'Generation Kill' ( TELEVISION REVIEW )

Los Angeles Times ^ | July 11, 2008 | Robert Lloyd

[kellynla]

Here we are in year six of the Iraq war, which has receded in the media to a static-filled hum of casualty figures and reports of new advances in improvised weaponry. If it takes a re-created reality to make us think concretely about what's happening there, and has been happening there, so be it.

Steven Bochco tried it a couple of seasons back with "Over There," half successfully, but it lasted only one season. And now David Simon(writer) and Ed Burns ("The Wire") have adapted Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright's book “Generation Kill.” The HBO show recounts in seven parts the seven weeks Wright spent with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion on the front lines of what prematurely came to be known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.

It is a straightforward and remarkably thorough adaptation of the book, shot without stylistic frills in a way that reflects Wright's own carefully neutral prose -- he doesn't use a lot of adjectives and for the most part leaves the colorful color commentary to his subjects. (Simon and Burns, and their directors Susanna White and Simon Cellan Jones, also avoid the over-emphatic faux-documentary style pioneered by Bochco.)

The drama is all in the staging and cutting, and in the almost musical alternation of long stretches of relative quiet with passages of brilliantly rendered violent action. The camera work rarely calls attention to itself. There is no music apart from what the soldiers sing themselves as they ride along (and Johnny Cash singing the apocalyptic "The Man Comes Around" over the last minutes of the last episode).

[kellynla]

I canceled HBO a long time ago. So I would be interested in what Marines who have served and/or are serving in Iraq think of this program.

Semper Fi, Kelly

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

I did not watch it yet.

Has anyone seen it? I am curious to see what people thought as well.

[astounded]

Never had HBO myself. But, I did read the book - it is outstanding in showing those young Recon Marines in a realistic, generally favorable light. They had a real trip up the Euphrates in spring 2003, that’s for sure.

[Bommer]

Hey with a title called Generation Kill you know if neutral. Guess it sounded better than calling it “The American Baby Killing Women Rapers” Hollywood is crap!

[nutmeg]

Just curious if you’ve seen this on HBO and what your thoughts are about it...

[Chuzzlewit]

I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch it. after all , this is not World War II we are talking about, so the targeted HBO audience is going to require quite a bit of characters with the “dumb jock soldier” mindset..

[bolobaby]

A coworker was describing the first episode to me. I was appalled at what he outlined. Based on that exposure alone, I’m sure it is garbage.

Basically, it sounds like overblown BS. Something that depicts all of our soldiers as generally unprofessional, misguided civilians who are getting their jollies living in a world “without rules.”

[frankiep]

The HBO show recounts in seven parts the seven weeks Wright spent with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion on the front lines of what prematurely came to be known as Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Nope, no bias or agenda from this writer at all. Move along.

[12Gauge687]

Same crowd that watches Bill Maher’s Politically Incorrect; although, quite frankly, Bill and his Liberal pals were all too politically correct.

I did hear the series on John Adams was worth watching.

[devistate one four]

The Marines at Pendelton liked it ok. And I read where one or two of the actual marines are on the film, and many cotributed to the film.
Note to author, M a r i n e s are not soldiers!
Semper Fi

[Zman516]

"...have adapted Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright's book..."

That much right there tells you it will be shiite.

[frankiep]

That’s exactly what I assumed it would be like. Sounds like a longer, more drawn out version of that piece of crap movie ‘Jarhead’, which was simply unwatchable and did nothing more than attempt to portray those in the military as brainwashed animals and/or crybaby whiners.

[Adder]

I’ve watched it and its pretty good...I dislike the banter that goes on...it seems pretty forced and “ghetto” but maybe thats how it is.

These guys are supposedly racing to Baghdad...for at least three hours of the show they have been stumbling around. Since we toppled Saddazz in 9 days, these guys have missed almost 11% of the war.

Some things are a bother... whenever there is a lull in the action, there are always scenes of dead people laying around including one little girl whose legs have been severed.

I am not sure exactly what is trying to be said with ALL of these scenes...they do not move the story.

All that being said, we will continue to tune in. It feels real enough...but I would have no real way of knowing if it is an accurate portrayal. I will say that its not overtly antiwar nor is it a slam against our boys.

[frankiep]

HBO shows some excellent stuff such as Band of Brothers, The Sopranos, John Adams, Six Feet Under, Flight of the Conchords, etc. They also show some stuff that is just pure garbage.

[PsyOp]

I read the book as well. I thought it very good. When I heard that HBO was doing a series based on it, my only thought was how far they would go to twist it and distort it.

The book was loaned to me by a friend and former active-duty marine who is a good friend of one of the books prime characters. He felt it described his buddy and the unit accurately.

[Liberty Valance]

I've seen the first two episodes. I like it so far.







About Evan Wright
An award-winning contributing editor for Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair, media speaker Evan Wright is the author of Generation Kill. This best-selling book presents an eyewitness account of elite Marines facing combat in Iraq and paints a harrowing life-and-death portrait of young Americans at war. Generation Kill was a critical success and the former commandant of the U.S. Army War College, Major General Robert Scales, has called it "the finest war reporting since Michael Herre's Dispatches." Generation Kill is also the basis of the upcoming HBO miniseries, which aired in 2008.

[mnehring]

I've purposefully skipped it to wait and see what others have said. Is it a hack job or accurate?

The Military Channel has had some great, first-hand documentary accounts. I trust them far more than HBO.

[Daus]

As a guy who generally likes HBO's stuff, I was pretty disappointed in the first two episodes. There just isn't anything new here. The first episode is the troops waiting around in Kuwait with the same old cliches of amped up Marines being homoerotic mixed in with a good bit of race baiting between the troops.

The second episode is the "the invasion begins, but we get stuck trailing the leading force, I sure want to start killing people, but I have no one to shoot at" story line.

Maybe it's just me, and I've read too many books, but it felt like the same stuff we've seen before. Did EVERY unit go through Nasiryah on the way up to Bagdhad because it seems like EVERY inbed reporter/book writer did.

[Harry Pothead]

I watched the first two episodes last night, it was pretty true to the book. Pretty even handed, I didnt go “sheesh” once. Portrays the captains as idiots and the lt’s as saving graces. Again, very true to the book so far. I would recommend it.

[y6162]

I’ve been watching it. I like it. Good characters. It’s about the marines, not politics, yet.