BAND OF BROTHERS

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Martin Luther King, jr. had famously said "We are not makers of history. We are made by history" and nothing has shaped our world more than the 2 world wars. History has always amused me, not limiting it to the subcontinent but extrapolating to European history as well. As in Europe, lies the events that shaped our world. Fortunately enough I came across this tv series directed by Steven Spielberg & Tom Hanks based on a book by prolific American historian Stephen E. Ambrose.

 


Since almost everybody has somehow heard about the Normandy evasions and their importance in liberating northwestern Europe from German Nazi forces and also opening a two-front war for Nazis. Which ultimately culminated into the primary reason for the defeat of Adolf Hitter. But the D-Day was not just about Normandy but also about many other small and big battles. Including the famous landings prior to the evasion, this series attempts to highlight that.

The basic story here is a group of soldiers from the USA's Airborne division are dropped behind the enemy lines during the war in 1944. They take part in D-DAY victories & then fight their way through Europe to capture Hitler's mountain eyrie at Berchtesgaden.

Bands of Brothers is a must-watch for anyone who has the slightest interest in history, Europe, wars and their devastations, or what whims of a man could do to the entire world.

Bands of Brother doesn't even look like a TV miniseries, it's more like 10 theatrical films that do an amazing job re-creating battles. After watching this you will realize that Wars are not and could never be good. It brings unprecedented scales of destruction.  

The beauty of the series is such, that you will unknowingly get personally connected with those soldiers and you can not control your emotions once you will see them explode in the most brutal ways possible right there on your screens. Even more, binding is the fact that show will never prepare you about who's gonna get killed the very next moment Right when you will be busy planning about the character's future in hope that he's gonna take the story forward you will see him die.

The absence of a romantic angle is somethings Indian war movie makers could learn. The absence of it doesn't mean the show's not about relationships. There are beautiful brotherhood and friendship moments between those soldiers you are definitely gonna pray for such friends and fellow comrades in real life.

My moment of being blown away by the brutality comes in the penultimate episode where the easy company finds one of the concentration camps established for the Jews. Recently I read STORY OF A YOUNG GIRL by Ana Frank. After reading it I thought I was pretty much aware of the plight the Jews people had to go through during those times. But, when it was shown here I couldn't hold my tears  (i bet you too can't) back. I was not ready to engulf the fact that such sufferings inflicted on a fellow human were even possible. It was one of the most heart-wrenching scenes in the whole series.



It is a must-watch without a doubt and what is more important is the fact that people must be persuaded and nudged to watch it in order to understand the pain, immorality, sheer violence, discrimination, and loss to humanity an insane ideology could cause. More than entertainment and documentary, it is a great attempt to give the much-needed life lessons on why wars are ALWAYS mutually assured destructions. Band of Brothers maybe is the best film ever made to show the everlasting bond forged in the war between ordinary men...It may also be the best film ever made to show the relentlessness and horror of war.

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