Band of Brothers, the HBO war miniseries about American paratroopers produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, begins with a sort of narrative hammer to the skull.
“We came from a small, small town,” says a combat veteran immediately off the top of the first episode. “And three fellas in that town that were [deemed unfit for duty] committed suicide, because they couldn’t go.”
Nine years later, their next entry — U.S. Marines-centred The Pacific — only took a few extra seconds to get to a similar point.
“We had no idea that we were the forefront of all this,” a retired Marine says,
