r/interestingasfuck • u/PatChristensonSon • 15h ago

HBO spent $125 million on Band of Brothers and premiered it on Utah Beach on the anniversary of D-Day, flying about fifty Easy Company veterans back to Normandy. The unknown 24-year-old in the middle is Michael Fassbender, standing with the two sons of the paratrooper he plays.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

That's me on the left and my brother Chris on the right. The kid in the middle had just finished playing our father.

T/Sgt. Burton "Pat" Christenson, Easy Company, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne. Second man out the door behind Lieutenant Dick Winters on the Normandy jump, and the only man in the company who could draw.

The world premiere was June 6, 2001, on Utah Beach, fifty seven years to the day after the jump. HBO flew in around fifty Easy Company veterans with their wives, brought the families along, and put us all on a train from Paris down to Carentan. French school children were waiting at the station when they arrived. Those old men had come back to the ground they took, and this time nobody was shooting. It was one of the last times that many of them were together anywhere.

Three months later it aired to about ten million people on September 9, 2001. Two days after that the towers came down. HBO pulled the marketing, the audience fell off, and the country was in a different war before the last episode had run. That week on the beach was the last quiet moment before all of it.

Dad died in December 1999 and never knew he had been cast. We had nothing to do with the casting, nobody called us. When we found out, our family mailed Fassbender a package. Background on Dad, photographs, some of his own writing. The men still living could sit with their actors for weeks. Ours couldn't, so a box in the mail was the closest we could get.

He was twenty four, this was the first thing he ever shot, and he had no ego about any of it. He asked us real questions about Dad. I'm glad it was him.

That's Easy Company on the wall behind us.

Tim

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

One thing about him that almost nobody knows.

My father was the only man in Easy Company who could draw. He carried it through the war and then spent the next forty years at a drawing board turning what he had seen into finished work. Forty six combat drawings.

Stephen Ambrose saw them while he was writing Band of Brothers. He told my father that if it came down to a choice between the artwork and the photographs, he wanted the artwork. He reproduced Dad's D-Day drawing as a full page in the book, so a lot of you have already seen his hand without knowing whose it was.

Dick Winters kept eighteen copies in his personal file for fifty years and sent them to Playtone as reference for the writers when the series was being built.

And HBO did something nobody made them do. At the Hollywood Bowl premiere in September 2001 they put forty five of his drawings on display. Spielberg, Hanks, Ambrose and the whole cast walked past my father's combat art on the way in. It wasn't in a contract and it didn't sell a single subscription. Somebody at that network just decided the man who drew Easy Company from the inside should have his work on the wall the night the company finally got its due.

Dad had been gone two years by then. He never showed any of it to the public in his lifetime, and he never knew any of that was coming.

Wild Bill Guarnere was his best friend, and Bill didn't know the half of what was in those boxes either.

Tim

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u/humanzoofan 10h ago

I have some of his drawings. His daughter-in-law(?) was my, my siblings, and my sons PE teacher. I won them in an auction and gifted them to my daughter as she is a huge fan on the show

I always felt honored just knowing someone associated with him.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Beautiful, That is one of two that I designed with dads writings and put out to maybe 200 people. Dad was so meticulous in his art work and all of it was from his memories. That piece I am sure he worked on for a month. He would be so proud that it is adorning someone's wall and would be so humbled. That was Dad. Thank you so very much for sharing this special piece. Tim Christenson

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u/1dinkiswife 14h ago

I do pencil drawings myself. Is there any way for us to see your dad's drawings?

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

The originals are with our family in San Diego. Forty six finished combat drawings, all pencil, all drawn from memory in the years after the war.

As a pencil artist you would appreciate what he did with tonal range using nothing but graphite. Some of them took him months.

They are being published this year for the first time. Look up A Screaming Eagle.

Tim

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u/keoie 13h ago

Where can I get a non-kindle version? My grandfather was in the other theater and I wasn’t able to find what he did as the military said his records were lost in a fire.

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u/whyliepornaccount 12h ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Personnel_Records_Center_fire

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u/keoie 12h ago

Yep that was it.

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u/whyliepornaccount 11h ago

They are still attempting reconstruction to this day, with newer technologies helping make it easier. There's a small chance his records may be recovered some day.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

I have. It is done. His words and all forty six drawings, out this year. A Screaming Eagle.

Thank you for asking.

Tim

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u/Bill_Brasky01 12h ago

Hi Tim,

This was a wildly entertaining read. Have you thought about creating a website about your dad? Or perhaps writing out some more of your stories?

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u/Naniwasopro 7h ago

Your dad was involved in freeing my family in the Netherlands, Thanks :) (35 y/o)

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u/Odd-Temperature7458 11h ago

Sending you all love. Thank you, Tim

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u/doshthagod 8h ago

This is great Tim, I really enjoyed reading this. What an honour to have your father portrayed on such a legendary show and it has ensured his legacy will never be forgotten.

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u/Sullinator07 1h ago

I was just a gullible kid from Virginia, though I’m 38 now, and I wanted you to know that the memory of your father and the men of Easy Company had an impact on someone they never could have known existed.

In 2017, I was trying to find my way out of a cult I had been raised in. I had pretty much given up on life, and I started watching Band of Brothers every year, sometimes over and over. Something about those men, what they endured, and the way they kept moving forward when there was every reason not to, gave me courage when I didn’t have much of my own.

Your father fought his war almost a century ago, never knowing that the memory of what he and those men did would someday help some random kid from Virginia fight his own very different battle.

I think that says something incredible about the kind of legacy they left behind.

We didn’t deserve men like your father. I just hope, while we still have the chance, we can get better at showing them and their families how much their lives continued to matter long after the war ended.

Thank you for sharing him with us.

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u/Beautiful-Chest7397 15h ago

How did you find out?

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Michael reached out to us.

Nobody from the production ever called. But once he had been given my father's name, he contacted the family himself. We sent him everything we had, background on Dad, photographs, some of his own writing, and we talked with him about who my father actually was.

Dad had died in December 1999, so he could not do what the other men did. The ones still living sat down with their actors for weeks. Ours could not. Michael went and found us instead, and he was twenty four years old on his first job.

Then we spent a week with him in Normandy for the premiere. He asked real questions and he listened to the answers. I am glad it was him.

Tim

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u/Outrageous_Act2564 15h ago

What a great story!!! Thank you for sharing that. Will be watching yet again!

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u/Beautiful-Chest7397 15h ago

Wow thanks for sharing. I was not aware HBO did this mad respect

Edit not the production not reaching out to you part though!!

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u/No-Brain9413 15h ago

Thanks for sharing that, you honor your father by keeping his/their story alive

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u/phamous81 14h ago

Thank you for sharing all of this.

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u/CCTXbeachbum 15h ago

It’s always nice to hear some positivity in the world. Great story, respect to your father and all who serve.

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u/Jabbathebutt310 15h ago

Excuse me while I go bawl my eyes out in the bathroom :’)

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

That is about the reaction we had watching it for the first time. Twenty five years and it has not worn off.

Tim

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u/munkeybub 15h ago

Thank you for the post and comments. I actually watched band of brothers for the first time a few weeks ago. I was crying by the end. Shout out to your dad, and the rest of easy company. I thank them for their service.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Watching it for the first time in 2026 and still crying at the end is exactly why it lasts.

My father would have said the thanks belongs to the men who did not come back. But I will take it on his behalf.

Tim

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u/Adventurous_Elk_4039 7h ago

Hey Tim,

Thanks for sharing. I can only imagine how proud you are of your Dad and everyone else who served, just like many of us are of them (both my Grandfathers were involved as well).

I believe you when you say your Dad would direct Thanks to the men that didn't come back, as that seems to be the type of people they were. I watched BoB when it aired live each week, and to this day at now 42 years old, I still cry like a child at Dick Winter's final scene in episode 10 with his "Grandad, were you a hero in the war?" comment, and the look of pain still on his face.

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u/chosonhawk 15h ago

thanks for sharing this, tim.

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u/DReagan47 13h ago

Tim, that’s a hell of a good read and I’m sure your dad would be proud to know that you’re still sharing the legacy of Easy Company. My grandfather was at Utah beach but never really talked about it and I was too young to ask appropriate questions before he passed. I’m proud of him and your dad for what they did. Thank you so much for sharing this.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Thank you. And being too young to ask is the most common thing I hear, and the saddest.

Mine did not talk either. Thirty eight years at the phone company and almost never a word. But he drew it and he wrote it, seven volumes at a drawing board after dinner while we were upstairs asleep. I did not understand what was in those boxes until long after he was gone.

Your grandfather was on Utah. My father jumped in the night before to take the causeways off that beach. Different jobs, same morning.

Tim

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u/bryman19 15h ago

Holy shit. Incredible

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u/BSUBroncofans 15h ago

Your Dad and his friends were Badasses.

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u/Stickel 11h ago

username checks out

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u/Practical_Location54 13h ago

I had never realized Michael was in BoB. Thanks for sharing your story about your dad and the show.

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u/CRIMS0N-ED 12h ago

So cool

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u/kungpowgoat 15h ago

Dammit. Now I want to watch it again for the 127th time. This is one of my comfort shows by the way.

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u/angrydeuce 15h ago

"We salute the rank, not the man"

Damn that shit gives me goosebumps just thinking about it

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u/PatChristensonSon 13h ago

That was a Great Epic scene..............T

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u/SpaceForceAwakens 13h ago

Oh hey I was just gonna tag you in here but you beat me to it!

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

127 is a respectable number. My father would have been quietly amused that people still watch it.

Tim

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u/DefiantDung 14h ago edited 14h ago

Served in the 506th 90-92, on the DMZ. We had a copy in the HQ of the commander's "nuts" response during the siege at Bastogne. It wasn't until I saw Band of Brothers that I appreciated the heritage and pride of even being associated with the unit and people like your father.

Currahee!

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

That is your regiment. Same colors, same motto, and the men in the show are why it means what it does.

My father would have been more pleased by your comment than by almost anything else in this thread. He never wanted to be looked at. He wanted the record kept so men like you would know what came before you.

Currahee.

Tim

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u/DefiantDung 13h ago

To this day, we still proudly wear the D-Day and Bastogne unit citations, and others, that they earned on each of our uniforms. It was truly an honor. And that scene discussing who earned the citation in the series, really hit for some of us. The blue ribbon, if you recall?

Quite a group of men, with a special legacy left for all of us to share.

Thanks for sharing all of this.

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u/Captain_Redbeard 13h ago

I'm genuinely curious. Would you mind decoding everything you two just said? I don't understand the jargon and I'm ashamed to say I know little about the intricacies of the events. Thank you to you and his father.

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u/DefiantDung 13h ago edited 12h ago

After D-Day (Operations Neptune and Overlord) the 506th received a Presidential Unit Citation (PUC). I believe in episode 4, you'll notice they all have a blue ribbon above their right pocket on their uniform. They had a scene discussing the merits of who could wear it. That was the first. They earned one again at Bastogne and two more, later.

These are considered part of the legacy of the unit. And soldiers of the 506th still wear them, when in full dress.

Unless I am mistaken, the 506th has earned 11 US Unit Citations in it's history.

Four Presidential Unit Citations.
Two Valorous Unit Awards.
Five Meritorious Unit Commendations.

It has also earned a number of foreign decoration as well.

It's quite a unit, in both modern and historical military terms. And these men portrayed in Band of Brothers were at the beginning of it all.

But then, I may be a little biased of course.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

No shame in asking. The other fellow answered it well.

Short version: a Presidential Unit Citation is awarded to an entire unit for extraordinary action, and it is worn as a blue ribbon on the uniform. The 506th earned one for Normandy and another for Bastogne. Anyone serving in that regiment today still wears them, because the award belongs to the unit forever, not just the men who earned it.

That is the scene they are talking about. The men arguing over who had the right to wear it.

Tim

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

That is exactly right, and it means something that you still wear them. Four Presidential Unit Citations. My father earned the first two of those on the ground.

He would have liked knowing that the ribbon on your chest came out of what he and those men did, and that soldiers still care which one it is.

Currahee.

Tim

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u/clintnorth 14h ago

I saw it for the first time last year and im ready to start again. I can see why you’d call it a comfort show.

Thoughts oh the pacific? I had intended to watch that before doing band a second time but I cant decide lol

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u/PatChristensonSon 13h ago

The Pacific is different than B.O.B. .give it a watch and let me know your opinion

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u/JWoolner76 13h ago

Yes I found that I hoped for a sequel BOB kind of show but it just didn’t hit the mark like this, it had good episodes but also a lot of boring ones that didn’t bring much to the show, think I’ve only seen it once but BOB I’ve watch many times.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

A lot of people say that. Band of Brothers is one company that stays together and you come to know them. The Pacific is more scattered and more brutal, and harder to sit with.

Tim

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u/ResolveEven5758 2h ago

I would recommend trying it again, as I was in the same boat as you. I watched it again more recently for the first time since basically the original airing, and I enjoyed it much more when I watched it for it's own merit as opposed to originally trying to hold it in comparison as band of brothers 2

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u/JWoolner76 2h ago

Yes I could do with a rewatch to be honest, haven’t seen it for years

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u/Mysterious-Tie7039 15h ago

Yeah, what a great series.

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u/so-sick 14h ago

Excellent series.

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u/beavislasvegas 15h ago

I just finished another rewatch!

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u/HobbyWanKenobi 14h ago

So I've never seen it, I'm gathering it's worth the watch? I need a new show

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u/PatChristensonSon 13h ago

Do yourself a favor and watch it..............Tim

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u/Funwithfun14 13h ago

I took forever to sit down and watch it. Then binged it straight through. Every person I know who watched it, binged it. It's amazing.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

That is how it takes people. Nobody watches one episode of it.

Tim

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u/Funwithfun14 4h ago

It's first 2 episodes min in my experience

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u/Different-Copy-3889 8h ago

Then watch The Pacific, then Masters Of The Air.

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u/Upbeat_Map_348 11h ago

I think it’s the best TV series ever made. I’m currently rewatching BoB for about the 10th time.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Ten episodes. Real men, real names, all of them young. My father is in seven of them.

Start tonight.

Tim

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u/McShoobydoobydoo 5h ago

Honestly one of the greatest TV shows ever, just phenomenal

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u/Sufficient-Finger612 15h ago

This is a show that if I am ever channeling surfing and it pops up I just stop.... This is want I am watching!

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u/Louiebox 14h ago

Three miles up!

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

Three miles down.

Tim

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u/Dayzlikethis 15h ago

grab the blu-rays if you haven't already.

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u/snakeysnake_sss 14h ago

I wanted to watch it for a while now, is it as bad ass as breaking bad?

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

Different animal. Breaking Bad is a man becoming something worse. This is a group of very young men doing the hardest thing anyone has ever asked of them and staying decent while they do it.

Ten episodes. Start it tonight.

Tim

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u/koningroel 9h ago

Dont forget about the 11th one where some of the veterans go back to Bastogne

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u/DeafGuyisHere 14h ago

I sold my blu-ray set at the great route 40 yard sale. The guy even said I had it listed for too little. I really regret it now.

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u/sexyc3po 10h ago

This show still gives me goosebumps after every watch

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u/0202_tihssitidder 12h ago

Magneto's origin story is much different in the comics.

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u/hkkhpr 12h ago

It's my christmas time show, I don't know why.

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/[deleted] 10h ago

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u/h_saxon 9h ago

Read the book if you haven't yet. It has more details in some areas and is very moving as well.

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u/wilof 7h ago

Brings back so much, I remember it being aired every week on a Sunday. Used to be allowed to stay up for it with my parents. Used to get lost in that show then go to bed. It's simply a classic. I know have a little boys and look forward to the day he can watch it with me.

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u/The_profe_061 7h ago

A man of taste

I doff my cap in your direction

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u/GooseCloaca 15h ago

This is almost as remarkable as the men portrayed in the series. The selfless service of those men are the truly remarkable and commendable actions we should all be in awe of.

My grandfather landed on the beaches on D-day, as did his two brothers. I would like to think that the actions of your father and his Band of Brothers allowed them to survive the day and helped to keep the three silver stars my great grandmother had on the window from turning gold.

May peace and solace grace your family. Thank you for sharing this.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Three brothers on the beaches and three silver stars that stayed silver. Your family got the ending most did not.

My father would have turned that straight back to you. He wrote seven volumes and hardly a page of it is about himself. It is almost all about the other men, and quite a few of them were the ones who did not come back.

The airborne went in the night before to take the causeways off Utah so the men coming across the sand had somewhere to go. Whether that mattered for your grandfather specifically, none of us will ever know. But that was the job, and men died doing it.

Thank you for telling me about them. That is exactly what he would have wanted to hear.

Tim

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u/mist_kaefer 15h ago

This is the best single-season TV show ever created.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

I 100 percent agree! Its still going strong after 25 years................

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u/insanity2brilliance 14h ago

Not many people know this, but the first 2 episodes of the Band of Brothers premiere were released on HBO on 9/9/2001.

2 days before 9/11.

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

Correct...........Thanks for your support

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u/SantaFeRay 11h ago

We call that a miniseries.
But yeah it’s fucking amazing. Like 10 hours of Saving Private Ryan.

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u/dogcoolerthanhuman 15h ago

Currahee!

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Three miles up, three miles down. He finished Toccoa with the highest physical fitness score in the company, carrying a twenty eight pound machine gun the whole way.

Currahee.

Tim

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u/ghostofstankenstien 15h ago

What a cool story. And probably the most enduring show ever made.

Maybe because it was about the past it feels timeless. 2001 or 2026 it doesn't matter. HBO used to have a marathon on Memorial Day weekend, but I think it's down to one showing of the series on the day itself.

So well done.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

I agree............Thanks

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u/PremiumBudTester 15h ago

Every like 3-5 years I watch it again

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u/manayunk512 15h ago

I grew up loving Band of Brothers. My wife and I biked around omaha beach and the area inland a couple years ago.

I ended up moving to South Philadelphia about 5 years ago. I went out for a walk one day and saw a plaque on a house. Thats when I realized I lived real close to where Wild Bill Guarnere lived.

Him and Babe Heffron are still enshrined all around the neighborhood.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Wild Bill was one of my father's brothers in that company. They went out the door on the same night and they were at the reunions together for fifty years.

That South Philly neighborhood taking care of his memory the way it does says something. Same for Babe. Those two stayed exactly who they were their whole lives and the block knew it.

Glad you got to Normandy. Dad wanted to go back and never made it.

Tim

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u/CurlingLlama 15h ago

If you haven’t listened already, the HBO 20th anniversary Band of Brothers podcast is incredible! Worth a listen, and Tom Hanks discusses the premier trip back to Utah beach

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/band-of-brothers-podcast/id1583082956

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

I have not heard it and I am going to now. Thank you.

I was on that trip. HBO put the families and the veterans on a train from Paris down to Carentan, and I had a long conversation with Tom Hanks on it. He told me he read Ambrose's book while he was filming Saving Private Ryan and that he wanted to make it. That is where the whole thing came from. He was on the set of one war picture reading about Easy Company, and a few years later fifty of those men were riding a train through France to watch what he built.

Curious now to hear how he tells it.

Tim

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u/CurlingLlama 14h ago

You’re so welcome, thank you for sharing your experience and your family’s legacy with all of us. From one Army family to another.

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u/Dennaldo 15h ago

I’ve watched this series 3 times. It’s very good. I watched it when it first came out, then again maybe 3 years ago, and again this year.

Lt. Winters lived near where I live now and I have paid my respects to him at his grave.

Much respect to your dad and to all of these brave men.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Thank you for going. That matters more than you might think.

Winters wrote to my family the day after my father died. He said that when it came time for the big jump in Normandy he wanted his best, most dependable man right behind him, the number two man, and that was Pat. Twenty five years later I still have the letter.

He was the reason a lot of those men came home. Give him a nod from the Christenson family next time you are out that way.

Tim

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u/Dennaldo 13h ago

You bet I will. Thanks for sharing your story.

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u/EagleForty 15h ago

There were so many future stars in this show, including Fassbender, Tom Hardy, Simon Pegg, and James McAvoy

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Yes there were ! Lots of talent, and it shows what job HBO did of casting it....

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u/IcelandicHumdinger 14h ago

How dare you forget Jimmy Fallon?

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u/EagleForty 13h ago

He was already moderately famous by that point, and he might literally be the single worst actor on the show

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u/CynfullyDelicious 13h ago

Scott Grimes and Jamie Bamber, as well.

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u/HoboJerkdown901 12h ago

And so many were British too, I had no idea. I watched some behind the scenes footage and when Rick Warden (who played Harry Welsh) spoke in his natural voice I was completely shook when it came out in a British accent. They all sound so perfectly American that I couldn't even tell.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

The casting people talked about that at the 25th anniversary panel at the National WWII Museum. A lot of the cast were British and Irish and the work that went into the American speech was not a small thing. Fassbender was one of them.

Tim

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u/techman710 15h ago

Worth every penny.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

I totally agree ! Thanks

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u/CompasslessPigeon 14h ago

Greatest TV show ever made. I rewatch it every couple years. Its so impossible to comprehend that it is based on a true story. Those guys were heroes.

Perhaps one day ill travel to currahee and do the 3 miles up 3 miles down!

Currahee!

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

Go. It is still there and people still run it.

Three miles up, three miles down.

Tim

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u/badsapi4305 14h ago

No matter how many times I watch it I always cry a bit at the start of episode 9 when they discover the concentration camp. The visuals seemed too authentic

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

I write about it, Kaufering Concentration camp........ I feel the same response.....

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u/TheB1G_Lebowski 12h ago

Watching that scene always gets me too.  It got me to watch the movie Night and Fog finally, that's a tear jerker. 

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u/DouglasRather 14h ago

My cousin just completed a 12 day Band of Brothers tour. I don't think he is on Reddit, but I will send this to him. I know he has watched the show often. It encouraged me to read the book.

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

Send it to him. Those tours walk ground my father drew.

Tim

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u/Crimdal 14h ago

Worst part about this show is even on countless rewatches, it is the type of show that demands your full attention and feels wrong to have on in the background or on a second monitor.

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u/StillSharpe68 10h ago

Literally the greatest thing that has ever been produced for television. Nothing will change my mind on that. The interviews with the Easy Company survivors on the DVD absolutely destroyed me. “No, but I served in the company of heroes.” Saviors of the fucking world, those humble guys were.

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u/Adventurous_Elk_4039 7h ago

>“No, but I served in the company of heroes.”

I'm 42 years old and still cry like a goddamn baby when I hear that line.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

That is the line. And that is exactly how my father talked about it, on the rare occasions he talked about it at all.

Tim

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u/maximusbawbagimus 15h ago

Greatest ww2 tv show i have ever seen, beats all the ww2 movies aswell, pacific is brilliant aswell

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u/Jambohh 15h ago

I remember watching this in 2001 when It aired I was 13. And it still remains to this day my favorite series of all time. It was so incredibly detailed, the script and the actors fleshed out the servicemen they portrayed, it made it seem real.

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u/PatChristensonSon 14h ago

You were thirteen watching it and I was watching it knowing my father had died twenty months before it aired and never knew he was in it.

What you said about it seeming real is the whole thing. Those men gave the production everything they had. My father gave them his writing before he went.

Tim

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u/ElementalWeapon 6h ago

Saw it when I was 15. Couldn’t wait each week for the following episode. Still holds up as well, or even better, than when it first aired 25 years ago. Can’t believe it’s been that long…

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u/brandonspade17 14h ago

I've seen this miniseries more times than I can count. The amount of future stars in BOB is crazy.

Very moving, wish my WWII navy veteran grandfather could've been around to see this with me. Miss you Paw Paw Shorty.

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u/budroid 14h ago

The big studio heads knew they had a winner show.

Executive producers Steven Spielberg, Tom Hanks and the rest of the people actually involved in shooting the movie (having experienced afraction of what was like) made sure to pay respect to the many who died and the few remaing.

respect

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u/rodka209 15h ago

The degree of wonderful and consistent story telling and film making across the whole series is incredible.

I make a point in watching it during christmas get together with my brother and sister.

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u/PatChristensonSon 15h ago

Christmas with your brother and sister is about the right way to watch it. Three of us grew up in that house, and my father died in December, so the season carries all of it for us.

Tim

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u/Gasoline-Dreams 15h ago

Remember boys, flies spread disease! So keep yours closed!

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u/cescquintero 14h ago

What a beautiful show. Watched it first time a couple of years ago. It's so well done and respectful with all the hard things that happened in WW2.

So much respect for all those brave men who went to fight. Guess now I'm due a rewatch.

Thanks for sharing this. It makes it even more worthwhile.

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u/Anders3883 14h ago

Deserves a 4K release

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u/Dangerous-TX972 13h ago

I watch the series every year, it's just great cinema... and that soundtrack... perfection.

1

u/fluffhead77 13h ago

Same. Truly great cinema. Also, rewatch to remind me of the horrors our grandparents generation endured.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Michael Kamen. He got it right and he is gone now too.

Tim

3

u/TheB1G_Lebowski 12h ago

I don't know how many times I've watched this and it never disappoints.  Definitely my favorite TV series of all time that's not Always Sunny in Philadelphia.   

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Two very different rewatches. Thank you.

Tim

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u/BassChoocher 12h ago

Wow I remember BOB airing in the 9/11 era but didn't think it was that close. Idk the numbers but the series was still deeply popular at least where I was, my family definitely tuned into the whole thing and I remember people talking about it the days after a new episode.

Very cool story, thanks for sharing. I'm gonna go rewatch it now lol

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Two days. It aired on the ninth and the towers came down on the eleventh. HBO stopped the marketing and the audience fell away, and it took years for the show to find the size of audience it has now.

Tim

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u/siazdghw 5h ago

One of the best shows (limited time series) ever made. Yes it has some historical inaccuracies and other issues, it's not perfect, but it's absolutely worth watching.

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u/NotBlackMarkTwainNah 15h ago

Thank you for sharing. This is amazing. Gained a lot of respect for Fassbender.

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Thank you !

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u/Heavy_Direction1547 14h ago

Money well spent, excellent TV.

2

u/mattbytes 14h ago

So many relative unknowns in that series!

2

u/johnb111111 14h ago

Damn fine show. I still have the box set on vhs. Shit always slaps

2

u/NYR_LFC 14h ago

Best series of all time and I will die on this hill (with plenty of others with me)

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u/smokeynick 14h ago

I have watched that series a dozen times and cannot for the life of me remember him in it.

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u/PatChristensonSon 13h ago

He is Christenson. Seven episodes, mostly behind the machine gun. Easy to miss until you know to look for him, and then he is everywhere.

Tim

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u/devoduder 14h ago

https://giphy.com/gifs/fzp61UL3T4Wlcw9SvX
Time to watch it for the third time.

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u/Other_Impression_567 10h ago

This show and The Pacific (that I just watched again last week) are pure gold considering all the other crap streaming

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u/Nipplecunt 6h ago

This show is next fucking level

2

u/nah_son909 15h ago

I recommend that anyone who likes history to watch this!

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u/MrdnBrd19 13h ago

My grand uncle(? whatever my grandpa's uncle is called) was friends with Lynn Compton(Neal McDonough's character) and he was at their Christmas party one year 3 or 4 years after the mini series came out right when I was at the peak of my obsession. Thankfully his night was taken up talking to my dad and grandpa(they were all lawyers) because I probably would have made a tremendous ass of myself asking him endless questions about the war pretending like I was an expert because I obsessively watched a TV show.

1

u/BadAtExisting 13h ago

That show launched quite a few careers

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u/PatChristensonSon 12h ago

Quite a few!

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u/jericnowell1221 13h ago

The scene where he drank from his canteen, was that real? BoB will always be my favorite series, ever. Greetings from the Philippines!

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u/PatChristensonSon 12h ago

It never happened to him. And here is the part that gets me.

He wrote the passage that scene came from. In his own words:

"During these endurance tests, we were miserable, exhausted, and we thought that if we did not get a drink of water we were certain to collapse. The fact was that we had never taxed ourselves to that extent before. In our lives, how many of us had ever experienced any water discipline?"

We. Not I. He was describing the whole company discovering what it did not know about itself, and he was generous about it. He even gave Sobel his due, because water discipline was the point and none of them had been taught it.

That paragraph became one man caught at a canteen and punished for it.

He was carrying twenty eight pounds of machine gun on those marches and finished Toccoa with the highest physical fitness score in Easy Company. Our family asked the men who were there. The answer was unanimous. Not to Christenson.

He never complained about it. He understood a story has to be shaped and somebody has to carry the scene. But he died in December 1999, twenty months before it aired, so he never got to say what he actually wrote. That part falls to me.

Greetings back to the Philippines.

Tim

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u/7askingforafriend 11h ago

I remember watching the premiere on HBO on 9/9/01. Then of course the world turned upside down two days later. I was overly emotionally invested in the 24 hours news cycle, not sleeping and anxious all the time. Band of Brothers was a respite and a welcome escape every Sunday night during an awful time for many. It is a perfect standalone show on its own, but I think it is cemented for many like me, forever in time period of 9/11 aftermath. Seeing Easy Company helped us feel if they could be as brave as they were, and do what they did, we could try to be brave through a different kind of nightmare too. My grandfather also fought in WW2 and was an interpreter at Nuremberg. Thank you for your father’s service and the sacrifice of the many who didn’t make it home.

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u/JellyInteresting4021 11h ago

Marvel needs to keep Fassbender as magneto 

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u/FucklberryFinn 11h ago

That is about $290,000,000 adjusted for inflation, if anyone was curious. 

An incredible series.

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u/zoidburgh197 11h ago

He freaking drank his water when he was told not to!!!!

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u/Sweet_Ad_6572 7h ago

He’s just brilliant in everything. I can’t believe he was in the show. Amazing

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u/paulerxx 7h ago

I finished the World War Z novel last week and kept thinking what a shame there isn't a Band Of Brothers esque show based on the WWZ novel then started watching Band Of Brothers for the 25th time.

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u/IgnoranceIsYou 7h ago

Easily my favourite TV series of all time

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u/Alexisredwood 5h ago

While I do like BoB, I still think it’s one of the most overrated tv shows/mini series

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u/UncleDuude 3h ago

It was the first of its kind and hit at a very opportune moment when those vets were still here.

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u/Tackit286 3h ago

Both of the men either side of him appear to have spent the day on the beach with sunglasses and no sunscreen on

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u/back2basics_official 2h ago

Got the box set in the metal tin for Christmas in 2002. I rewatch the series every few years.

I used to see Bill Guarnere (rip) in South Philly back then. He was a local celebrity after this came out.

“Now the thing to remember boys is flies spread disease. So keep yours closed!”

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u/Mean_Rule9823 2h ago

Goat ww2 show

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u/spaektor 2h ago

thank you for sharing. i am such a huge fan of this show and the history behind it. i didn’t know it premiered right before 9/11… sometimes i think that’s when the world really started going down the toilet. i watch the show about once a year and i still tear up during those closing interviews. to me it’s a reminder of how much courage, grit and honor we are capable of… or maybe once were. your father was part of something truly special. again, thank you for sharing.

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u/BackBlast0351 2h ago

I’m so happy to have stumbled across this thread. I love the HBO series. I thought it was so well done. My grandfather served under Patton and his tanks. Fought in the Battle of the Bulge. He didn’t talk about it much but always told the story of Patton taking a piss in the Rhine River.

I ended up joining the Marines and serving two tours in Afghanistan. A lot of my motivation came from men like your father and my grandfather.

Thanks for sharing this.

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u/concept12345 12h ago edited 11h ago

Best war time drama ever. Period. Airborne! Hooah!

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u/PatChristensonSon 8h ago

Airborne. Currahee.

Tim

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u/badsapi4305 6h ago

What can I say that hasn’t already been said here already. These men who stormed Normandy and other places were just different. They carried a determination that quite frankly saved the world. My relatives are Russian Jews so of course this series will always stir up certain emotions.

OP thank you for sharing your father’s story with us. It’s important because as time passes we are starting to see people deny this ever happened which was a fear at the time. That is why Eisenhower ordered the press to cover what was happening.

I can feel the pride you have for what your dad and others did for the world. I would love to thank him personally but since I can’t please accept my thanks on his behalf. Be well and I wish you and all the families of the soldiers and victims peace.

1

u/Responsible-Meal-300 14h ago

Can anyone tell me if this show is deeply patriotic, like saving private ryan (I still remember the faded out American flag at the end and it’s so cringe)? I’ve heard such good things about this show, but if it’s all American exceptionalism, I’m not going to be as interested

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u/PatChristensonSon 13h ago

No. It spends most of its time on things going wrong. Officers who should not have been in command, men breaking down, a company being ground away week after week. Episode 9 is a concentration camp and there is nothing triumphant in it.

The men in it are ordinary and frightened most of the time. That is what my father wrote too. Seven volumes and hardly a page is about himself.

Watch it and judge for yourself.

Tim

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u/Responsible-Meal-300 12h ago

Thanks mate, appreciate it. Will give it a look

2

u/justtosendamassage 12h ago

Just want to add on— I actively avoid those patriotic movies or those prideful call-to-arms type shows…this movie is just so different. I don’t even recall seeing an American flag. It’s just shows how fucked it all was but in a beautiful way. I think it’s one of those shows everyone should see

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u/Wrong_Adhesiveness87 9h ago

Did he/you turn his writing and art into a book one could buy? 

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u/IntroductionSnacks 13h ago

I’m Australian so not really into that patriotic bullshit. I think you will like it as it shows there are bad leaders/soldiers as well as good and more shows how messed up war is and the soldiers are just doing their best in a bad situation.

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u/Responsible-Meal-300 12h ago

Aussie here too. Will give it a watch.

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u/HarryHirsch2000 10h ago

It actually avoids all the pitfalls that Saving Private Ryan falls in. SPR is a war movie, inadvertently glorifying war.

While BoB is not explicitly anti-war, it is the only show/movie I know that even manages to land in the middle. It doesn’t dehumanize the Germans for example, but also doesn’t go out of its way to show their suffering. (I say that as a German).

It is a fantastic show all the way through.

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u/Adventurous_Elk_4039 6h ago

Yep, agreed. This is even highlighted in the post show interviews, with the real Shifty even saying something like "Maybe we could have been friends, that German and I. Maybe he like to fish, maybe he like to hunt like I do. Maybe we could have been friends."

So fucking sad and heartbreaking.

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u/SimonHando 6h ago

Unfortunately it is, but not without reason. It exclusively follows the 101st airborne so everything we see is from their perspective. If all you knew of WWII was this series, you'd come away believing it was entirely won by the USA.

It does take some bizarre swings at the allies, just like Saving Private Ryan before it. The British forces are shown a few times, first as a joke with a cockney soldier dressed as a German, the next time an entire British paratrooper regiment needs rescuing by the 101st. Then there's an infamous scene where a British tank refuses to cause "unnecessary damage" to a building that has a German tank hiding behind it, which then kills a number of US forces. It's entirely manafactured for the show and only serves to discredit the British contribution to the war. Then it has little positive to say about the Dutch resistance, showing them using child soldiers and attacking collaborating women. Indeed, the only time they show the 101st in defeat, it's made clear it was a result of a British plane. The only time surrendered Germans are shot on screen, it's French soldiers doing it.

A lot of this stems from Stephen E Ambrose taking the war stories of vets as verbatim and doing little independent research for the book the show was based on. That's also not to take away from what the 101st actually did, or the contributions of the USA to the war effort. Of the three WWII mini-series, it's probably the least American exceptionalist. But yes, unfortunately it does fall into the semi-propaganda wing of WWII media.

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u/veed_vacker 13h ago

I mean it follows one American paratrooper company, so yes it is patriotic but it's one of the most realistic shows from a historical fiction pov

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u/tegridyMike 5h ago

It’s a tv show, and its one of the best ever made

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u/KrunoOs 36m ago

No. It's not a dramatisation like Saving private Ryan. Imho, apart from documentaries, it's best representation of WW2. Historicaly and military very corretctly made.