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Band of Brothers (miniseries)

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"Henry V was talking to his men. He said, "from this day to the ending of the world... we in it shall be remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today shed his blood with me shall be my brother." ~ Carwood Lipton

Band of Brothers is an acclaimed 10-part television miniseries (first aired in 2001) about World War II, co-produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. Much of the action of the mini-series centers on the exploits of Easy Company of the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, U.S. 101st Airborne Division and one of its early platoon leaders, Richard Winters. It is based on the book of the same name written by historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose.

"I cherish the memory of a question my grandson asked me the other day, when he said: 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said, "No. But I served in a company of heroes." ~ Mike Ranney
"Never put yourself in a position where you can take from these men." ~ Richard Winters
"Volunteering for the Parachute Infantry is one thing, Perconte, but you've got a long way to prove that you belong here." ~ Herbert Sobel
"Sobel's a genius. I had a headmaster in prep school who was just like him. I know the type."
"Lew, Michelangelo's a genius. Beethoven's a genius."
"You know a man in this company who wouldn't double-time Currahee with a full pack just to piss in that man's morning coffee?"
"Hey, Skip! Where ya been? I've been lookin' all over for you!"
"Well, Don, I was at home in Tonawanda, but then Hitler started this whole thing, so now I'm here."
Men, it's been a long war, it's been a tough war. You've fought bravely, proudly for your country. You're a special group. You've found in one another a bond that exists only in combat, among brothers. You've shared foxholes, held each other in dire moments. You've seen death and suffered together. I'm proud to have served with each and every one of you. You all deserve long and happy lives in peace.

Currahee

[edit]
Sobel: [Addressing whole platoon.] You people are at the position of attention! [To Perconte] Private Perconte, have you been blousing your trousers over your boots like a paratrooper?
Perconte: No, sir.
Sobel: Then explain the creases at the bottom.
Perconte: No excuse, sir.
Sobel: Volunteering for the Parachute Infantry is one thing, Perconte, but you've got a long way to prove that you belong here. Your weekend pass is revoked. [moves on] Name?
Luz: Luz, George.
Sobel: [examining Luz's M1 rifle] Dirt in the rear sight aperture. Pass revoked. [walks over to another soldier] When did you sew on these Chevrons, Sergeant Lipton?
Lipton: Yesterday, sir.
Sobel: [displays a loose thread pulled from the stripe] Long enough to notice this – revoked.
Lipton: Sir. [Sobel walks over to another soldier.]
Sobel: Name.
Malarkey: Malarkey, Donald G!
Sobel: Malarkey is slang for "bullshit," isn't it? [takes his rifle]
Malarkey: Yes, sir!
Sobel: Rust on the butt-plate hinge spring, Private Bullshit – revoked. [tosses his rifle at Malarkey and moves on] Name.
Liebgott: Liebgott, Joseph, D, sir.
Sobel: Rusty bayonet, Liebgott. You want to kill Germans?
Liebgott: Yes, sir.
Sobel: [knocks his helmet with the bayonet] Not with this. [to the whole platoon] I will not take this rusty piece of shit to war, and I will not take you to war in your condition. [throws bayonet to the ground] Now thanks to these men and their infractions, every man in the company who had a weekend pass has lost it. Change into your PT gear. We're running Currahee.
Bull: [to Lt. Winters, as Easy Company is marching one Friday night] Sir, we got nine companies, sir.
Winters: That we do.
Bull: Well, how come we’re the only company marching every Friday night, twelve miles, full pack, in the pitch dark?
Winters: Why do you think, Private Randleman?
Bull: Lieutenant Sobel hates us, sir!
Winters: [pauses a moment] Lieutenant Sobel does not hate Easy Company, Private Randleman – he just hates you! [the rest of Easy Company laughs]
Bull: Thank–you–sir!
[After the 12–mile evening march, all the soldiers of Easy Company empty their canteens. Pvt. Christenson's canteen empties very quickly. Sobel notices]
Sobel: Who is that?! Christenson! There is no water in your canteen! You drank from your canteen!
Christenson: Sir, I–
Sobel: Lt. Winters!
Winters: Sir?
Sobel: Was this man asked to not drink from his canteen during the evening march?
Winters: He was, sir.
Sobel: Pvt. Christenson, you have disobeyed a direct order! You will refill your canteen and repeat all 12 miles of the march immediately!
Christenson: Yes, sir.
Sobel: FALL OUT! [fuming, Sobel walks back to Winters] What in the name of God are you doing with my company? You're late and you allowed troopers to disobey direct orders.
Winters: No excuse, sir.
Sobel: You're making me look bad, Lieutenant. This is not Dog Company, this is not Fox Company, this–this is Easy Company. And under my command, this is going to be the first and finest company in this regiment. I want the names of six men, their infractions and your disciplinary recommendations on my desk by 0130, is that clear?
Winters: What infractions, sir?
Sobel: Find some.
Nixon: Sobel's a genius. I had a headmaster in prep school who was just like him. I know the type.
Winters: Lew, Michelangelo's a genius. Beethoven's a genius.
Nixon: You know a man in this company who wouldn't double-time Currahee with a full pack just to piss in that man's morning coffee?
[After hearing of Sobel's court martial of Winters, the NCO's of Easy Company meet and prepare to turn in their stripes in protest]
Lipton: Now, if we are all going to go through with this, we all have to be aware of the consequences.
Martin: I don't care about the consequences.
Lipton: John. We could be lined up against a wall and shot. Now, I'm ready to face that. And the rest of you better be, too.
[All the NCO's are silent for a few moments; Guarnere looks pointedly at Lipton.]
Guarnere: [Regarding Sobel] I will not follow that man into combat.
Bull: Me neither.
[The other NCO's all nod in agreement.]
Lipton: Alright, then. Let's do it.
[All the NCO's take individual pieces of paper and pencils. Guarnere dictates what all of them write]
Guarnere: "I hereby...no longer wish to serve...as a Non-Commissioned Officer...in Easy Company." [they each then sign their individual papers and hand them to Lipton]
Lipton: Alright then. Good luck. [leaves to take the papers to Col. Sink]
Col. Sink: I ought to have you all shot! This is nothing less than an act of mutiny while we prepare for the goddamn invasion of Europe! Sergeant Harris.
Sgt. Harris: Sir.
Col. Sink: Turn in your stripes, collect your gear. You are hereby transferred out of my regiment.
Sgt. Harris: Sir.
Col. Sink: Get out. Sergeant Ranney.
Sgt. Ranney: Sir.
Col. Sink: Consider yourself lucky; I'm only busting you to private. As for the rest of you, we are on the brink of the largest invasion in the history of warfare, which leaves me no choice... but to spare your lives. All of you men have disgraced the 101st Airborne! Now get out of my office and get out of my sight. [the paratroopers salute] Get!
Winters: These men have been through the toughest training the Army has to offer, under the worst possible circumstances, and they volunteered for it.
Buck: Christ, Dick, I was just shooting craps with them.
Winters: You know why they volunteered? Because they knew that the man in the foxhole next to them would be the best. Not some draftee who's going to get them killed.
Buck: Are you ticked because they like me? Because I'm spending time to get to know my soldiers? I mean, c'mon, you've been with them for two years? I've been here for six days.
Winters: You were gambling, Buck.
Buck: So what? Soldiers do that. I don't deserve a reprimand for it.
Winters: What if you'd won?
Buck: What?
Winters: What. If. You'd. Won? Never put yourself in a position where you can take from these men.

Day of Days

[edit]
Winters: Flash!
Hall: Shit!
Winters: I don't think that's the correct reply, trooper. I say "flash", you say "thunder".
Hall: Yes, sir. Thunder, sir.
Winters: So, you're a radioman?
Hall: Yes, sir. Well, I was, until I lost my radio in the jump. I'm sure I'll get chewed out for that.
Winters: Well, if you were in my regiment, I would tell you that you were a rifleman first and a radioman second.
Hall: Yes, sir. Maybe you can say that to my CO when we find him...if we find him.
Hall: I wonder if everybody else is as lost as we are.
Winters: We're not lost, Private. We're in Normandy.
Buck: Where you hit, Pop?
Popeye Wynn: I can't believe I fucked up. My ass, sir.
Buck: Your ass? [Lt. Compton checks his wound] Holy shit.
[Hall and other members of Able Company come to help Easy]
Guarnere: Hiya, Cowboy!
Hall: Shut your fucking Guinea trap, Gonorrhea!
Guarnere: [Pauses, then smiles] He's alright, that kid!
Guarnere: Let the Krauts cook their own goddamn food. How are we doing, Malarkey?
Malarkey: We're doing good.
Buck: Yeah? What the hell do you know about cooking; you're Irish.
Malarkey: Sir, if you have a reservation someplace else, I'd be happy to go with you.
[Guarnere opens the flap]
Guarnere: Ooh, need some air.
[Winters shows up]
Winters: Jeez! Did something just die in here?
Buck: Any word on Lieutenant Meehan yet, sir?
Winters: No, not yet.
Guarnere: Don't that make you our commanding officer, sir?
Winters: Yeah, it does.
Toye: Sir? [offers Winters a bottle of whiskey]
Guarnere: Joe, the Lieutenant don't drink.
Winters: [Takes the bottle] It's been a day of firsts. [drinks, then hands bottle to Guarnere] Don't you think, Guarnere?
Guarnere: [pause] Yes, sir.
Winters: Carry on.
[He starts to leave, then turns back to Guarnere]
Winters: Oh, and Sergeant?
Guarnere: Sir?
Winters: I'm not a Quaker. [leaves]
[the men laugh]
Winters: That night, I took time to thank God for seeing me through that day of days and prayed I would make it through D plus 1. And if, somehow, I managed to get home again, I promised God and myself that I would find a quiet piece of land someplace and spend the rest of my life in peace.

Carentan

[edit]
Muck: Hey, Malark! You seeing this?
[They watch an Army chaplain walk through a hail of bullets to give fallen soldiers last rites]
Malarkey: Crazy fools, the Irish.
Muck: You should know.
Perconte: How far do you think we're going?
Luz: Jesus Christ, Frank, I don't know. Until they tell us to stop!
Nixon: Harry, what exactly are you doing with your reserve chute? You've been hauling that thing around ever since we jumped?
Welsh: Gonna send it to Kitty when we get back to England. Silk. Figure it'll make a good wedding dress, you know, what with rationing and all.
Nixon: Geez, Harry, I never would have guessed.
Welsh: What, that I'm so sentimental?
Nixon: No, that you think we're going to make it back to England.
Welsh: I want light and noise discipline from now on. That means no talking, no smoking, and no playing grab-fanny with the man in front of you, Luz.
Luz: [imitating Col. Sink] Now remember boys: flies spread disease. So keep yours closed.
Speirs: We're all scared. You hid in that ditch because you think there's still hope. But Blithe, the only hope you have is to accept the fact that you're already dead. And the sooner you accept that, the sooner you'll be able to function as a soldier is supposed to function. Without mercy. Without compassion. Without remorse. All war depends upon it.
Winters: Sink told me what a good job Easy did holding the line, said General Taylor was pleased.
Welsh: That's why I came to France: to please General Taylor.

Replacements

[edit]
Cobb: Where'd you get that?
Miller: It's the Presidential Distinguished Unit Citation. For, uh... for what the regiment did in Normandy.
Cobb: That's right. For what the regiment did. You weren't there.
Hoobler: Hey, hey, ease up on him, Cobb. It's a unit citation. [Miller removes his Citation ribbon and walks away. Bull picks it up, glaring at Cobb]
Bull: Shit, Cobb, you didn't fight in Normandy, neither.
Cobb: I got hit in the plane before I got a chance to jump.
Guarnere: [on Bull's MIA status] If there ain't no body, then there ain't nobody dead.
[Nixon falls down after a German bullet ricochets off his helmet]
Winters: Nix!
Nixon: I'm all right! I'm all right... am I all right?
Winters: Yeah, yeah, you are. [smiles a bit]
Nixon: Yeah? Quit lookin' at me like that!
[gambling on a game of darts]
Luz: Lieutenant, are you going to shoot lefty all night? [Comptom looks at him]
Toye: Hey, c'mon.
Luz: I'm just curious cause he's right-handed.
Buck: [switches hands] George! What would I do without George Luz?
Guarnere: [to Bull] I don't know whether to slap you, kiss you, or salute you.
Winters: I don't like retreating.
Nixon: First time for everything.
Winters: How'd the other divisions fare up north?
Nixon: [Pauses] I think we're gonna have to find another way into Germany.

Crossroads

[edit]
Winters: [trying to wake up Nixon] All right...[dumps a full pitcher on Nixon]
Nixon: [groans and slowly wakes, then notices what Winters has done] Oh... CHRIST! That's my own piss, for God sakes!
Nixon: I mean, we're the only ones keeping the Germans on the German side of the Rhine. Now, if we had taken Antwerp–and I'm not saying that would have been easy–we would be across the river, well-supplied, with the Krauts on their heels. Now I just got to get Ike on the phone. Are you listening to me?
Winters: Hanging on every word.
Nixon: I don't know why I'm still doing this.
Winters: Drinking?
Nixon: No, hiding it in your foot locker. I'm a captain, for Christ sake.
Winters: Why don't you just give it up?
Nixon: Drinking?
Winters: No, hiding it in my foot locker. You're a captain, for Pete's sake.
Nixon: Maybe you're right. Maybe this is the perfect place to stop drinking. Right here on the business end of the Allied advance... Cheers! [continues drinking out of his bottle of VAT 69]
[Nixon holds up a ticket to Paris, without saying what it is]
Winters: What is that? A piece of paper? I don't want to see another piece of paper!
Nixon: You are going to Paris, my friend, City of Light.
Winters: Joe, drop your ammo.
Liebgott: What? What are you doing?
Winters: [pulls out the ammo from the weapon, displaying a single bullet] You have one round. [Turns to John Martin] Johnny, how many prisoners do we have?!
Martin: We got 11 right now, sir.
Winters: [Turns back to Liebgott] You drop a prisoner, the rest will jump you. I want all prisoners back at the company CP. Alive.
Malarkey: Hey, Skip! Where ya been? I've been lookin' all over for you!
Muck: Well, Don, I was at home in Tonawanda, but then Hitler started this whole thing, so now I'm here.
[1LT George Rice from the 10th Armored Division brings a jeep heavily loaded with supplies as Easy Company arrives in Bastogne]
Lt. George Rice: Panzer division is about to cut the road south. Looks like you guys are going to be surrounded.
Winters: We're paratroopers, Lieutenant. We're supposed to be surrounded.
Lt. George Rice: Good luck.
Nixon: Thanks.

Bastogne

[edit]
Doc Roe: [in the middle of the forest] Do you have scissors? I need scissors.
Smokey Gordon: Scissors? I have to check the sewing room. They might be upstairs in the study in that skinny old drawer in the middle of the desk...
Penkala: I don't want to go back to no aid station!
Doc Roe: Well, you're in luck, we ain't got no aid station! Penkala, scissors. I need scissors. You got scissors?
Penkala: What the hell I need scissors for?
Doc Roe: Got your aid kit? Right, well, you don't need this. Not yet. I do.
Martin: Hey, Frank, you keep cleaning those teeth the Germans are going to see you a mile away. Shoot ya dead.
Perconte: [brushing teeth] That's right, Pee Wee, you keep laughin'.
Sisk: [Doc Roe shows up] Hey, Doc. [Roe opens Perconte's pack and starts dumping it out]
Perconte: Doc, that's my stuff. Aww, come on, Doc...
Doc Roe: What, you got a drug store in here?
Perconte: No, I own my stuff! Well, what are you looking for?
Doc Roe: Scissors. [Pockets the scissors] Thank you, Perconte.
[Doc Roe gets out of the foxhole and leaves. Perconte looks after him in disbelief.]
Perconte: Took my goddamn scissors!
Doc Roe: You're a good nurse.
Renee: No. I never want to treat another wounded man again. I'd rather work in a butcher's shop.
Doc Roe: Where are your boots?
Toye: In Washington, up General Taylor's ass.
Winters: Harry. Fire's not a good idea.
Welsh: Just a couple of minutes. We're in a dell.
Winters: A dell? Like where fairies and gnomes live?
[Nixon walks up]
Nixon: I swear I thought I could smell a fire. I did smell a fire. Are you out of your mind? [starts warming his hands at the fire]
Winters: Well, we're in a dell.
Nixon: Huh?

The Breaking Point

[edit]
Lipton: [narrating] Where's Dike? I probably heard that question a thousand times. I probably asked it a few times myself. There were long stretches where we didn't know where Lieutenant Dike was. He'd disappear go off on his walks for hours at a time.
Lipton: [narrating] Heyliger might have made a good C.O., but before we got a chance to find out he was accidentally shot by a sentry. Then came Norman Dike. Dike wasn’t a bad leader because he made bad decisions. He was a bad leader because he made no decisions.
Lipton: [narrating] Dike was a favorite of someone at Division. He'd been sent down to E-Company to get some combat experience. Sometimes we got the feeling E-Company was an annoyance to him. Something unpleasant he had to get through before he could continue his march up the ladder.
Penkala: [about Buck] "Don't do anything stupid"? Who the hell is he talking to? A bunch of morons who volunteered to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Can you get any more stupid than that?
Luz: Probably not.
Muck: I swam across the Niagara once.
Penkala: [sarcastically] Yeah.
Muck: I swear! On a bet.
Luz: What, in a barrel?
Muck: No... God... I didn't go over the falls, George. I swam across the river.
Luz: I don't know.
Muck: Ten miles up from the falls. I tell you: that current is damn strong.
Penkala: Oh, yeah.
Muck: Must have carried me at least 2 miles downstream before I got across. But, I got across. Now personally, I didn't think it was all that stupid, but my mom, my sister, Ruth... They gave me all kinds of hell.
Luz: Yeah, I bet, Muck.
Muck: So did Faye. [his girlfriend]
Luz: Aah, sweet Faye Tanner...
Muck: Shut it, George.
Penkala: Well, they had a point - you're an idiot.
Lipton: [narrating] Fear is poison in combat. Something we all felt, but you just didn't show. You can't. It's destructive, and it's contagious.
Guarnere: [about Dike] Jesus Christ. Gotta go through all this, with a C.O.'s got his head so far up his fuckin' ass that the lump in his throat is his goddamn nose.
[after Lt. Dyke has frozen up in the middle of an attack on the town of Foy]
Winters: [from the tree-line] Got to keep moving! [begins to run out toward Easy Company's position]
Col. Sink Captain. Captain! Captain Winters! Goddammit you do not go out there! You're the battalion commander, you get back here! [Winters stalks back past him] Now, Dick, I understand your attachment to Easy Company, but-
Winters: Speirs, get yourself over here! [Lt. Speirs runs up] Get out there and relieve Dike and take that attack on in!
Lipton: [voiceover] On the report it said Compton was being taken off the line because of a bad case of trench foot. It didn’t say anything about him losing his friends. Buck was a great combat leader. He was wounded in Normandy and again in Holland. He received the Silver Star for his part in taking out those German guns on D-Day. He took everything the Krauts could throw at him, time and again. I guess he just couldn’t take seeking his friends Toye and Guarnere torn up like that. No one ever thought less of him for it.
Speirs: You wanna know if they're true or not, the stories about me? Did you ever notice with stories like that, everyone says they heard it from someone who was there. Then when you ask that person, they say they heard it from someone who was there. It's nothing new, really. I bet if you went back two thousand years, you'd hear a couple centurions standing around yakkin' about how Tertius lopped off the heads of some Carthaginian prisoners.
Lipton: Well, maybe they kept talking about it because they never heard Tertius deny it.
Speirs: Maybe that's because Tertius knew there was some value to the men thinking he was the meanest, toughest son of a bitch in the whole Roman Legion. [Turns to leave]
Lipton: Sir? These men aren't really concerned about the stories. They're just glad to have you as our CO. They're happy to have a good leader again.
Speirs: Well, from what I've heard, they've always had one. I've been told there's always been one man they could count on. Led them into the Bois Jacques, held them together when they had the crap shelled out of them in the woods. Every day, he kept their spirits up, kept the men focused, gave 'em direction... all the things a good combat leader does. You don't have any idea who I'm talking about, do you?
Lipton: No, sir.
Speirs: Hell, it was you, First Sergeant. Ever since Winters made Battalion, you've been the leader of Easy Company. Oh, and you're not going to be First Sergeant much longer, First Sergeant.
Lipton: Sir?
Speirs: Winters put you in for a battlefield commission, and Sink approved on your behalf. You should get the official notice in a few days. Congratulations, Lieutenant.

The Last Patrol

[edit]
Webster: Sergeant Lipton feeling all right?
Luz: He's got pneumonia.
Webster: Sorry to hear that.
Luz: Ah, what are you sorry about? He's alive, got a couch, a goddamn blanket. Snug as a bug.
Cobb: [to Webster, outside the communal showers] Has it been a long time since your last shower, professor?
Webster: In war, soldiers sometimes die in the fever pitch of a fire fight, or by artillery when they’re huddled in a foxhole. Bill Kiehn, a Toccoa man, was killed because he was carrying a sack of potatoes from one building into another.
Webster: How could anyone ever know of the price paid by soldiers in terror, agony and bloodshed if they'd never been to places like Normandy, Bastogne or Haguenau?
Nixon: Who are you?
Jones: Lieutenant Jones, sir.
Nixon: Right, our West Pointer.
Jones: Yes, sir.
Nixon: When did you graduate?
Jones: June 6th, sir.
Nixon: June 6th? Of last year?
Jones: D-Day, yes, sir.
Nixon: [laughing sarcastically] All right, don't get hurt.

Why We Fight

[edit]
Easy Company: [singing] Is everybody happy? Cried the Sergeant looking up
Our hero feebly answered yes, and then they stood him up
He jumped into the icy blast, his static line unhooked
And he ain't gonna jump no more!

Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
He ain't gonna jump no more!

The risers wrapped around his neck, connectors cracked his dome
Suspension lines were tied in knots around his skinny bones
The canopy became his shroud, he hurtled to the ground
And he ain't gonna jump no more!

Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
He ain't gonna jump no more!

He hit the ground, the sound was SPLAT, his blood went spurting high
His comrades then were heard to say, A HELL OF A WAY TO DIE!
He lay there rolling round in the welter of his gore
He ain't gonna jump no more!

Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
Gory, gory, what a hell of a way to die!
He ain't gonna jump no more!
[Several members of Easy Company watch German citizens clean up rubble from their town, while a string quartet somberly plays]
Luz: I'll tell you what, them Krauts sure clean up good.
Liebgott: Yup, all you need is a little Mozart.
Nixon: [Joins them] Beethoven.
Liebgott: Sorry, sir?
Nixon: That's not Mozart. It's Beethoven.
Winters: Got a visit from Colonel Sink this morning.
Nixon: And how is the good colonel?
Winters: Concerned. Still drinking nothing but the VAT 69, huh?
Nixon: Only the finest for Mrs. Nixon's baby boy.
Winters: That a problem up at regiment?
Nixon: What? This? Is that what he said? No, I just don't like it up there.
Winters: Good. You'll be happy to hear that Sink is transferring you back down to Battalion S-3.
Nixon: What do you think I should write to these parents, Dick?
Winters: Hear what I said, Nix? You've been demoted.
Nixon: Yeah, demoted. Got ya. 'Cause I don't know how to tell them their kids never made it out of the goddamn plane.
Winters: You tell them what you always tell them. Their sons died as heroes.
Nixon: You really still believe that?
Winters: Yeah. Yeah, I do. Don't you?
Luz: Hey, Janovek, what ya reading?
Janovek: Um, an article.
Luz: No shit. What's it about?
Janovek: It's about why we're fightin' the war.
Luz: Why're we fighting the war, Janovek?
Janovek: It seems the Germans are bad, very bad.
Luz: You don't say. The Germans are bad, huh? [turns to Perconte] Hey, Frank, this guy's reading an article over here that says that the Germans [sarcastic dramatic pause] are bad.
Nixon: Hitler's dead.
Liebgott: Holy shit.
Nixon: Shot himself in Berlin.
Bull: Is the war over, sir?
Nixon: No. We have orders to Berchtesgaden. We're gonna move out in one hour.
Webster: Why? The man's not home. Should've killed himself three years ago, saved us a lot of trouble.
Nixon: Yeah, he should've. But he didn't.
Winters: [about the concentration camp's prisoners] Can you ask him, uh, ask him what kind of camp this is? Um, what, ah, why are they here?
Liebgott: Was ist das hier?
Prisoner: Das, das, das, das hier, das... das ist ein arbeitslager für unerwunschte wirklich.
Liebgott: He says, it's a work camp for, Unerwunschte. I'm not sure what the word means, sir. Uh, unwanted, disliked maybe?
Nixon: [guessing] Criminals?
Liebgott: I don't think criminals, sir. Uh, verbrecher?
Prisoner:: Verbrecher? Nein, nein.
Liebgott: No
Prisoner:: Ärzte, musiker, beamter, bauern...
Liebgott: Doctors, musicians...
Prisoner:: Schreiber, schneider, intellektuelle...
Liebgott: tailors, clerks, farmers, intellectuals. I mean, normal people.
Prisoner:: Juden. Juden. Juden.
Liebgott: [softly] They're Jews.
Prisoner:: Polen, Zigeuner...
Liebgott: Poles, Gypsies
Prisoner:: Aber Ich glaub das schlimm, das Frauenlager ist bei der nexte bahnstation dort hin.
Liebgott: Wie bitte, was sagen sie?
Prisoner:: Das das Frauenlager bei der nexte bahnstation. [The prisoner wanders away, weeping]
Winters: Liebgott?
Liebgott: ...The women’s camp is at the next railroad stop.
[After finding a concentration camp, Easy Company has returned to the nearby town and is clearing out a bakery, intending to provide the confiscated food and goods to the camp's inmates. The owner of the bakery is shouting angrily at the paratroopers in German, demanding that they put everything back.]
Webster: Shut up.
[The baker keeps shouting.]
Webster: Shut up!
[The baker continues shouting, ignoring Webster.]
Webster: [Draws his sidearm] Shut up, you Nazi fuck! [Grabs the baker, aiming the pistol at him]
Baker: Ich bin kein Nazi! (I am not a Nazi!)
Webster: Oh, you're not a Nazi? My mistake, you fat fucking prick. What about a human being? Are you one of those, or are you going to tell me that you never smelled the fucking stench? [of the nearby concentration camp]
Baker: Toeten sie mich nicht, bitte toeten sie mich nicht, ich verstehe nicht was du da sagst (Don't kill me, please don't kill me, I don't know what you're saying)
Lesniewski: Leave him alone, Web, he says he doesn't know what the hell you're talking about.
Webster: Bullshit.
[O' Keefe is humming "She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain"]
Perconte: Hey, O'Brien. Shut up!
O' Keefe: I told you, it's O'Keefe.
Perconte: Do you know why no one remembers your name? It's because no one wants to remember your name. There's too many Smiths, DiMattos and O'Keefes and O'Briens, who show up here, replacing Toccoa men that you dumb replacements got killed in the first place! And they're all like you! They're all piss and vinegar. "Where're the Krauts at? Let me at 'em! When do I get to jump into Berlin?" Two days later, there they are with their blood and guts hanging out and they're screaming for a medic, begging for their goddamn mother. Dumb fucks don't even know they're dead yet. Hey, you listening to me? Do you understand this is the best part of the fucking war I've seen? I've got hot chow, hot showers, warm bed. Germany is almost as good as being home. I even got to wipe my own ass with real toilet paper today. So, quit asking about when you're gonna see real action, will you?! And stop with the fucking love songs!
[both are silent for a while]
Perconte: When did you ship out? A few weeks ago?
O' Keefe: Yeah.
Perconte: It's been two years since I've seen home. Two years. This fucking war.

Points

[edit]
Winters: Listen up. You ready for it? [pause] German Army surrendered.
[Members of Easy Company are going hunting. Shifty Powers misses a chance to shoot a deer]
Perconte: Dammit, Shifty! The Army's going to be glad to get rid of you.
Shifty: I wish, you know? Turns out, they want me to stay for a while.
Malarky: Are you serious?
Shifty: Yup.
Malarky: How many points are you short?
Shifty: Fifteen.
Malarky: Fifteen? Jesus Christ, I thought I had it bad.
Shifty: No Purple Hearts, never was injured.
German Colonel: I wonder what will happen to us – to people like you and me – when there are finally no more wars to occupy us?
Winters: Have all your men collect the weapons, deposit them at the church and the school, and at the airfield.
Colonel: Very well. [Draws his sidearm, offers it to Winters butt-first] Please accept this as my personal surrender, Major. It is better than to lay it on the desk of a clerk.
Winters: [considers] You may keep your sidearm, Colonel.
[Colonel assents, salutes]
[Captain Sobel, now outranked by Winters, happens to be walking by while Winters is sitting in his Jeep. Sobel pretends to not notice Winters.]
Winters: Captain Sobel.
Sobel: Major Winters. [Tries to keep walking]
Winters: Captain Sobel... we salute the rank, not the man.
[Sobel slowly turns and salutes]
Liebgott: [translating a German general's speech] Men, it's been a long war, it's been a tough war. You've fought bravely, proudly for your country. You're a special group. You've found in one another a bond that exists only in combat, among brothers. You've shared foxholes, held each other in dire moments. You've seen death and suffered together. I'm proud to have served with each and every one of you. You all deserve long and happy lives in peace.
Winters: [Narrating]
  • Buck Compton came back to see the company to let everyone know he was alright. He became a prosecutor in Los Angeles. He convicted Sirhan Sirhan in the murder of Robert Kennedy and was later appointed to the California Court of Appeals.
  • David Webster became a writer for the Saturday Evening Post and Wall Street Journal, and later wrote a book about sharks. In 1961, he went out on the ocean alone, and was never seen again.
  • Johnny Martin would return to his job at the railroad, and then start his own construction company. He splits his time between Arizona and a place in Montana.
  • George Luz became a handyman in Providence, Rhode Island. As a testament to his character, 1,600 people attended his funeral in 1998.
  • "Doc" Rowe died in Louisiana in 1998. He'd been a construction contractor.
  • Frank Perconte returned to Chicago, and worked a postal route as a mailman.
  • Joe Liebgott returned to San Francisco, and drove his cab.
  • Bull Randleman was one of the best soldiers I ever had. He went into the earth-moving business in Arkansas. He's still there.
  • Alton Moore returned to Wyoming with a unique souvenir: Hitler's personal photo albums. He died in a car accident, in 1958.
  • Floyd Talbert, we all lost touch with in civilian life, until he showed up for a reunion just before his death in 1981.
How we lived our lives after the war was as varied as each man.
  • Carwood Lipton became a glass-making executive in charge of factories all over the world. He has a nice life in North Carolina.
  • Harry Welsh, he married Kitty Grogan, and became an administrator for the Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania School System.
  • Ronald Spiers stayed in the Army. He served in Korea, and in 1958, returned to Germany as governor of Spandau Prison. He retired a Lieutenant Colonel.
[Winters gathers Easy Company to inform them of Japan's surrender, ending World War II] For Easy Company, it was D-Day plus 434. Regardless of points, medals, or wounds, each man in the 101st Airborne would be going home. Each of us would be forever connected by our shared experience, and each would have to rejoin the world as best he could.
  • Lewis Nixon had some tough times after the war. He was divorced a couple of times, then, in 1956, he married a woman named Grace and everything came together for him. He spent the rest of his life with her, traveling the world. My friend Lew died in 1995.
  • I took up his job offer, and was a personnel manager at the Nixon Nitration Works, until I was called back into service in 1950 to train officers and Rangers. I chose not to go to Korea; I'd had enough of war. I stayed around Hershey, Pennsylvania, finally finding a little farm, a little peaceful corner of the world, where I still live today. And there is not a day that goes by that I do not think of the men I served with who never got to enjoy the world without war.
Lipton: Henry V was talking to his men. He said, "from this day to the ending of the world... we in it shall be remembered. We lucky few, we band of brothers. For he who today shed his blood with me shall be my brother."
Winters: [quoting from a letter Mike Ranney wrote to him]: "I cherish the memories of a question my grandson asked me the other day, when he said: 'Grandpa, were you a hero in the war?' Grandpa said, 'No. But I served in the company of heroes.'"

Taglines

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  • They depended on each other, and the world depended on them.
  • There was a time when the world asked ordinary men to do extraordinary things.

Cast

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Wikipedia
Wikipedia
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