about war moved me so much. Perhaps the ring of authenticity or the time frame alloted to the telling of the story.

‘Band of Brothers’ tells the tale of Easy Company – a collection of men from the 101st. Airborne Regiment out of Camp Toccoa in Georgia.

Wide eyed young men drawn from over forty states  - a varied mix from  tough guys and introverts attracted by an extra fifty dollars a month and the sheer thrill of jumping out of aeroplanes for a living. For many their choice led to death in the fields, forests, and villages of Normandy, Holland and the Ardennes.

Ten episodes of about an hour in length make up this remarkable ‘boxed set’ I’d missed it the first itme around, and the second. Some seemed longer than others. All were difficult to watch. War, even ficitonal war is not easy on the eye for anyone with an ounce of humanity, not when it is portrayed as vividly and faithfully as this. Only recently with time on our hands have I committed to watching it not once, but twice. A third viewing is inevitable unless I too am robbed of a three score and ten existence, like so many of the heroes featured.

‘Hero’ is not a term I use much , if ever. I do not use it here in recognition of any particular valiant act, or beyond the call bravery. I’m thinking more of a collective heroism which crept up gradually upon Easy Company as they found their way in battle and tested their endurance over many months of deprivation, leading to desperation duting ‘The Battle of the Bulge’ – almost Hitler’s last stand.

Once training was complete and the still happy band of brothers embarked for eNgland the sepia tone of the filming transported me back to the nineteen forties with lovingly created set-pieces and locations. An invasion postponed due to bad weather which improved sufficiently twenty four hours later to get the men away. The awful, horrifying reception their aircraft met over Normandy as some were blasted from the sky before their assault teams could get anywhere near a green light. The chaos of landing miles from drop zones as desperate pilots jettisoned their human cargoes fearing disaster imminent…engines ablaze and almost certain death looming in the blackness, a blackness punctuated by fireflash and explosion. The noises of oblivion. Graphic horror : hypnotic in its sheer, terribly gripping way.

The survivors found themselves dis-organised on the ground and living on their wits until daylight when some semblance of a plan began to emerge. Were they the lucky ones? The batallions of compatriots streaming onto ‘Omaha’ and ‘Utah’ beaches might well have thought so. The number of dead paratroopers hanging from trees and buildings or trapped inside the still burning wreckage of doomed aircraft suggested otherwise.

As the last twelve months of war progresses the story eventually takes us into character development and the individual nature of each of the surviving company unfolds a little.

Each episode is preceded by real life stories from veterans who we realise are actually represented in the on screen action. A definite bond of brotherhood , loyalty and affection shines through the decades as the life defining events that made these men what they became unfold before the viewers eyes.

As time passes and possible defeat turns steadily into assured victory more and more of the ‘brothers’ are killed or grievously wounded. In the heat of battle this toll of young lives is hard enough to accept but as the fighting subsides we have accidental death and run of the mill casualties from seemingly innocuous situations to deprive battle hardened soldiers of the peaceful existence they so deserve. The ‘Last Patrol’ where fear of death was perhaps at its height as thoughts of victory and a troopship home beckoned so tantalisingly it could almost become reality. With triumph in their grasp the remains of the company plunders Hitler’s ‘Eagles Nest’ lair high in the glorious mountains of Bavaria…to the victor the spoils.

This is an American production. There is little regard paid to the contribution of the British Armed Forces, although unlike ‘Saving Private Ryan’ there are a few scenes where British soldiers are portrayed as somewhat stiff upper lip types – surely a stereotypical representaion is better than none at all. British authority and command is generally jeered and resented whenever the plot requires its mention. I can rise above jingoism in ‘enjoyment’ of ‘Band of Brothers’. I enclose the word in inverted commas becaus ‘enjoy’ is not the right choice of word, but neither would be ‘endure’ . It is an earnest attempt to portray war and the effect of war upon ordinary men in extra-ordinary circumstances. A rounded , warts and all study of confusion, cock-up, valour, stamina under duress and ultimately withering hardship. That people came through it intact is remarkable, that so many of  their heads remained steady enough to replace all this with domesticity and the routine of ordinary lives is a tribute to the human spirit.

We had the ‘Longest Day’ with its stellar nineteen sixties cast that read like a ‘whose who’ of Hollywood and the panoply British acting talent ‘…’Saving Private Ryan’ was probably the war film to end all war films but what we have here is its extension into a complete chronicle of conflict the scale and destructive force of which the world had never known and if we’ve learned anything as a species will never know again. If you’re anything like me the cast of relatively unknown actors will, if you give them the chance capture your sympathy, your admiration, your loyalty and your conscience and any vestige of empathy as you thank God you were born twenty five years or more  too late.

Band of Brothers…a fraternity forged in blood, fear and ultimate victory which made me weep.