| Currahee | |
|---|---|
| |
| Broadcasted | September 9, 2001 |
| Written by |
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| Directed by | Phil Alden Robinson |
| Episode guide | |
| Next Day of Days | |
Currahee is the first episode of the ten-part historical miniseries Band of Brothers. The episode follows the men of Easy Company from their basic training at Camp Toccoa under the strict and near-dictatorial command of Herbert Sobel, up to the preparation for the Normandy landings in Upottery, England.
he episode focuses on the disparity between Herbert Sobel, a harsh commanding officer of Easy Company and his subordinate Richard Winters, a more popular officer among Easy Company men.
Plot[]
In Toccoa, Ga., 1942, a disparate group of young men begins voluntary training to become members of one of America's newest military regiments - the paratroopers. Under the harsh leadership of Lt. Sobel (David Schwimmer), members of the newly formed Easy Co. go from green civilians to some of the Army's most elite soldiers. As training progresses, a rivalry flares between Sobel, whom the men despise, and Lt. Winters (Damian Lewis), a junior officer who's earned the respect and admiration of the company.
Synopsis[]
The opening scene starts at Upottery Airfield on June 5, 1944, with large masses of paratroopers from Easy Company making final preparations before their long-awaited jump at Normandy, France. Their commanding officer, 1st Lieutenant Thomas Meehan III, announces that their jump would be delayed due to unfavorable weather, much to the men's dismay.
Later, while awaiting further announcements, 2nd Lieutenant Lewis Nixon and 1st Lieutenant Richard Winters chat and reminisce about their time together with Easy Company and their former commanding officer, Captain Herbert Sobel. The story flashes back two years earlier.
At Camp Toccoa, Georgia, the men of a new platoon that will specialize in parachute-landing combat, stand at attention. Their commanding officer, 1st Lieutenant Herbert Sobel (before he was promoted to captain) reviews the physical appearance of the men. He finds several minor violations which he conflates to deny individual men weekend passes. After he finds several, he cancels weekend passes for the entire company and orders them to run the trail up a nearby mountain, Currahee. The heat is a great difficulty for the men, who have to run three miles uphill and down within 50 minutes. Through the run, Lt Winters encourages the men not to give up. At the top of the hill, Winters continues to embolden the men to perform as a team.
Sobel inspects personal possessions in one barracks, finding contraband items and declaring personal items, such as letters, to be an infringement on the men's training. He also finds a can of peaches which he assumes was stolen from the mess hall. He demands that the private in question be discharged. The platoon completes a 12 mile hike with orders not to drink from their canteens. One man had secretly done so and is ordered by Sobel to repeat the march with a full canteen. Sobel then orders Lt Winters to punish six of the company, though they have not committed any violations to speak of.
Sobel is promoted to captain by his commanding officer, Col. Sink, who also promotes Winters to 1st lieutenant. Sobel commands Winters to manage the mess hall for two weeks and tells him Easy company will have a "light day" of classroom instruction the next day and for lunch the men should have a meal that will seemingly reward them for their hard work, spaghetti. The men are overjoyed, until Sobel bursts in halfway through chow, screaming his order for the platoon to run Currahee in the rain. Suffering from cramps, several of the men vomit on the trail, while Sobel chides them all, telling them not to help their comrades when they fall. The men do anyway and a cadence starts which helps their morale. Winters joins in as well, while a faint smile crosses his face, an indication that his training program is working to shape and toughen the men.
The company engages in their jump training and complete the program when they jump five times. All of them are granted their wings medals and leave for North Carolina for further combat training. While on patrol, Sobel shows incompetence of command, guiding the platoon to wrong locations. The referee announces that 95% of the platoon is wiped out. The company is sent to Brooklyn and board the Samaria; their final destination will be England where they will train further for the Allies' mass invasion of Europe.
Easy engages in extensive hand-to-hand and weapons training west of London in Aldbourne. Field training is less than successful when Sobel's incompetence again becomes apparent. Stopping at a barbed-wire fence, Sobel and his adjutant determine they're a full grid off their route. While the rest of the platoon takes cover behind a small brush grove, the men ask Sgt George Luz, an expert in impressions of famous people, to imitate Maj. Horton and order Sobel to cut through the fence and continue. Several cows escape the farm that the fence bordered and Sobel is grilled for the violation by Maj. Strayer and told that it couldn't possibly have been Horton since the major has been on leave in London.
Winters receives papers from Sobel's adjutant, claiming Winters had failed to follow orders that were altered by Sobel; Winters requests a court martial to prove his innocence. Winters had not received the orders from the runner Sobel had sent and also did not receive a phone call Sobel claimed to have placed since the family that Winters is quartered with has no telephone. While the procedure for the court martial is arranged, Winters is sent to manage the battalion mess hall, which means he won't be able to join the invasion with Easy Company. Several sergeants, agree to resign en masse in protest knowing full well they could be executed for their action. Col. Sink reprimands them all harshly, discharges one of them, Sgt. Harris, and demotes another, Sgt. Ranney, to private. The rest are simply dismissed because the invasion is pending. However, Sink takes the protest seriously and gives Sobel new orders to command another jump training facility for non-combat personnel. Winters is exonerated and will return to Easy.
Winters goes on several flights that simulate the distance and course changes for the mission. The precise location is not revealed to Winters but he speaks with Lt. Meehan and they surmise that the drop zone will be Normandy. When the drop location is finalized, the non-commissioned officers (NCOs) of Easy relay the information to the rest of the company. Everyone is told to memorize the maps and every other company plans for dispersal in Normandy.
The day before their departure, Meehan announces that the French coast is covered with fog, making it too chancy to attempt. The 101st and 82nd airborne units will be on a 24 hour standby waiting for the weather to clear. Sgt. John Martin receives a letter from his wife informing him that Bill Guarnere's brother was killed in action at Monte Cassino in Italy. John, not wanting Bill to become upset the day before the drop, tries to keep the news from Bill. Bill accidentally grabs John's coat and finds the letter. He's devastated by the news but not entirely broken by it.
On the day of the drop, all troopers receive new equipment to carry in addition to the hundreds of pounds they already have. Overloaded and looking scared, they board their plans and take off for France, flying into the night sky. Winters sits by the open hatch, contemplating the mission to come.
Gallery[]
Cast[]
| Robert (Popeye) E. Wynn | Nicholas Aaron |
| Joseph D. Toye | Kirk Avecedo |
|
Doug Allen | |
| David Kenyon Webster | Eion Bailey |
| Allington | Dominic Cooper |
|
Michael Cudlitz | |
| Joseph P. Domingus | Marcos D' Cruze |
| Col. Robert F. Sink | Dale Dye |
| Burton B. (Pat) Christenson | Michael Fassbender |
| John W. Martin | Dexter Fletcher |
| George Luz | Rick Gomez |
| Wayne A. (Skinny) Sisk | Philip Barrantini |
| Myron Mike Ranney | Stephen Graham |
| James H. (Mo) Alley Jr. | George Calil |
| Walter S. (Smokey) Gordon Jr. | Ben Caplan |
| Terence C. (Salty) Harris | Luke Griffin |
| Donald G. Malarkey | Scott Grimes |
| Leadman Training | Michael Edmiston |
| William J. Guarnere | Frank John Hughes |
|
Pvt. White |
Tom George |
|
Ezra Godden | |
| Richard D. Winters | Damian Lewis |
| Old Man on Bicycle | James Greene |
| Lewis Nixon | Ron Livingston |
| Roy W. Cobb | Craig Heaney |
| Frank J. Perconte | James Madio |
| Charles E. (Chuck) Grant | Nolan Hemmings |
| Cleveland O. Petty | Adam James |
| William H. Dukeman Jr. | Mark Lawrence |
| Joesph D. Liebgott | Ross McCall |
| Floyd M. (Tab) Talbert | Matthew Leitch |
| Lynn D. (Buck) Compton | Neal McDonough |
| F Company Trooper | Laird Macintosh |
| Alex M. Penkala Jr. | Tim Matthews |
| Joseph Ramirez | Rene L. Moreno |
| Donald B. Hoobler | Peter McCabe |
| Thomas Meehan | Jason O'Mara |
| Maj. Robert L. Strayer | Phil McKee |
| Allen E. Vest | Kieran O'Brien |
| William S. Evans | Simon Pegg |
| Fake German | Harry Peacock |
| Herbert Sobel | David Schwimmer |
| Rudolph R. Dittrich | Dave Power |
| Warren H. (Skip) Muck | Richard Speight Jr. |
| Edward J. Tipper | Bart Ruspoli |
| Eugene G. Roe | Shane Taylor |
| C. Carwood Lipton | Donnie Wahlberg |
| Referee Training | Ben Walden |
| Harry F. Welsh | Rick Warden |
| Albert Blithe | Marc Warren |
| Darrell C. (Shifty) Powers | Peter Youngblood Hills |
End Quote[]
"Soldiers, Sailors, and Airmen of the Allied Expeditionary Force:
You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven for many months.
The eyes of the world upon you."
"Good luck!
And let us all beseech the blessing of Almighty God upon this great and noble undertaking."
General Dwight D. Eisenhower
Supreme Allied Commander
Trivia[]
- David Schwimmer, who played Captain Herbert Sobel was isolated from most of the other cast members during boot camp, to help generate a feeling of resentment among the men. Schwimmer joked that his only friend on set was Simon Pegg - who played Sobel's right hand man 1st Sergeant William Evans.[1]
- Aired two days before the 9/11 attacks.[2]
- This is the first American screen credit for Michael Fassbender, who played Private Burton Christenson.[3]
- Private Joseph Liebgott is shown shaving another soldier's head in the beginning scene. The real Joe Liebgott was a barber by trade, and he actually did reportedly help shave the men's hair into mohawks for the jump.[3]
- The film playing during the cinema scene was Mr. Lucky (1943) directed by H.C. Potter and stars Cary Grant and Laraine Day.
- During one of the Currahee runs, Private Warren Muck injures his leg and Captain Herbert Sobel orders the others not to help him. In the boot camp preparation for this, David Schwimmer, Sobel's actor, injured his own knee – and had to do the scene with the injury.[1]
- Private Frank Perconte complains about the quality of army spaghetti. Perconte's actor, James Madio played a big spaghetti lover in the sitcom USA High.[1]
- The part where 1st Lieutenant Richard Winters is reprimanding 2nd Lieutenant Lynn Compton for gambling with the men. Captain Herbert Sobel's actor, David Schwimmer had taken the time one night to play poker with the actors when he was supposed to be segregating himself from them.[3]
Errors[]
Anachronisms[]
- 1st Lieutenant Herbert Sobel examines the "rusty bayonet" of Private Joseph Liebgott. This was 1942, the bayonet was a Model M1. This bayonet was not manufactured until after March 1943. It had a ten-inch blade. The bayonets that should have been used in 1942, were the Model 1905 or the 1905/42 both of which had 16-inch blades. After March of 1943, all the long Garand bayonets were ordered to be cut down to ten inches and became the 1905E-1 and new 10 inch bayonets (the M1 bayonet) were manufactured for the rest of the war.[4]
- In the mess hall scene, when Easy Company men are eating the "...army noodles with ketchup." You can see a vintage Coca-Cola machine in the background between the tables. The coke machine is unmistakably a Vendo 39, stand up, coin-operated vending machine, which was not manufactured until 1949.[4]
- The scene where Easy Company is receiving a lecture, there are various German weapons on the wall. One of them is an StG 44, not used in combat until 1944. Thus, it is impossible that the Americans had captured one in 1942-43.[4]
- In the scene at the end of the episode where the aircraft are taking off on June 5, 1944, as the camera pulls out to show the many aircraft rolling down the tarmac, the first aircraft shows the pilot wearing a pale green headset remarkably similar to a David Clark headset. However, the Clark company didn't start producing headsets until after the war.[5]
Continuity mistake[]
- The two times 1st Lieutenant Thomas Meehan III is telling Easy Company that the invasion has been postponed, his tone of voice and hand movements are different both times when they are supposed to be the same moment.[4]
- Private Burton Christenson's machine gun switches from left to right shoulders when 1st Lieutenant Herbert Sobel confronts him about disobeying orders on a night march.[4]
- In the breakfast scene following the night march where 2nd Lieutenant Richard Winters has to pick six men and list their infractions, his mug moves about on his tray from shot to shot.[5]
- When Easy Company is eating their spaghetti lunch, we can see that outside it is raining. In the next scene while running up Currahee, the ground is dry, showing no sign of the previous rain storm.[4]
- When Captain Herbert Sobel is explaining to Major Robert Strayer why he cut the fence; Strayer is a Colonel, however, when Winters is briefing his men before going to assault the 105 he refers to him as a Major.[5]
- The door keeps changing positions in the scene where Captain Herbert Sobel is punishing 1st Lieutenant Richard Winters for failing to inspect the latrine.[5]
Crew or equipment visible[]
- When Private George Luz is imitating Major Oliver Horton to fool Captain Herbert Sobel, a boom mic is reflected in the wet helmets.[4]
Factual error[]
- Private David Webster is shown running Currahee and undergoing jump training with E Company. But Webster, while an original Toccoa man and member of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment was originally with Headquarters Company, and it was with HQ that he underwent training and jumped into Normandy; it was after the D-Day invasion (and thus not within the timeline of the episode) that he transferred to Easy, where he remained until the end of the war.[4]
- 1st Lieutenant Herbert Sobel demands that Easy Company runs up Currahee mountain in 15 minutes. They describe it as "3 miles up, 3 miles back". The company could not make it up a mountain one way in 15 minutes, they would have to average 5:00 per mile.[4]
- In the credits, Ross McCall's character's name is misspelled as "Joesph" D. Liebgott.[5]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245384/trivia
- ↑ https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/39axiq/til_that_hbos_iconic_band_of_brothers_premiered/
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Trivia/BandOfBrothersS1E1Currahee
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 4.8 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1245384/goofs/?tab=gf&ref_=tt_trv_gf
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 https://www.moviemistakes.com/tv3009/episode1406