By ChrisDFW on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 02:42 am:| By ChrisDFW on Monday, August 20, 2001 - 02:42 am: |
By Elizabeth Snead
Normandy June 7, 2001
Utah Beach was awash with emotions last night, on the anniversary of D-Day, as the surviving veterans of Easy Company, their wives, children and grandchildren watched the international premiere of "Band of Brothers," HBO's $120 million mini-series, which begins airing September 9.
The 10-part mini-series, produced by "Saving Private Ryan" vets Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, dramatically documents the heroic actions of the 101st Airborne Division. The elite paratroopers parachuted into France early that morning in '42, fought in the Battle of the Bulge and went on to capture Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden.
"Brothers," the most expensive miniseries in HBO history and the first to be broadcast in high definition, is based on acclaimed WWII historian Stephen Ambrose's best-selling book by the same name, drawn from memoirs, letters and countless hours of interviews with Easy Company's survivors.
Hanks and Ambrose were on hand along with Winston Churchill III, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt, and Susan Eisenhower, grandchildren of the WWII heroes.
"We must have some share of hubris to think we can present a semblance of what it was like to go to war," said Hanks, who also directed one episode. "But all I hoped to show was the shared struggles, horrors and triumphs that bond together this band of brothers. The truth is we know only a fraction of the memories carried by these men for the past 50 years. If you want to know more talk to some of these men in the yellow raincoats such as Bill Guamere, Babe Heffron, Malarkey, Lipton or Dick Winters."
Many of the young and generally unknown actors such as Damian Lewis, Ron Livingston, Frank John Hughes, Peter Youngblood Hills, Donnie Wahlberg, James Madio, Eion Bailey and Matthew Settle were on hand to pay homage to the men they worked so hard to faithfully portray. Most had become incredibly close to their "real guy" and eerily they had bonded to each other much like the real vets did during their grueling boot camp and 10-month shoot.
"I never thought I would become this involved with a character," says Rene Moreno, who plays Joe Ramirez, a soldier who lived through the war but vanished afterwards. "We became a band of brothers as well, literally a band of actors during the production, and we still are today."
But today the actors took a backseat to let the spotlight shine on the real stars, the Easy Company vets, many of whom were in the original paratrooper batallion which leapt into a pitch black sky exploding with artillery 59 years ago. This time the men and their extended families were flown to Paris on American Airlines, housed at the Ambassador Hotel and treated to three days of city tours and Seine River boat rides before traveling by train to Normandy, where they were honored by a memorial service, complete with color guard, honor guard and a U.S. bomber contingent fly-over.
"The idea to do this event started about a year ago," Anne Thomopoulos, HBO senior vice president, said of the event which cost the studio several million dollars. "All of us involved in the project became so attached to the veterans and so grateful for the massive effort they made, what they lived through and the price they paid. So we all became very passionate about giving something back to them."
Two tents had been constructed on the site for the screening and buffet lunch and dinner receptions. In between meals, the 1,000 plus attendees viewed 10 minutes of the first episode, followed by the entire second segment dealing with their Normandy jump and a compilation of the remaining eight episodes. Afterwards, the tearful audience stood and gave a long, thunderous round of applause.
Many of the vets have kept in touch over the decades, holding annual reunions around the United States, but this is without a doubt the biggest event for the men, many of whom had never returned to the beach before.
"A lot of these guys have not shared these stories even with their families," says Donnie Wahlberg, who is very close to the character he portrays, Carwood Lipton, and his family. "They locked it away and just say they did their job. They may have needed to forget the pain they went through but we can't forget what they went through for us."