Generation Kill - New HBO Miniseries Review

[Count of Montesano]

Generation Kill is a new HBO series chronicling the true story of the First Marine Recon during the early days of the Iraq War. Generation Kill is shot in a gritty, realistic style that doesn't pull punches when it comes to subjects like racism, extremely foul language, or civilian casualties. On the other hand, the show doesn't paint the marines as baby-killing psychos like I thought Full Metal Jacket did. If anything, the grunts are portrayed as heroes doing their best in a bad situation, and higher-ups as rather incompetent in not having a strong gameplan going into Iraq.

From a military history standpoint, the First Recon's story is fascinating in that this unit raced across the border in Humvees without any tank or significant air support. That the First Recon not only survived against the armored Republican Guard but succeeded in their mission is a testament to their skill and courage.

The first episode deals with the lead-up to the war, with the First waiting for at a staging area in Kuwait. If you've ever been in the military, you'll completely emphathize with the extreme boredom of waiting for a mission to start; of waiting for needed supplies like Humvee parts, maps, and batteries for night vision goggles that never come; and dealing with contradictory orders coming down from high command every five seconds. I had to laugh at a scene where one of the Marine drivers has performed a minor mechanical miracle in getting a busted Humvee working again. Does the Sgt Major passing by congratulate him on a job well done? No, he gets his butt chewed for having his T-shirt slightly untucked from his pants. In fact, the officers and top NCOs seem far more occupied with making sure everyone looks presentable than actually getting ready for the invasion.

Unfortunately, Generation Kill suffers from some of the same issues I had with Blackhawk Down, in that a lot of the characters seem pretty interchangeable. Some of the standouts include First Lieutenant Flick - a fresh-faced young officer who's suprisingly more squared away than some of his commanders; Sergeant "Ice Man" Colbert who handles the platoon's high tech gadgets; Sniper Sgt Reyes who wears designer sunglasses and acts like a male supermodel; and lead driver Corporal Reyes, who thinks the Iraq War all comes down to Iraqis not getting enough pussy in their lives. There's a bit of really mean racial jabs that go on between some of the white and black/hispanic marines, but it's difficult to tell how much of it is joking and how much is serious. Probably a little bit of both.

At any rate, the banter is often hilarious. For example, at mail call the unit gets a letter from a junior high school girl who wishes them well and hopes they don't have to go to war. At which point Cpl Pearson writes a mock letter telling the girl, "unlike your bisexual tree-hugging liberal parents, I can't wait to get into combat and dismember some bastard hadji. Peace sucks a hairy nut; war is the Mother-F'ing answer." Then everyone looks at the girl's picture and talk about how they'd love to hit that when she turns 18.

The last part of the episode deals with the initial invasion and all the chaos that ensues. The First Recon learn after they're across the border that there will be no armor support from the Army or air support - they're going against the tanks of the Republican Guard in Humvees alone. Initially, the Marines are ordered not to shoot at any civilians unless fired upon. The convoy comes into contact with a group of armed men driving white trucks, but since their orders are to only shoot at uniformed Iraqi guardsmen, the Marines hold their fire and the Iraqi trucks speed away. Later a group of militia surrenders to the First Recon and ask for protection against Saddam's death squads who are killing deserters - you guessed it, the guys in the white trucks. But the First Recon's orders are to keep pushing, and so the Marines abandon their prisoners to presumably be shot by the secret police for surrendering.

The mini-series has six more episodes and runs for the rest of the summer on HBO. While I'm sure some of the dialogue and situations have been punched up for TV, all in all the series seems to get a lot right. It's well worth a watch whether you support the war or not, especially since it does a great job of highlighting both the heroism and barbarity of what's going on over there. If you liked The Wire, you'll be happy to know the same team produced Generation Kill.

[RZZZA]

I wont watch it because Beecher from Oz is in it. I can only see him as Beecher from Oz.

[Count of Montesano]

Well, so far none of the characters really overshadow the show. So if you hate a particular actor, you won't see him for more than a few minutes of the time.

[Rapax]

I've seen it, looks great. I really like the effort they put into it, with authentic equipment, plenty of vehicles and extras, so that you really feel like this is something big and not just 20 actors pretending to be a division TV-style.
This could actually be the first good movie piece on the Iraq war and I think it's about time.

[BeastG33]

I watched it last Sunday as well. I really enjoyed it. It made me laugh, mostly.

"I think me and [insert girl name here] are going to move to San Fransisco."
"Why move to SF?"
"There's no fat people there."

"If Saddam had invested more into the pussy infrastructure of his country, and not into his God damn stupid army, we wouldn't even be here right now."


On the other hand, at the end of the episode, it makes you think, and it makes you worry a little. It also left me wanting more.

All in all, it definitely looks promising. Now I'm not sure whether it will end up being BoB quality, but so far, so good.

[Rapax]

Seen the 2nd episode today, with the Marines finally getting some action so to say. I gotta admit, the production values are top notch, CGI blends in pretty well and the action scenes rival anything you've seen in Black Hawk Down.
Even though it's based on a true story, the "grain of salt"-factor increased some more with this one for me. Like with that "Captain America" character, a Marine officer who, according to the series, yells doomsday scenarios over the com whenever he doesn't like the situation and supposedly shot an unarmed iraqi civilian in the back with an AK he found somewhere. I don't know, I think that's really stretching it.
Some of the other characters slowly come into their own though. After the first episode you didn't really get to concentrate, being hit with so many characters but now I'm beginning to put faces and their positions together.
Can't wait to see how it continues, though I feel this thread is a little lost in the Reviews section.

[Lord Rahl]

I want HBO now! I didn't want to see this first because I thought it would portray the soldiers as evil (got that idea from the title) but from what y'all say I will try to see this show.

[Rapax]

Nah, they're not evil. It's kinda like "Band of Brothers" that you have a diverse mix of characters, some you like more, others less. Some are s, some are pretty cool guys. Naturally you gotta have your token incompetent officer and racist/bloodthirsty marines, but I think that's part of the package, that's just how it is.
I liked how they built in the things that people remember from the news, like the bloody fighting around nasiriyah and that whole maintenance convoy ambush with jessica lynch.

[Captain Jin]

I have been waiting for this show since I read the book back in infantry school in early 05.

I've seen two episodes and they nailed grunt culture down perfectly. We're not racist but you'd get the idea from the way we talk to each other. I've laughed so hard at some of the situations just because I've related with my own experiences. The one with the little girl was hilarious. We got all these letters from little kids and one was from a ten year old girl whose name was Teagan Tingly and we went on and on about how that's got to be a porn stars name and then that went into a bunch more inappropriate talk.

One thing you have to remember is the book was written by the Rolling Stone guys not any of the Marines. Also, he spent most of his time with the enlisted and in the grunt world we don't like officers much at all. I've served with a ton of them and all but two in my opinion were completely retarded. We put a premium on them cause they have a college degree. Cool, if they come in ready to learn instead of lording their abilities and education over us that's fine but you get a lot that are pushy and micro managing dicks that don't know a damn about anything cept 6-5. Anyways I don't want to go off on a tanget. Great book, great show so far.

[Rapax]

Watched the third episode today and it's just as good as the first two.
I liked the issues they touched on this time, like Trombley shooting unarmed civilians and the whole unit then being confrontated with the messy results of it. The issue of incompetent commanders is being spun further and of course I don't know how much of it is true, but if stuff like that actually happened, it makes you think. Like 'Encino Man' wanting to call an artillery strike on a target when all his men realize they'd be in the danger zone. Also the glory seeking of commanders, who rather race to an airfield to take it before british paras can instead of clearing a town of saddam loyalists while iraqi civilians are trying to help. I can't judge from where I'm sitting of course, but it gives you a good idea of the conflicting ideas and opinions of the soldiers on the ground and the mistakes that were made.
Still though, the only guy who comes off as a complete douchebag is 'Captain America', collecting berets from dead iraqis, emptying his trophy AK at an empty hangar and ordering his marines to put fire on some civilian huts 3000 metres away. If this depiction is for real, that guy is absolutely hilarious and not in a good way.

This show definitely has everything to make it a classic like Band of Brothers, though from what I hear, the american public isn't particularly interested in seeing movies and series about the ongoing war, which is a shame. Series like this are good eye openers.

[Captain Jin]

I really liked the third episode as well. Not at all surprised by their Battalion commander's insistence on pushing to that airfield. When he said "We're on the General's radar" well that's what matters. The whole thing is about impressing their higher ups and being recognized even if none of it makes any sense. Part of me really doesn't like Godfather but the other part kinda does just because he's not a bad officer, just too concerned with Mattis' opinion of things.

Their Sergeant Major is an absolute retard and I wish I had a dollar for everytime I heard some of the things he yells. The whole blaming that guy for his missing kevlar and then telling his team leader it was because of relaxing on the grooming standard. Haha, man, that is just like what they say. Brilliance in the basics, if you can't shave your nasty face in the morning how can you expect to operate effeciently in a combat zone? Uh... what?

One thing that's been bothering me, I don't see why Iceman continues to have those 17Bs mounted on his weapon. An NVG sight on your weapon during the day? Meh, we never did that.