We Stand Alone Together: The Men of Easy Company (2001)

Thanks for the memories!

Good movie but grossly overrated

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

I'm very glad they made this documentary about the training and battles of Easy Company, 101st Airborne Division, between 1942, when the division was formed and 1945, when the end of the war found the men at Berchtesgaden, Hitler's peace-time retreat.There is some newsreel footage but no reenactments; no narration, just the odd printed title to keep us in the right place and time. Most of the footage is taken up with comments by the surviving members of Easy Company, now old but still carrying memories that seem as fresh to them as they do to the viewer. Some of the men choke up but no one breaks down on camera.I'm glad the film was made because it was necessary to get some of these recollections into the archives right now. All the speakers are aged and won't be with us much longer. I'm glad too because despite their occasional bravado, the justifiable pride and the resultant solidarity, the men aren't foolish enough to talk about glory or defending the world from Naziism. Their commentary shows that for each of them their part in the war was a highly personal business. They were scared and saw their comrades die beside them. The film had to be made to remind us that war, even when it's won, is an evil creation.Because the point of view is that of the paratroopers themselves, some of the more general details of their engagements are lost. They speak of jumping into the night over Normandy on D Day and having their equipment, including weapons, torn off by the shock of the chute's opening. They don't seem to realize that, though they themselves had been thoroughly trained, the pilots of the C-47s were not.When the anti-aircraft fire became hot, the airplanes picked up speed and jinked all over the place trying to avoid it, a pointless maneuver. Most of the jumpers landed miles from their drop zones and some landed in Rommel's flooded fields and were drowned before they could disengage their harnesses. The British parachute harness was released with a single click, like a safety belt, while the American version took roughly thirty seconds to escape from. Of course, the only comments we hear come from those whose landings were successful. Almost half of the men were lost during the month spent in Normandy.Three months of recuperation, training, and replacements, and the next jump was over Holland in Operation Market Garden. The daytime jump was perfect. The operation was a failure due to hasty planning, German resilience, and bad luck.Next engagement, Bastogne, the village in the center of the Battle of the Bulge. The 101st had been sent to a nearby part of the line for rest after spending seventy days fighting in Holland. The relief didn't last. When the Germans launched their last offensive, the 101st were called in to hold Bastogne, and they did until relieved.They came home to ordinary lives after undergoing unimaginable stress.

This is a full-length DVD extra included with the giant "Band of Brothers" DVD set. It is about the men you see telling their stories at the beginning of each episode of "Band of Brothers". Here, instead of the usual brief snippets, the men all get to tell their stories about being a part of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. In addition, there are a lot of photos as well as video footage of the men having their reunion at the end. All in all, a very inspiring piece that simply allows the men to reminisce and discuss their experiences during the war. In many ways, it's like a condensed version of what you see in the film and because of that it's really best to first see all of the "Band of Brothers" mini-series and then this film of the real participants. Well worth seeing and exceptionally well made.

"We Stand Alone Together" serves as an epilogue of sorts for the nonpareil mini-series "Band of Brothers." While it is best appreciated having seen "BoB," this sublime piece of work also functions well as a stand-alone (no pun intended) documentary.Watching "Together" captures the essence of being a young boy, listening at the knee of your grandfather as he relates war stories. If the doc consisted of nothing more than showing the men reminiscing, it would have been great. But overlaying the men's tales is remarkable archival footage of the events they describe, along with a few necessary slides that provide pertinent information. Add this to having watched the described events in "BoB," and one has a more vivid account of WWII than anything one's imagination might invent.Seeing the former soldiers tell their stories provides a fuller appreciation for what they endured. As phenomenal as "BoB" is, hearing the words straight from the men makes the events more personal, because you know that they have survived both the war and life itself in the aftermath. Perhaps most enlightening of all was learning of the respect that the American soldiers had for the Germans. They understood that the Germans were humans too, just in drastically different circumstances.The documentary further emphasizes a tagline from "BoB." These were ordinary men doing extraordinary things. Listening to them explain that they simply returned to 'normal' life following the war is almost stunning. The modern soldier is still human, but much more trained and honed, often a professional soldier, leading us to think of them as almost superhuman. Most World War II soldiers were common people, which makes their accomplishments all the more head-shaking.The documentary is also superb technically. The pacing in particular stands out. Shunning the common modern choices of quick cuts or attention-grabbing music, the film proceeds deliberately with quiet undertones. Consistently using fades in and out of footage and interviews, director Mark Cowen allows time for the viewer to absorb the power of what is said and shown.Bottom Line: Phenomenal stories of phenomenal people related in a exceptional way. 10 of 10.

One of the things that set Band of Brothers apart from other war- based mini-series was the inclusion of interviews with the actual surviving members of Easy company. This 80 minute (when shown on BBC) programme allows us to get to know the real men behind the story and what they did with their lives after the War. So in a very real sense, this is the 11th episode in the series. The interviews were very moving. Almost 60 years on, the men involved are still very deeply affected by their experiences. Well worth watching. My one small complaint was that I found it difficult to associate the men being interviewed with the characters in the series. It might have been nice if some brief clips had been included, or a photo of the actor had been displayed. But that would probably have detracted from it.