re: Band of Brothers

Hey, my offer to refund your money if you didn't like it doesn't pertain to buying it. I was the guy who posted that vid. It always gets me, no matter how many times I watch it. There's another one - a speech by a german officer to his men, that is also surprisingly moving. BTW, don't watch that clip again. It's supposed to be kind of a surprise.

The series takes great pains to be as accurate as possible. The first episode is pretty slow, and mostly deals with training and why they hate Sobel so much. It gets much better, though. Probably the most engrossing series I've watched.

The characters: Well, what can I say? Extraordinarily well developed. My favorite is probably Eugene "Doc" Reaux, not just because he was from S. Louisiana, but because I cannot imagine how tough his job as medic must have been. I don't even want to know what that does to a person. And yes, Speirs was an animal. Shifty Powers is also one of my favorites.

All in all, I think it's the best miniseris ever made. I hear they're doing another one based on the Pacific war, but I just don't see how they could possibly top this. Enjoy.

ETA: Oh yeah, and there's a weird cameo by Jimmy Fallon in one of the episodes. Though brief, it's some of the worst acting I've ever seen, even by Jimmy Fallon standards.

Very good series, looking forward to Pacific which will be a similar series with the same directors.

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here is a good write up on Sobel

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Wow. Looks like the author of the piece was on a mission to defend Sobel and his actions while admitting his incompetence. Good read, and even though it seems he really was a total a-hole, this is just tragic.

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After the war, Sobel went back to living in his native Chicago, earning a living as an accountant. He got married and had two sons. This should have made him happy again, but it was not to be. He ended up getting a divorce, and to add insult to injury, he became estranged from his children. His former XO from E Co. happened to be in Chicago on business one day in the early 60s and arranged to have lunch with Sobel. He found Sobel a bitter man. Bitter towards E Co., understandably, but more significantly, and more sadly, bitter towards life. In the 80s Sergeant Guarnere, who plays an important role in the 101st Airborne Association, tried to find Sobel to see if he wanted to be involved in the association. Guarnere has said; "must give him [Sobel] his credit, he trained us harder than ever while there [in England], and this training paid off in combat". This sort of sentiment was displayed by almost everyone in E Co. after the war. They realised that it was Sobel who had made them into soldiers able to survive the war in the face of great adversity. Unfortunately, they still hated him - it was indeed a deep hatred. Guarnere tracked down Sobel's sister, who informed him of his bad mental condition. She said he directed his anger at E Company.

Not long after this, Sobel shot himself.

He botched it - he couldn't even do that one final thing properly. His misery continued until September 1988 when he died.

His ex-wife didn't come to his funeral.

Nor did his sons.

Nor did any member of E Company.

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easily my favorite tv series/movie i've ever seen

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It's close for me, but I think it may get the nod over Lonsome Dove.

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Band of Brothers

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For me it's the best movie/mini-series ever. Watch it at least once a year. Such a great story, can't recommend it highly enough, and anyone who has never seen it is missing out big time.

best "miniseries" ever

my only advice...

start watching it when you have time to watch at least 5 hours of it. once you start watching it, you won't want to stop. trust me on this.

It's really amazing to me that I have literally not talked to a single person that has seen this and not liked it.

And moreover, its not just people not..not liking it, but they all fricking RAVE about it.

I'm pumped about watching it, and this all makes it easier to justify spending the 65 bucks on it just on a whim.

Novermber 11 = Blue Ray release. Can't wait.

BOB is even more consistent in episode-to-episode quality than The Sopranos, Entourage, Rome, Californication, etc..a really great series.