But...

I will add that stories like Braveheart and The Patriot, though... piss me off to no end.

I don't mean to pick on Mel Gibson here... but these two films (and the scripts they were based on) took perfectly interesting historical characters and twisted them out of recognition. William Wallace and Francis Marion (the figure that Gibson's Patriot character was based on) played huge, pivotal and immeasurably important roles in their respective eras and conflicts... yet it isn't enough to leave the "history" alone to speak for itself.

Your example of the Band of Brothers is perfect in its accuracy and attention to detail. No addition or fiction need be included in such a tale, and that, as much as anything else contributes to its success as a movie (or series). Even the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far tells a tale that is very nearly historically accurate in every regard... and this at a time when there was a definate anti-war bend to Holywood films that rivals anything we see now.

I know we have wandered from book to film here (notice how I said "we"?), but the results are the same... a disservice to history for the often unsuccessful grasp at fame and fortune.