Brother to brother.('Band of Brothers')(Review)

A paratrooper senses danger on all sides. The danger's not that way; it's every way. He drops into enemy territory and moves toward each point of the compass-because that's where the trouble is. He engages the enemy with regularity, and his lifespan is rather short.

Stephen Ambrose, in his history Band of Brothers, follows a company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment that suffered remarkable casualties in World War II. For every slot in "Easy Company," one and a half men would die in the ten months between Normandy and Berchtesgaden (where Hitler's abandoned Eagle's Nest was secured).

This is a statistic that reflects how often Easy Company was in the thick of it, and how regularly it was furnished with replacements. But it was the iron thread of a handful of its members-including Easy's ablest and bravest-that drew Ambrose to the story of how this brotherhood was built and sealed in the last, bloody chapter of the war.

HBO has daringly adapted this story in a ten-part series, which begins September 9. Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks are the executive producers, so one expects a lot-perhaps another Private Ryan. Visually, the HBO movie comes close. There is no shortage of artillery blasts, separated limbs, head wounds, and morphine injections, which usually precede a soldier's death. There is a cast of thousands. The locations are convincing replicas of bombed-out Norman towns, and bombed-out Belgian towns, and frozen forests.

As Easy saw so much action, the series benefits from the balanced hands of Hanks and Spielberg-the story itself doesn't get lost in mortars and blood.

Easy, along with Dog and Fox companies, was formed within the 2nd Battalion of the 506th. It was an elite force, whose members joined voluntarily. Some of them said they did it for the extra $50 in monthly pay; many didn't stick around long enough to collect. The training at Camp Toccoa, Ga., was grueling. Men were "sorted" out through a natural attrition. Only a third received their silver jump wings.

The company saw its first action on the eve of D-Day, June 5, 1944, depicted thrillingly in the Brothers segment directed by Richard Loncraine. A storm of C-47s drone at the viewer. The sky is flak and fire. Below and behind the planes are hundreds of white puffs. The paratroopers descend into the hell of Normandy, and their war begins.