HBO's Band of Brothers is decades old, but it's so good that you can watch it over and over, even years after it was produced. The dynamite cast, which includes Damian Lewis, David Schwimmer, Ron Livingston, Donny Wahlberg, and many, many more, are all amazing and the story they tell is as powerful as anything ever done on TV. There are many heartbreaking and heartwarming moments, so here are some of the best of both that will bring a tear to your eye.
Liberating The Concentration Camp
Episode 9 of Band of Brothers is the hardest episode to watch of a show that can be incredibly heartbreaking in every episode. The episode, called "Why We Fight," features the members of Easy Company discovering a concentration camp near Landsberg, Germany. Though the show takes some dramatic liberty, as it wasn't actually the 101st who first discovered it, they did arrive the next day and witness the horrors firsthand.
Doc Roe Finding The French Nurse's Scarf
In Episode 6, simply titled "Bastogne," the show follows Eugene "Doc" Roe as he scrambles to find much-needed supplies and use them to treat the injured men. As a medic, he witnesses all of the horrors of the battlefield and by the end, both he and the audience are left devastated by the toll the fighting in the woods in Bastogne takes on everyone in the company.
Guarnere Finds Out About His Brother
"Wild" Bill Guarnere is a fan favorite from early on in the show. The gruff Philly native is quick witted and sharped tongued. He's not just comic relief though. Just before Easy Company jumped into Normandy on D-Day, Guarnere found out his brother had been killed in action in Italy. Obviously he takes it hard and he's ready to fight when he lands in France the next night.
Hoobler Shoots Himself
From the moment Easy Company got to England in the first episode, Donald Hoobler was talking about getting a Lugar as a war prize. Throughout the show, he's seen mentioning it, even risking his life to try and find one on D-Day (he's unsuccessful). In Episode 7 he finally gets his souvenir, only to have it go off in his pocket, killing him. It's a devastating moment for the soldiers who go back to the beginning.
The Real Winters Story About The Grandchild's Letter
The last thing viewers are left with in Band of Brothers is a story from the real Dick Winters in an interview. The Major talks about a letter he read from a grandson to his grandfather asking if his grandpa was a hero in the war. The grandfather says, "No, but I served in a company of heroes." Winters chokes up as he finishes the story and audiences are left in tears too.
Malarkey Picking Up Laundry
After the paratroopers make it back to England after the D-Day invasion, Donald Malarkey goes to collect his laundry. When he does, the laundress asks him about some other members of the 101st who haven't picked up theirs yet. Quickly we learn it's the men who died in France and wouldn't be returning. It's an incredibly poignant way to express the tragedy of the regiment's losses.
The Camp Prisoner Explaining That They Are Jewish
Easy's main translator, Joe Liebgot, is charged with the task of asking the prisoners why they are in the concentration camp. Even though modern audiences are well aware of what is going on, it's still incredibly hard to watch the Winters (Damien Lewis) and Nix (Ron Livingstone) and the rest of Easy Company learn the truth.
The Final Baseball Game
Even though it's not about a battle or the aftermath of one, the baseball game at the end of the series, as Winters goes through the surviving members of Easy and talks about the rest of their lives, you can't help but tear up and cry a little. Partly tears of joy to hear about the men you've learned to love, and partly for those lost in the war who would "never get to experience a world at peace."
Joe Toye And William Guarnere Lose Their Legs
From the very beginning, the friendship between Joe Toye And William Guarnere is a special one. When both tragically lose a leg during the Battle of the Bulge, it's a crushing moment. No one was safe in the war, even our favorite characters.
Winters Takes His Last Shot Of The War
In one of the quietest moments of the show, Winters is seen running across a field in Holland. He comes across a German soldier who briefly appears to be raising his arms in surrender when Winters shoots him. The look in Winters' eyes and the replaying of it in his mind leaves a powerful lasting picture in everyone's minds.
Eugene Jackson's Death
One of the hardest deaths in the whole war for Easy Company came in its last days. No one wanted to get hurt, and Winters and the rest of the officers were doing what they could, but Colonel Sink wanted a patrol into Germany from across the river. On that patrol, Eugene Jackson is killed by a grenade. It was seen as a pointless death and the company responded as such.
Muck And Penkala Killed
Alex Penkala and Skip Muck were part of Easy from the very beginning at Camp Toccoa. Their death at Foy is just brutal as it really comes out of nowhere as they were urging George Luz to get to their foxhole just before it takes a direct hit from an artillery shell, killing both. They were just gone in an instant.
Liebgott Telling The Prisoners To Go Back To The Camp
Shortly after the 101st liberated the concentration camp in Bavaria, Joe Liebgott had to tell them one of the hardest things anyone would have to tell the prisoners. They had to go back into the prison until more help and aid could arrive. It was for the best, of course, but imagine having to deliver that news.
The American Serving In The German Army
One of the most jarring moments comes after the men start to assemble after their drop on D-Day. Malarky joking asks a prisoner in a German uniform where he is from and the German soldier tells him he's from Oregon. Moments later he is killed by Spiers, leaving audiences shocked.
The Real Malarkey Talking About His PTSD
The best decision the producers of Band of Brothers made was to include interviews with the real members of Easy Company to introduce each episode. The hardest one to watch is the real Donald Malarky talking about how he still relives some of the moments of the war, even 50+ years later.
Blythe Gets Shot
Though it's actually the most glaring historical error in a show that really did an amazing job with that part of the storytelling, Private Blythe getting shot in Episode 3 is one of the first times a character we really got to know was so brutally taken out. The wound did not kill Blythe, as they say in the episode's postscript, but in the moment, that doesn't matter.
Perconte Returning A Salute In The Camp
There are a lot of powerful moments surrounding the liberation of the concentration camp in Episode 9. One of those is Frank Perconte walking through the camp and returning the salute a prisoner gives him in thanks. Perconte can't believe what he is seeing and he himself is brought to tears by the gesture.
The Young Dutch Child Tries Chocolate For The First Time
After the members of Easy Company land in Holland, a few of them come across a farmer and his son who have been hiding in their basement. One of the members of Easy gives the small boy a chocolate bar and learns that it's the first time the child has ever tried chocolate. It's not the saddest moment in the show, it's just the opposite, but it's not still a tear-jerking moment.
Liberating Goring's Liquor Vault
There are a few tears of joy that come in Band of Brothers. The moment Lewis Nix takes off his sunglasses to look into Hermann Goring's liquor stash on VE day has to be the best. What a way to celebrate the end of the war in Europe.
The String Quartet Playing Beethoven
AS Easy makes its way across Germany, viewers see the devastation the war has laid on the country. Episode 9, one of the most emotional episodes of the series, opens with German citizens clearing rubble as a string quartet plays Beethoven and it's incredibly powerful. At the end of the episode, it returns to the same scene as Nix informs some of the men that Hitler is dead.
Shifty Powers Gets To Go Home
Darrell "Shifty" Powers is one of the original members of Easy, so it's a little shocking he doesn't have enough points to go home after the fighting was over in Germany. As such, the officers rig a lottery to make sure his name is drawn for a trip home. It's a joyful, poignant moment.
J.B. Stokes Saying He's Glad He's Not In Bastogne When It's Cold
Episodes 6 and 7 do an incredible job of showing not just how brutal the fighting was in the Battle of the Bulge, but how the freezing temperatures and snow wreaked havoc as well. In one of the pre-show interviews, J.B. Stokes talks about how whenever it's cold he thinks of BAstonge and it's a moment when viewers realize just how long-lasting the memories of the war are for the men who fought.
The Church At The End Of "Breaking Point"
When the Battle of the Bulge finally ends with an Allied victory, the men of Easy find their way to a church in the town of Foy and Carwood Lipton (Donnie Wahlberg) takes stock of who was lost in the battle. With so many casualties, it's impossible not to cry for every one they lost.
Liebgott Translating The German Colonel's Speech
Towards the end of the series, Winters and a few other soldiers watch as a German Colonel addresses his men after surrendering. The words, translated by Liebgott, could apply to any of the soldiers on both sides of the war, or indeed any soldier in any war in history and they serve as a powerful reminder of what war really means.
Hall's Death At Brecourt
The first up close and personal death we see in Band of Brothers comes at the Battle of Brecourt on D-Day. Although Hall was only introduced earlier in the episode as a lost member of another company, the look on Winters' face when he finds Hall's body tells the whole story, and the war gets very real for Winters and the viewers.
Buck Compton's Breakdown
Lipton explains in the show that Buck Compton (Neal McDonough) gave into his shell shock seeing Toye and Guarnere lose their legs at Bastogne. McDonough's acting is incredibly powerful in the moment and we feel everything he does.
Webster Freaks Out On The Baker In The Town
After the camp is discovered, the members of Easy scour the nearby town for food and supplies for the prisoners. At one point, a German baker denies knowing about the camp and Webster (Eion Bailey) understandably loses it on him.
Janovec Killed
Private John Janovec, played by a young Tom Hardy, is not one of the main cast members, but it's still horrible to see him die in something as simple as a truck accident after the Germans have surrendered. No death in a theater of war is ever pointless, but the ones that might have been avoided are especially tragic.
The Soldier That Goes Nuts After The War Ends
There are tears of sadness and tears of joy throughout the show. In the final episode of the show, there are tears of rage. A drunken soldier raises his rifle and shoots Sergeant Grant. The rest of Easy were understandably furious and almost took things too far with the soldier from I Company.
Babe Realizing What Was Going To Happen To Julian's Remains
John Julian is not a main character on the show, but his death, and the aftermath, is an emotionally charged moments, for sure. Babe Heffron (Robin Laing) is especially upset as Julian's body would have to be left out in the often, unable to be retrieved as the rest of the company retreated during the Battle of the Bulge.
Moose Heyliger Gets Shot
If you ever doubted just how dangerous war is, the shooting of Moose Heyliger soon after he assumed command of Easy should put that kind of thinking to rest. The First Lieutenant was shot by one of his own troops while discussing plans with Winters. Thankfully Heyliger survived his wounds, but it's a scary moment for sure.
Winters Telling The Men That The War Is Over
At the end of the show, Easy Company takes The Eagles Nest and as they celebrate, more good news arrives. Winters gathers some of the officers and reads the official announcement that the German Army has surrendered and the war is over. Tears of joy, indeed.
