♪♪
KELLY: Memory
is a powerful thing.
♪♪
There are some events
that stick in the mind...
♪♪
...forever defining
the difference
between before and after,
and instantly redefining
everything that matters.
For the soldiers and families
of the Army's
1st Cavalry Division,
memories of April 4, 2004,
still loom large.
AGUERO: Where the hell
is everyone?
♪♪
CHEN: Ambush!
(clock ticking)
KELLY: Stories summed up
in a single date
that has come to be known
simply as Black Sunday.
WILD: You make memories
on days like April 4th
that you never forget about,
no matter how much you want to.
KELLY: Reconciling
these memories
can be the work of a lifetime.
Simply revisiting them
takes an uncommon bravery.
GUZMAN: Everybody was scared.
I mean, we're all human.
I thought
I was gonna die that day.
♪♪
KELLY: Re-creating
these moments
is work of another kind...
SALOMON: Action!
KELLY: ...requiring
an equally uncommon passion.
ALANNE: I took the
responsibility very seriously
that this was a true story,
and we're dealing
with real-life people.
BEAVERS: I am humbled
to be a part of this.
I feel so much privilege.
BOSWORTH: I feel very honored
to tell this story.
KELLY: 13 years
after Black Sunday,
National Geographic and
a dedicated team of filmmakers
are bringing
these events to life...
SALOMON: And Action!
KELLY: Working hand-in-hand
with the soldiers
and families who were there
to tell their stories,
and honor the memory
of those who were lost.
I owe it to them
to do this the best that I can,
because the country should know.
This is "First Look:
The Long Road Home."
RIDDELL: Sir?
AGUERO: Punch us through!
RIDDELL: Aah!
♪♪
♪♪
ALANNE: April 4, 2004,
was the fourth day in Iraq
for a 1st Calvary Division
platoon.
So, 19 men were out
on sanitation duty.
JACKSON: How is this
warriors' work?
ALANNE: None of these men
had ever been in combat before.
HAYHURST: Welcome
to Sadr City, Jackson.
RADDATZ: They thought
they were going
to keep the peace over there.
SPICER: We wanted to work
with the people
and do something positive,
and not just roll in there
like an occupation force.
VOLESKY: Let's
try to keep the peace.
Red One, return to base.
Over.
AGUERO: Roger that, Lancer Six.
ALANNE: And then, just as
they're about to head back
to their
forward operating base...
AGUERO: Listen. Was that...
(machine-gun fire)
ALANNE: ...they were ambushed.
(machine-gun fire)
BOURQUIN: Watch that glide!
Stop the vehicle!
(tires screech)
Comanche Red, this is Red Four!
We have contact!
SLEVIN: Within minutes,
we came under fire
from essentially all directions.
(indistinct shouting)
ALANNE: Two of their vehicles
became disabled...
BOURQUIN: We got to get the hell
off of this street.
ALANNE: ...so they had to
seek shelter in the city,
and became trapped with a family
in the middle of this maze,
and no one had any idea
where they were.
LUPITA: We just heard
something happened in Sadr City.
LeAnn: It's just
a peacekeeping mission.
They'll be fine.
ALANNE: So now
equally newly-arrived men
who didn't know the city
had to go in,
in unarmored Humvees
and open trucks
to get their brothers.
ARSIAGA: We'll be sitting ducks.
BEAVERS: A litany of
rescue attempts went out
to try to get to where
these guys were pinned down.
RANDAZZO: Stay alert.
Lancer Six and Rescue Two
are inbound.
SPICER: Three more blocks
to Delta, sir.
WEIBLEY: Burning debris ahead!
RITTER: On the way there,
roads are blocked off
and they're shooting
at them from all angles.
ALANNE: It was an
extraordinarily brave
and costly rescue mission.
AGUERRO: We're almost totally
black on ammo!
BOSWORTH: It knocked the wind
out of everyone --
soldiers there in Iraq,
and then also everyone at home.
HARDIE: Belinda?
BELINDA: What's the matter?
HARDIE: CNN just said there was
an ambush in Baghdad.
Four soldiers dead.
BELINDA: What?
PAXTON: I think you're always,
somewhere deep down,
waiting for that call
and hoping that it never comes.
ROY: No one's contacted you?
AMBER: No.
ROY: There's been an attack
in Iraq.
CALLIES: The person
who fights overseas
isn't the only one at war.
The whole family goes to war.
AMBER: Roy, what's happening?
ROY: Platoon was ambushed
in Sadr City.
4 dead, at least 40 wounded.
♪♪
ALANNE: We are all very mindful
of our solemn responsibility
in telling this story,
and we are especially
mindful today, on April 4th,
which this year marks the 13th
anniversary of Black Sunday
and the battles in Sadr City
that we are retelling the world.
WOMAN: I'm so tiny.
BOSWORTH: (laughs)
BEAVERS: It's an amazing road
to get here.
SOLDIER: Thanks, man.
BEAVERS: Thanks so much, man.
SPICER: Today has been
more than I could've imagined,
from the moment that we got
together this morning,
with the crew and the cast,
and our guys did
the moment of silence.
I thought that that was
a perfect way to start the day.
RADDATZ: I'd like to read
the names of the fallen.
We will observe
a moment of silence
at the beginning of the whistle,
and a whistle will mark the end.
Thank you all.
BOURQUIN: It was very emotional.
I remember crying numerous times
on complete strangers.
But it was a bonding moment,
just to be actually here
with Gold Star family members.
And the people
whose children died
coming up to try to save me,
really put a new
perspective on things,
because it's been something I've
been avoiding for a long time.
It's, you know, how do you
walk up to somebody and say,
"Hey, you know, I'm alive
because your son died."
You know, and then show them
pictures of your kids.
It was a rough day,
but I'm glad it happened,
because a lot of healing
for me individually
just happened that day, even
though it took a lot of time,
but it was a good experience.
You see the black flags?
I didn't even realize
they just had those until now.
They must've just put those up.
It looks spot-on, doesn't it?
A lot of other veterans
are able to go back
to their battlefields,
whereas we won't.
I don't think we'll do it
anytime in this lifetime.
AGUERO: This little thing
on the wall over here gets me,
because I remember that spot.
And they did a pretty good
job of reproducing it --
the writing over here
on the side.
BOURQUIN: Now we get this
opportunity, while we're young,
to still be able to go through
and see it, feel it,
touch it, kick the dirt,
let it sting our eyes.
The only thing that's not here
is the smell right now.
ALANNE: It's been an incredibly
massive operation
here in Fort Hood.
BOURQUIN: These are
the two houses, right here.
RADDATZ: The scope of this set
is just incredible.
REED: We're standing at the end
of an 800-foot-long road,
so we've constructed
1,500 feet worth of Sadr City
in various interpretations.
ALANNE: There's over
a hundred buildings
that we have constructed
to re-create Sadr City.
This is more than
three football fields long.
It is the largest set
working in North America today.
REED: I have a photograph of you
standing right here.
The photograph is you like this.
You took your helmet off,
and you got in a lot of trouble
for taking your helmet off.
SPICER: Martha Raddatz is
the news correspondent
that had spent time with us
over in Iraq.
She really saw the experience
that we had had
was something significant,
and she just kept coming back
throughout our year
that we were there.
RADDATZ: When I was writing
the book,
I never imagined that someday
I would see this re-created.
How are you?
I'd heard the story
about this battle,
and reporters
were all so caught up
in covering policy or
covering where were the WMDs,
that we'd forgotten
that there was a war going on.
It's good to see you.
SPICER: How are you?
RADDATZ: No one had asked them
those questions.
And I think, for them
and for their spouses,
just talking about that
was healthy and helpful.
WILD: There was a guy about
a hundred yards that way.
That's the first guy I can
clearly remember engaging,
once we were on the rooftop.
ALANNE: When Mike Medavoy
first sent me the book,
I just fell in love with it.
It wasn't just a story
about what it's like
to really go to war
for the first time,
for the American soldier,
but also for the American
military family.
♪♪
BELLAMY: She loves the troops,
and it's proven
in everything she does.
RADDATZ: I felt like this
civilian bridge to the military.
I could talk to the spouses
in ways that their husbands
sometimes didn't talk to them.
ALANNE: I feel like she rescued
all these soldiers,
all these families,
from being lost to history,
and that that is the work that
we are carrying forward here.
ABRAHAM: Background!
CREW MAN: Background.
RADDATZ: The soldiers in
the story are the everyday guys.
SMITH: You stay safe
out there, Tomas.
TOMAS: I will.
RADDATZ: They're as close to you
and me as anybody can be.
Most of them never imagined
they would be in combat.
ALANNE: None of them had ever
fired a weapon at an enemy
or had been fired on
by the enemy.
I think that just made
the heroism and bravery
of that day
all the more extraordinary.
The scope of the story
is really enormous.
The structure that I proposed
was very ambitious,
where we would have
eight main characters
who we follow through
the entire event,
almost in real time.
And each hour would mark one
of the big defining moments
in this battle.
It represented this fascinating
puzzle to put together.
Well, who do you choose?
What hour belongs
to which character?
♪♪
We are very honored
to be doing this project
with the support and assistance
of the United States Army
and Department of Defense,
who have been
such amazing partners to us
from the beginning.
HOMAYOUN: Mikko's dedication
to this project is infinite.
QUINLAN: He has taken years
to reach out the families,
the soldiers,
to get every detail right.
SMITH: We kept in contact
through e-mails,
and he's constantly
sending me pictures.
He has been wonderful
through the whole thing.
ALANNE: I just wanted to
introduce you to Robert.
SMITH: Oh. (chuckles)
ALANNE: Robert?
ROBERT: Oh.
ROBERT: Excuse me.
♪♪
SMITH: It's almost like closure.
It's a different
kind of closure.
That was his gift to us.
RADDATZ: He loves these guys.
He loves them like I do.
He loves these families.
He knows them like I do.
SALOMON: Let's go, one.
ABRAHAM: So, guys,
let the sporadic shooting
be really sporadic.
HOMAYOUN: The two directors
that we're working with
are Phil Abraham
and Mikael Salomon.
ABRAHAM: And action!
ANDERSON: One of the things
that we knew about Phil Abraham
from the work on "Mad Men"
and "The Sopranos"
is that he was
very much interested
in the journey of the character,
and was able to focus on that
as being a guiding
storytelling principle.
AGUERO:
I'm almost nearing black.
I'm not sure how long
we have now. Over.
VOLESKY: We're coming, Red One.
We're gonna get you out. Over.
ALANNE: I wanted someone who
would really get to the heart
of who these characters were,
and Phil has done
a remarkable job with that.
CREW MAN:
(speaking indistinctly)
ABRAHAM: Yeah, that's great.
Here we go.
CREW MAN: Action, vehicles.
(explosion)
ALANNE: Mikael
did "Band of Brothers,"
and it's been wonderful
being able to entrust him
to realizing all these battles
in ways that feel new
every time.
♪♪
ANDERSON: We realized
the marrying of
the two types of storytellers
was going to give us
an emotional journey
that was a character journey,
but also could bring us
into what the experience
of war was like.
(machine-gun fire)
VOLESKY: At all times, be aware.
This is a skilled
and highly prepared enemy
who has coordinated
a citywide attack.
♪♪
RADDATZ: What struck me
about this story was
that these wives back home
had no idea that their husbands
were in the middle of
a terrible, terrible battle.
Their lives were just going on
until that moment
when they knew,
and their lives changed.
LeAnn: A platoon
has been attacked.
RITTER: The wives all
rely on each other.
LUPITA: Please
get them home to us.
RITTER: And they also turn
to the Readiness Group,
which helps them cope
with the very specific stresses
that having a husband
deployed create.
LeAnn: Always remember
that you're not alone.
Family Readiness is family.
CALLIES: Having served
in the Army gives LeAnn Volesky
a perspective that a lot of
the other wives don't.
She knows what it's like
to stand in shoes
like her husband's.
LeAnn: The Lord never gives us
more than we can handle.
GINA: I wish I had your faith.
BOSWORTH: Self-doubt is
something that we all face.
Gina Denomy had multiple facets
relating to that.
One of them was being a new mom,
but then also participating
in the care groups
the way that she did.
That was very new for her.
Gina had to learn to become
a leader in that way.
GINA: I promise,
as soon as we're able,
we will contact you,
and, hopefully, with good news.
BOSWORTH: So, she's an
extraordinary woman.
I feel very, very honored
to play her.
RADDATZ: Look at you,
holding hands.
So Shane, how --
AMBER: We've been married
almost 19 years, so, yeah.
RADDATZ: Shane, how...
PAXTON: Playing a real person
who went through this,
it's an extreme responsibility
and it's not one I take lightly.
The best I can do
is honor her story
and play the situations
that have been written
as truthfully as possible.
AMBER: I love you.
ALANNE: Alpha Company
in this story
was mostly African-American
and Hispanic soldiers.
I wanted to make sure
that the diversity
of our armed forces
was accurately represented.
BUTLER: Hang in there, Cason.
ALANNE: We looked at
who had interesting stories
that could speak
to the unit as a whole.
ARSIAGA: I got
a bad feeling, man.
GARZA: Just stay close.
You'll be all right, man.
ALANNE: And I just thought
there was something so beautiful
about the friendship between
Robert Arsiaga and Israel Garza,
who are just
these ordinary guys.
GARZA: I never had a brother
before you.
RADDATZ: I was surprised
how close they came
to those characters.
They really did capture
who those people are.
CREW MAN: Michael?
VOLESKY: Hi.
KELLY: General, how are you?
VOLESKY: Hey.
It's great to see you.
How are you?
KELLY: What a pleasure.
VOLESKY: No,
the pleasure is mine!
CLARK: Michael Kelly is
a brilliant actor.
and he plays
Lieutenant Gary Volesky,
our commander in the field.
KELLY: I met General Volesky.
(chuckling) It was, I mean,
probably one of the coolest
moments I've had in my life.
KELLY: I understood fully,
for the first time,
how every one of his men
that I've talked to
said they'd follow him
into hell.
I got it.
QUINLAN: I'm Robert Arsiaga.
VOLESKY: How are you?
DIAZ: Jorge Diaz.
I'm playing Garza.
ALANNE: Volesky, he had such a
love and warmth toward his men.
CREW MAN: Jeremy Sisto.
SISTO: It's an honor, sir.
SISTO: Thank you.
VOLESKY: Okay.
ALANNE: And so I wanted
to find an actor
who could embody flawlessly
those two qualities.
And Michael is
just extraordinary.
VOLESKY: Private Randazzo.
That Crusader loader
who was killed?
You find out his first name
and where he was from.
RANDAZZO: Yes, sir.
KELLY: I wanted to do
the best job I could do,
because it's a man
that I now idolize in life.
AGUERO: You guys want to make it
back to base
without any more
casualties, huh?
Then we have to work together.
CLARK: E.J. Bonilla plays
Lieutenant Shane Aguero,
who showed uncommon valor
in leading his guys.
And even when all hope was lost,
he kept hope alive.
AGUERO: The number of places
that building
can come under fire from,
in retrospect,
is a lot more than this can.
The problem was,
it's also a lot harder
to get here
for them to find us.
BONILLA: He is
an unassuming hero.
But when it comes to it,
he's the guy
you want by your side
when you're at war.
DENOMY: We will never forget
our brothers
and what they did for us,
and there will be time
to grieve.
CLARK: Jason Ritter
plays Captain Denomy
as this incredible character
who, despite being wounded
multiple times,
went back out in the field
to rescue these guys
and led his troops
into the eye of the storm.
(machine-gun fire, explosion)
SISTO: Yo, there he is.
Hey!
How are you?
ROBERT: Pretty good,
pretty good.
ALANNE: Robert Miltenberger,
to me, is one of the most
fascinating characters
in this story.
He's deeply embittered
by the fact
that he's been stop-loss,
and on top of that,
then has the certainty
that he's going to die.
SISTO: It's pretty impressive,
the fact that you were able
to carry out in that.
And the calm in the midst
of all that, was, uh...
ROBERT: I probably
surprised, me, too.
I was never scared.
SISTO: I know.
That's what it sounded like.
ROBERT: (laughs)
ROBERT: I was never scared.
I guess I was ready.
SISTO: Yeah?
ROBERT: If it was my time,
I was ready.
SISTO: Robert actually is,
in some ways,
healthier than
some other soldiers
that weren't consciously
aware of the sadness,
the tragedy of it all.
ROBERT: There's no glory
out there, no heroes.
It's just death.
(indistinct shouting)
AL-LANI: (speaking Arabic)
HOMAYOUN: I'm playing
Jassim Al-Lani.
I'm the midpoint between
the Iraqis and the Americans.
ESSAM: (speaking Arabic)
HOMAYOUN: I am constantly having
to choose
where my allegiances lie.
AGUERO: Jassim?
BOURQUIN: Sir?
AGUERO: Take it.
BOURQUIN: Sir, you cannot
give him a weapon.
HOMAYOUN: Some of the soldiers
distrust my character
because their lives are at stake
and they don't know me.
BOURQUIN: This was
a well-planned ambush.
Somebody tipped the enemy off
to our movements.
BEAVERS: I'm playing
Sergeant Eric Bourquin.
He's a squad leader.
He kind of represents
the violence of action.
He's the bulldozer, a guy
you don't want to mess with.
WILD: We're all gonna die.
(machine-gun fire)
BOURQUIN: Crying doesn't help.
♪♪
CLARK: Our first choices said
yes on this show for the cast,
and nowhere
was that more important
than in the home front.
ABRAHAM: And action!
The way we shot the show,
we did all the home-front work
up front.
So, literally, 9, 10 days
after shooting began,
we never saw
our ladies again, ever.
GINA: You know, before he left,
Troy said, in ancient times,
wives went to war
with their husbands.
I guess we still do that,
in a way.
BOSWORTH: Everyone
who's been a part of this
has taken it on
like a personal mission
to shine a light on this event,
and to honor it
in the best way that we can.
(camera shutter clicking)
PHOTOGRAPHER: You two together,
that's good.
BEAVERS: We would bleed
to do right by them.
PHOTOGRAPHER: Cool.
BEAVERS: And to get to meet
the real heroes
that we're portraying
and have them bring us in
for a hug
and say, "Hey man, we think
you're gonna do a great job.
We trust you,
and you have our blessing,"
I feel so much responsibility,
and I also feel
so much privilege.
KELLY: Michael.
What's your name?
JOHN: John.
KELLY: John.
I owe it to them
to do this the best that I can,
because the country should know.
QUINLAN: We've been incredibly
fortunate on this project
to actually meet
and be counseled by
the soldiers who were
part of this battle.
ALANNE: We wanted our actors
to go through a boot camp
not only to learn
to move properly
and act properly as soldiers,
but also for
the bonding experience
that that would provide.
BAUMGARTEN: We put together
a weeklong boot camp
that not only incorporated
the basic infantry skills --
weapons handling, tactics,
things like that --
but also to understand
the weight and the gravity
of what the actors
were representing.
ALANNE: Mike Baumgarten
and Jerry Goodenmen,
who were our chief
technical advisers,
led the boot camp
with two real-life veterans
of this battle,
Eric Bourquin and Aaron Fowler.
BAUMGARTEN: Let's go.
HOMAYOUN: We would run drills
of clearing houses,
patrolling streets...
(machine-gun fire)
...and fail over and over.
BEAVERS: They don't compromise,
so we recognize pretty quickly
that we're gonna
get it right, period.
We're gonna go the route
that we went,
entering the building last time,
and we're just gonna,
instead, we're gonna peel
and get to the edge
of that building,
peel into the staircase
like that.
Does that make sense?
CREW MAN: Let's do it.
KELLY: Slow and steady.
Communicate.
BOURQUIN: The actors were asking
about the proper way
to hold the weapons, how to
shoot, move, and communicate.
AGUERO: I approve
of this training.
He has finger where
it's supposed to be at.
BOURQUIN: Look how well
all these guys are patrolling.
They're watching the corners,
and they're checking doors.
They're passing it off.
AGUERO: Yeah.
It looks good. It looks good.
BAUMGARTEN: All the actors,
you want to get
as much correct as possible.
They could easily remove us
from the process
and just do what they want,
but they didn't.
They care about the story.
CREW MAN: Fire. Hold.
Fire. Hold.
DENMAN: We were holding them
to a standard,
making them do 20 good reps
before we were good
for them to move on...
QUINLAN: Cut! Ooh, I think
that was a tie, no?
-DENMAN: ...just so that,
when they get out here
and there's cameras
in their face,
and they're tired,
they'll remember.
BEAVERS: My team, let's all
do a buddy system.
Take your mag out,
pull your bolt back,
take a look
if there's no brass, yeah?
RITTER: It was kind of amazing
because, at a certain point,
we could notice what
each other were doing
and sort of police
each other a little bit
and say, "Get your elbow down,"
or "You got to keep your barrel
not aimed
at your fellow soldier."
BEAVERS: All right.
Here we go, closing doors.
On me. You ready?
QUINLAN: Yeah, ready!
Come on back.
BEAVERS: We were thrown
into scenarios
that none of us felt
comfortable with.
Right there!
But, you know, Mike and Jericho
who kept telling us,
"Just do your best."
Let's go.
QUINLAN: Mike kept saying,
"You're given
principles to live by,
and you must make the best of
a bad situation at all times."
We all got each other's backs.
KELLY: All you want to do is
get their praise,
because these are guys
who really lived it.
Go!
♪♪
So we all really
busted our ass to do it.
SISTO: For me,
this is the first time
where I kind of
really felt like --
like we were really
like brothers and...
KELLY: Yeah. Yeah.
SISTO: And as an actor,
that's what I'm looking for,
about this thing.
So thank you for
making that all happen.
KELLY: Thank you, Mike.
SISTO: Thanks, Mike.
(cheers and applause)
QUINLAN: Oh, this is so rad!
FISHER: The boot camp really did
bring everybody together
in a really wonderful way.
The bond on this set
is something special.
ALANNE: It's been amazing
having the Army as our adviser,
because I always wanted this
to be as authentic as possible.
I want to thank everyone
here in Fort Hood.
We have been welcomed here
with such love and care.
It's been amazing,
and we are eternally grateful
for that.
RIDDELL: So, Wild,
if we don't make it back,
who do you think
should play us
in the movie version?
WILD: Think I'd like Tom Cruise.
RIDDELL: Nah, he's too tall.
WILD: Screw you, man.
♪♪
SALOMON: Thank you, everybody.
Positions, please.
ALANNE: We were gonna
get this story told,
no matter how long it took.
We initially developed it
as a three-hour feature.
SALOMON: Here we go!
ALANNE: It's been
so extraordinary now
to be able to bring
an even more fully realized
version of this,
expanding it to eight hours,
together with
National Geographic.
♪♪
ANDERSON: These were the guys
that we wanted to
take this journey with.
They understood the importance
of the material
and why we had been sticking
with it for so long.
ALANNE: They have been
such amazing partners.
From the very beginning,
they were attracted
to the ambition and
complexity of the project.
SALOMON: Action!
(machine-gun fire)
BONILLA: National Geographic is
famous for telling the truth.
I love that they're
making honest, real,
hard-hitting television.
This is the closest we can get
without being there ourselves.
♪♪
BOURQUIN: They ambushed us
to draw out the rescues.
Now they're gonna come
for us for real.
ALANNE: When you watch it,
you literally feel
that you are trapped in the
situation with our characters.
AGUERO: We got to move!
RADDATZ: You will feel
exactly what those soldiers
and what those families felt.
♪♪
KELLY: The events
of April 4, 2004,
happened so quickly
and instinctively
that their true impact could
only be revealed in hindsight.
What has emerged, looking back
all these years later,
is a portrait not just
of courage and sacrifice,
but one of family...
GARZA: You doing all right?
KELLY: ...not just at home
and on the front lines,
but now on both sides
of the camera, as well.
SALOMON: Action.
KELLY: It is a bond that serves
as a fitting tribute
to the memory
of those who were lost.
-- Captions by VITAC --
