"Generation Kill"
I just saw the first episode of HBO's miniseries "Generation Kill" tonight. It follows the story of a Marine reconnaissance unit during the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.
All I can say is...holy crap!!!
Every other attempt I've seen to dramatize the war was a dismal failure, and so full of absurdities that I lost count. This one is different. I don't know how they did it. Every uniform, every weapon, every tent, every piece of equipment is authentic to the Spring of 2003 when the events took place. I really, really, looked for mistakes and couldn't find a single one. There was even a blue force tracker in the lead character's Humvee!! I couldn't believe it! (The blue force tracker is a device with many uses, but primarily shows where other friendly forces are on the ground). The marines passed around their dip (chewing tobacco) cans inside the vehicles and spit out the window. 100% authentic.
The show seemed relatively even handed as well, simply showing what the marines were doing, rather than giving us some heavy Hollywood preaching over how evil the war is (or just as bad, going the other way - exaggerating and glorifying each and every thing that they do). The soldiers who fought in the war are/were human beings; some good, some bad, some stupid, some thoughtful. They complained, they whined, they hurt, they felt fear, and they did some incredibly heroic things.
However, this was only the first episode. I am rather guarded about what comes next. But it is an excellent start.
5 comments:
I was interested in that too so I watched it online. Some kind people taped it off TV and uploaded it on the net, which is the only way I was able to see it. The show actually reminded me a bit of Band of Brothers in that it portrais a unit (I have no idea about the right terminology) and the individual characters that are part of it. It is a good thing that they did not have a patriotic narrative or opinions about war and etc. but rather let the audience make up their own mind.
I think that following orders in situations where it might condem innocent people to a horrible fate is not something I could do - just thinking about the scene where they had to send those people back to Basra. It must have been really hard and I am selfishly glad that I don't have to make decisions like that myself.
Oh and about the Ausstieg aus der Atomkraft in Germany. Principally I totally agree with that because Nuclear power is safe until something like Chernobyl happens. It is still hot beneath the concrete mantle they put around it and I think it might be gettting brittle and who knows if they have money to repair that. It is also still producing electricity with its other reactor because Kiew would be without power otherwise. There is no real possibility to make Nuclear Power Plants absolutely safe. All you can do is put another layer of concrete and lead around the reactors. France built most of its Power Plants along the rhine so in case of an accident the wind would drift the fallout into Germany.. and Freiburg is in the hotzone of a PowerPlant in France and would be totally cut off in a worstcase scenario. We wouldnt die right away but pretty soon and it would be too dangerous to send in SAR so nothing goes in and nothing is allowed out. Nuclear Power Plants have minor accidents all the time and its only a matter of time until something worse happens.
Renewable energy resources should be the future. I have heard that energy companies (I think RWE) have bought up patents for solutions that work. Thankfully you can only hold a patent for 25 years.
Nobody can tell me that it is impossible and just a green fantasy to utilize sunlight for powercreation in a more effective way that could replace traditional methods, after all the gasball has enough power to warm our whole big planet, and sometimes to temperatures that just plain suck and make AC something you can't live without.
I was really impressed with the show- I just watched the first episode tonight and wow! I like that it appears a-political at this point. thanks for the recommendation- i would have never watched it based on hollywood and the title...
The Baltimore Museum of Industry presents an exhibit of original artifacts, objects and behind-the-scenes footage from HBO's The Wire and other television and movie productions filmed in Baltimore. The exhibit Local Scenes on the Silver Screen: "Featuring the Wire," will run from April 30, 2008 through December 30, 2008. Check out David Simon talking about the wire at http://www.visitmybaltimore.com/video/449/.
I just watched parts of it again - I think part of the reason why it comes over as so authentic and uncut is also because there is no soundtrack. No music whatsoever throughout the whole episode, the only "music" audible is the radio chatter in the background, the engines of the trucks and the profanities of the marines and all the intrinsic sounds of the invasion. It is a brilliant choice of the producers to leave the filmmusic out. That makes it almost possible ie to feel tbe boredom of waiting in the truck the whole afternoon, waiting until the convoy starts moving.
I watched the first episode last night and while the authenticity of the weapons, equipment and such seemed well done, I didn't much care for the stereotypical portrayal of the jarheads. Laughable in many cases; i.e. the Black guy leaning back in the tent in deep thought reading SunTzu's Art of War (they no doubt had to dig deep for him), the one dimensional hillbilly, the green 2nd Lt, the over the top SgtMaj, the hate/love of the reporter by the troops and his totally ineptitude in the field and the list goes on. Nothing that hasn't been on the screen before. I get the feeling this is going to end up as an anti war polemic.
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