Band of Brothers - best episode

[Richtig]

Been rewatching again this weekend - and just wondered what means most to you guys...

I will start the ball rolling with a vote for Crossroads - but there are many great moments.

Along with Saving Private Ryan, this series for me redefined military movies, and it was a great sadness when I realised that the industry couldn't keep the standard up...

But at least we have these moments...

 

[Bootie]

I went for Day of Days the action Dick Winters won his Distinguished Service Cross for. Epic.

This video clip gets me every bloody time... and Ive seen it about 20-30 times.

 

[Ithikial]

Points - Highlighted the quality nature of the series as a whole. A war drama that you didn't need to end on a massive action sequence like the Bastogne Episodes.

 

[Hedgehog]

I went for Bastogne.....Tell you the truth i enjoyed them all

 

[fabishd]

I went for Day of Days the action Dick Winters won his Distinguished Service Cross for. Epic.

This video clip gets me every bloody time... and Ive seen it about 20-30 times.

@Bootie

Thank you for posting. My 2 cents this man is what an officer should emulate.

 

[Dutch Grenadier]

I picked them all (yes I know I can't) but still... I picked them all! Best series ever!

 

[Rambler]

Not a bad episode in the bunch, but my favorite has always been Bastogne. It's an exhausting, gritty episode and I liked the fact that the medic's role was the centerpiece; something you really don't see in war movies too much.

 

[Nathangun]

Not a bad episode in the bunch, but my favorite has always been Bastogne. It's an exhausting, gritty episode and I liked the fact that the medic's role was the centerpiece; something you really don't see in war movies too much.

Yeah Bastogne is my favorite for the same reasons. I also like the episode were the company sergeant becomes the defacto leader of Easy, and the scene were he's going through the names of the fallen in the church.

 

[Mauser GDog]

If I had to choose, it would be EP#5 - Crossroads, for a few reasons, but mostly for how Winters character develops.
I hadn't read the book before watching the series.

The small unit tactics in the assault on the MG positions atop the causeway was an excellent bit of action. The surreal event in which Winters finds himself alone on the berm is nothing short of bizarre.

We see Winters painful promotion from Easy Company CO to 2nd Battalion XO, which may have been the toughest part of the war for him. The quiet relief and joy we see in Winters as he learns his men have made it back safe from the river crossing rescue of the Britts is heart warming.

Winters takes leave to Paris, where we get a glimpse into the war's effect on a man at the centre of it all.

I believe the book goes on to explain that Winters stranded himself on the outskirts of Paris after taking the last one-way train, and was forced to walk back to his Red Cross hotel. He walked the streets all night, and I imagine it was a memorable last night before returning to the fight and "tail-gate jumping" into Bastogne.

All the episodes are amazing, but this one always stuck with me.
Ok....off to start yet another viewing! thanks for this thread!

 

[Bootie]

I remember reading or watching Winters somewhere talk about the crossroads episode.... ahem... I found it. Very interesting.

There was only one thing to do. I withdrew my men to an adjoining gully to assess the situation. I got in touch with company headquarters and told them to send up the reserve platoon. After I was joined by another platoon and some additional machine guns, I went off by myself a little way to assess the situation and decide what to do. My group was the only thing separating the Germans from the rear of my battalion. So I decided we must charge them. I returned to the gully where the rest of the platoon was, and after ordering fixed bayonets, which makes every man have a second thought, I signaled when to throw a smoke grenade. This was the order to charge. As I leap off and begin the charge I am pretty pumped up. In fact, I have never been more pumped up in my life. I ran faster across the field separating us from the Germans than I have ever run in my life. All the men in the company are behind me, but they seem to be moving so slow. Nobody seemed to be moving normally, only me. When I got up to the road where the Germans were, there was a German in front of me, so I shot him. I then turn to my right, and there I see a whole company of Germans. I began firing into them, and they seemed to be moving so slow and then the rest of the company joined me. As the boys said later, it was a duck shoot. They never had a target like that before. We had caught two companies of SS soldiers pinned to the dike, and as they retreated we poured fire into them, and then I called in artillery fire. We destroyed those two companies.

I remember when I was interviewed for the movie, I told one of the writers that as I shot the German, he looked up at me and smiled. Well, I kept going with my story, but later, as it turns out, the writer wanted to play up the thing about the smile. He wanted to play that up as a flashback, the type of bad flashbacks you can have. I have flashbacks every day. But the writer wanted to play up that point. And that is why in the series that German is portrayed as a kid and why later on when I am in Paris they portray me looking at this kid on the train and having another flashback. It’s stupid, but I didn’t get the chance to review the scenes.

 

[Mauser GDog]

Interesting, I haven't read the "Reflections on the Band of Brothers, D-Day and Leadership" article.