TV Miniseries Recommendation: Band of Brothers (2001) and The Pacific (2010)

Last year I was going to compare and contrast Band of Brothers and The Pacific, but I only made time for one of them. This year I ended up watching the other one, The Pacific. So now, I can briefly compare and contrast them although both have to do with WWII. While both were great to watch, I preferred Band of Brothers because it focused solely on the complete and utter harsh conditions during the battles. The soldiers appeared not have much time to mess around with getting laid as the soldiers did in The Pacific. I’m sure the number of soldiers getting some on the side was similar no matter where they were stationed, but it was my personal preference to not see that in the series.

Band of Brothers aired in 2001 and adapted from Stephen E. Ambrose’s book written in 1992. It focuses on the Easy Company, the 101st Airborne Division, where soldiers went through the necessary training at Camp Toccoa in Georgia and then were sent to fight in Europe. The areas of focus are the battles at Normandy, Operation Market Garden, and Siege of Bastogne.

With anything based on real events and actual people, there was creative license taken but still chilling to the core on the realities the men and those who looked after the wounded went through. The main characters include Richard “Dick” Winters,, Lewis Nixon, Donald Malarkey, Carwood Lipton, Joe Toye, Denver “Bull” Randleman, Robert Sink, George Luz, William “Wild Bill” Guanere, Frank Perconte, Lynn “Buck” Compton, Joseph Ramirez, Ronald Spiers, Antonio C. Garcia, Warren “Skip” Muck, Joseph Liebgott, Harry Welsh, Albert Blithe, John “Johnny” Martin, Henry S. Jones, Herbert Sobel, and Eugene “Doc” Roe.

The Pacific aired in 2010 and created by Bruce C. McKenna who was one of the writers and in collaboration with Hugh Ambrose. It focuses on the Marines who served in the Pacific in different regiments (1st, 5th, and 7th). The areas of focus are the battles at Guadalcanal, Cape Gloucester, Peleliu, and Okinawa. The mini-series is based on several memoirs from those soldiers who survived the battles including Eugene Sledge, Robert Leckie, and Chuck Tatum.

The main characters include Robert Leckie, Sidney Phillips, Lew “Chuckler” Juergens, Wilbur “Runner” Conley, Bill “Hoosier” Smith, Hugh Corrigan, Ronnie Gibson, Eugene Sledge, Merriell “Snafu” Shelton, R.V. Burgin, Bill Leyden, Jay De L’Eau, Edward “Hillbilly” Jones, Andrew Haldane, Elmo “Gunney” Haney, John Basilone, J.P. Morgan, Lewis “Chesty” Puller, Manuel Rodriguez, Lena Basilone, and Vera Keller.

War is often thought to be a necessary evil when it comes to furthering world peace. I could go more in depth on this topic, but both these mini-series speak for themselves. Those who fight the front lines often have no other choice or very little other choices. Some enlist because they truly want to represent their country. Others enlist because of familial obligation. Others because they want to experience something different. No matter what the backgrounds are of these soldiers, they are all heroes. Those that survive to tell their stories and the countless who died in battle are equal in my eyes.

These miniseries are engaging, combining the greatness of grim reality of war and creativity from the producers and writers minds. I recommend this to everyone who is mature enough to see the effects of war from many angles. The world was not perfect back then as it isn’t perfect now, but after watching it I had even more appreciation for what these soldiers did and have done.

I rate Band of Brothers Four Fingers and One Thumb at 100%.

I rate The Pacific Four Fingers and One Thumb at 96%.