Band of Brothers: You all deserve long and happy lives in peace

I'm a pacifist for life, mainly because I read Charley's War at a worryingly young and impressional time in my life, but I do still enjoy war stories -  the depths they can find in the human condition, with people driven to their absolute limit in the most appalling of circumstances. 

The incredible drama and the sad, horrible and genuinely moving insights they offer into the human soul, while trying to say something about the type of deep, deep comradeship that only ever exists in combat.

There have been dozens of great war movies over the past century, ones that can make you weep and rage, and Band of Brothers was as good as any of them - a TV series that was full of grim wonders.

It was a story that never shied away from the horror of war, the futility of so many deaths, and the grim resolve of those who have vowed to get the damn job done. And such great storytelling that doesn't hold your hand through the thick confusion of battle. You can't always follow the tactics, but can keep an eye on one man in the storm, and every time I watch the series again, it's a different man.

And the humanity of the thing - the  kid's face lighting up like a goddamn lighthouse when he gets to eat chocolate for the first time, or Winters telling his dog-tired men not to go on their final mission -  comes with some incredible action - whether it's Winters making his final charge, or Spiers running through the German forces to get a message to the other side (and then coming back again).

And that final speech, where the disbanding army speaks of the love and bonds that the solders share, that nobody else will ever understand, comes from the other side. It's a blunt tool to show the bare truth of the raw soldier, thrown into war by their uncaring elites, and left to fight for the man beside them, which means far more than any ideology.

I watch all 10 episodes of this remarkable show every couple of years, and it has so many multitudes to it, that there is something new to it every time. There might be a million war stories out there, but this one counts more than most.