Based on the best selling novel by Stephen E. Ambrose, Band of Brothers was directed by both Stephen Spielberg as well as Tom Hanks; both had worked together in the production of Saving Private Ryan. Band of Brothers incorporates some very new and extremely revolutionary technology for filming. The movie has very little color during the film; this was attainable thanks to an all digital film finishing process, which gave way to electric color timing, allowing them to control all of the visual aspects of the film, such as color and hue.
Production for Band of Brothers was no easy task, costing more than an estimated 120 million dollars, taking more than three years, and requiring a set which was 5 times larger than the one used in Saving Private Ryan, in fact the whole set was constantly changed during the series to reflect different parts of Europe such as Holland, Nazi Germany, etc.
The most notable scene would have to be the DROP on D-Day, in which the production crew had to simulate thousands upon thousands of men dropping FROM planes INTO occupied Normandy. The scene required 4 operating war era C-47 airplanes, hundreds of extras and months of computer work in ORDER to pull it off. In the end, it was nothing short of a stunning visual masterpiece.
Band of Brothers takes you through almost the full course of the war, but it also brings us closer to those that were there, the men who were fighting in sometimes the worst conditions imaginable, and never giving a step. .
We meet the 101st airborne - easy company, during training, this sets the scene and introduces us to the people behind the uniform and it starts the band which follows this company through 4 years of war, in which they lost devastating numbers. Our next episode brings us to the DROP on D-day; below I have listed all of the episodes in order.
Episode 1: Currahee.
Episode 2: Day of Days.
Episode 3: Carentan.
Episode 4: Replacements.
