Father Geek here with a report from the Normandy beach head on the public screening there of HBO's upcoming BAND OF BROTHERS... First, I'm a BABY BOOMER that was born while my Dad, HIS brothers and cousins were still fighting in WWII. AS A YOUNG KID I WAS BROUGHT UP HEARING STORIES OF THE VARIOUS BATTLES FROM RELATIVES AND THE DADS OF ALL MY FRIENDS. ONE OF MY FATHER'S COUSINS LOST A HAND (left) AND BOTH LEGS ON OMAHA BEACH (one at the hip and the other at the knee), AND MY BEST FRIEND THROUGH JR. HIGH SCHOOL'S STEPFATHER (he had lost his real Dad at Guadalcanal) WAS A RANGER WHO CLIMBED THOSE HELLISH CLIFFS ON D-DAY. HE WOULD SIT SHIRTLESS IN THE BACKYARD ON THOSE HOT 1950'S SUMMER AFTERNOONS IN SAN ANTONIO TELLING US STORIES OF THE BIGGEST INVASION EVER, WHERE HE HAD EARNED 2 SILVER STARS, 3 BRONZE STARS AND 5 PURPLE HEARTS BETWEEN THE SHORELINE AND THE RHINE. HE HAD DOZENS OF SCARS ON HIS LEGS AND BACK, AND MANY BLUE/BLACK BRUISE-LIKE MARKS ON HIS BODY. IF WE HELD OUR FACES RIGHT, AND HE FELT LIKE IT HE WOULD LET ONE OF US TOUCH THE MISCOLORED FLESH, PUSHING GENTLY TO RAISE A DARK KNOT TO THE SURFACE. THEY WERE BITS OF METAL HE STILL CARRIED WITH HIM FROM THE BEACHES THAT DAY IN JUNE OF 1944. IRON FROM NAZI HAND GRENADES LOBBED DOWN THE FACE OF THE CLIFFS.
Anyway ol' Father Geek loves this kind of film (seen them all), and I'm glad this series appears to have been done right... I look forward to seeing it myself as soon as possible, if anyone out there has access to a screening copy of the D-Day footage send it to Father Geek here at Geek Headquarters behind-the-lines, and I'll review it myself and post it (the review) up for the homefront's morale, but for now here's Ike's firsthand report from the front...
Anyway ol' Father Geek loves this kind of film (seen them all), and I'm glad this series appears to have been done right... I look forward to seeing it myself as soon as possible, if anyone out there has access to a screening copy of the D-Day footage send it to Father Geek here at Geek Headquarters behind-the-lines, and I'll review it myself and post it (the review) up for the homefront's morale, but for now here's Ike's firsthand report from the front...
I was on the beaches of France live with THE BAND OF BROTHERS, the world premiere was in Normandy on June 6th (anniversary of 1944's D-Day). I guess the show doesn't premiere until September 9th on HBO, but they wanted this public premiere to coincide with D-Day's B-Day...
Anyway, I am related to one of the Invasion vets, and was lucky enough to be there for the EVENT.... It was unf***ing believable!
You need a review of it!
First, they showed like a 5 minute montage of Pt. 1 (training), then the ENTIRE D-Day episode (50 full minutes-- the whole thing is just like the first 15 minutes of Saving Private Ryan!), and then a longer montage of the next 8 HOURS of the series. It looked just like "Ryan" in the filming/editing... low color, shaky-cam, grainy, great sound...
The montage was like the preview that's on HBO.com, but 15 minutes long...
I gotta say... NOTHING LIKE THIS HAS EVER BEEN ATTEMPTED FOR TV! The scope is unbelievable. There is no other word. "Ryan" takes place in one week, during one campaign. This covers all of Northern Europe! We saw D-Day, other battles in France, a day-time parachute drop into Holland, the snows of the battle of the bulge (with giant pine trees EXPLODING in the snow), concentration camps in Germany (people were crying just from the couple of shots in the montage), a shot of THOUSANDS of German soldiers surrendering, Hitler's lairs in Germany, and the Austrian mountains...
It's scale is UNBELIEVABLE.... The score (there was 15 minutes of wonderful music to go with the montage) was awesome!
Now I saw most of Earth to the Moon (so-so).... but this is a whole different ball of wax. This IS just as good as Steven's "Ryan"... or better!
The hour that covers D-Day was incredible (the only full epsidoe they showed). The night-jump into France was amazing-- hundreds of planes in the air...tracers.... planes BURSTING into flames... Then the battle later that day was like you were really there... 12 guys storm a German position and capture 4 cannon.
They're gonna have another preview in August I think in LA. You gotta send someone who has a better review-sense than I do to attend!
They said there's 50 main characters, 500 speaking parts, 2,000 extras, 140 million bucks... By the second (only the second!) episode, they had used more military effects than in all of "Saving Private Ryan".
The 1,000 or so audience gave it a standin ovation...lot's of crying. Now you might say it was a friendly audience...but not so fast. These were the guys and their families of the real men. They are a tough bunch, VERY critical pof how their story is told...and they loved it....
Anyway thought you should know...
IKE
