HBO's Generation Kill - Page 2

So I've decided to re-read the book over the course of the series run, and thought you guys might be interested to hear the book version of the "Pussy Infrastructure" speech, on page 54 of the book:

I like the speech in the show better, but if it wasn't for this one we never would have gotten that one.

Christ, this show is good. Even the radio chatter played over the end credits gets me.

This thread should be garnering more attention. This show is amazing.

Where did your DVR cut out, BillyG?

That was revealed in the second ep, which I just caught up on. Loved it better than the first. The rapport between the men in the unit is just great. The amount of idiocy coming from higher ranking officials is simultaneously surprising and not. It's amazing the US hasn't fucked things up even worse than they did. It's like the blind leading the blind out there.

There was a negative New Yorker review that said it needed to expand its focus to differentiate itself from the other Iraq shows, and that morally it needed to comment on larger issues behind the invasion. I disagree. I think it's enough to take the Wire criticism of hierarchy and transport it here.

I've loved the last two episodes, and rewatched the first. It was much better knowing the faces. In the second, the way the battles kept intensifying and alternating with the mundane was great. And I liked how Colbert's casual affirmative to Trombley about firing resulted in so much pain. Just like the Wire, the superiors don't understand the details or are overly concerned with promotion.

Person needling Trombley about his homophobia was kind of heroic. I still think his superiors denying Trombley his desire to shoot dogs will turn into a cruel joke by the end. As exemplified by this link, which I'll black out because it could be a minor spoiler:

http://www.hsus.org/pets/pets_related_news_and_events/enemies_of_the_state.html

Godfather isn't completely one way or the other. He had well thought out reasons for denying the evac of the kid, and then, he assigned a platoon to escort the kid, right?

Is someone else getting angry at the show? Not because the show is bad. On the contrary, the show is amazing. But every time it displays the big embarrassing fuck ups of the U.S. Army it really makes me angry. And i know they probably were as many as they showcase, but it's getting to the point that it looks like a blooper reel of the army.

Loved the South Park and Nambla chats.

The translator bothers me the most. I find myself amused by the show and impressed with the writing, then he pops up and it pisses me off. I think it's because I had no idea translators were relaying bullshit information to the troops. For some reason that seems really fucked up to me.

I love this show. Episode 3 seemed to meander, then it really kicked in at the end.

Have they explained why the reporter uses an old school camera? Right now I'm taking it as a subtle jab that the reporter is also a victim of the chain of command not supplying him with the proper equipment.

Thought this was the best episode so far. Really like the guy that plays Frick.

I think it's more of a "hey, this guy is old school" thing. He's smart enough to order the rest of his gear off the eBay so the film camera is probably a personal choice.

This show is great but so maddening. I know they've said it's based on true events but how much is true? Please tell me Godfather passing on gaining some decent intel and knocking out a Republic Guard stronghold in an attempt to show his dick is bigger than the British forces didn't really happen.

Out of everything in this show I find this the most believable from what I know about the army.

Excellent show. And as with The Wire I'm actually more interested in watching the guys interact with each other than what is usually expected of the genre. That was unexpected from a military nut like me. Person's description of his gay bar was pure fucking gold.

I think my favourite line so far was in this Ep.

From a conversation in the background.

Soldier 1: Hey man, aren't you Mexican?
Soldier 2: Yeah...
Soldier 1: So why aren't you being all loud and stealing my shit?

One thing I don't get though. Did Godfather spend like 5 minutes telling them why they couldn't help the kid only to just turn around and help the kid anyway?

They didn't move. He kinda have to.

You should probably stay away from the book then lest you want to risk running off and joining CODEPINK.

Easily the best episode so far, and one of the few times I've been angered to the high heavens by a show. So many great moments, but one thing I enjoyed was seeing Fick talk to the reporter. He seems to be the only higher up we can trust in at this point, and seeing him acting (somewhat) casual was a nice moment.

There's nothing better on television this summer. Period.

I love Venture Bros., but it's a crime that thread gets more attention than this one.

I like the series but wasn't a huge fan of this episode. It felt like a 'filler' episode.

Really? Fair enough, I guess, but I just find this show sensational.

I understand it is a road mini series, but I didn't like this episode. Compared to Episode 1 and 3.

I did like the scene with the Iraqi father and his daughter.

Next week looks AWESOME

I thought this was a really strong episode. I like how, as much as their superiors are assholes, they really do fall apart the second they begin to question those above them. It's contagious. And it was cool to have Teenage Dirtbag pop up.

I thought it was really strong too. I assume the fidelity to the book Simon aims for he's achieving. And what we're seeing is more or less details, anecdotes and opinions of a specific group of non-fiction people. Slate linked on their front page to a soldier on their message board's long impassioned rant about the series. But he said very little about the actual show and seemed more to be processing his war experience, and objecting to portraying war, any war, in any fictional form... He said he liked the radio transmissions over the credits, he felt they got that exactly right.

The opening minutes detailed how the criticism of the higher-ups and the civillian shootings played out as they spread throughout different channels. We saw very human screw-ups, the bombing of sand, more shooting of civillians. I think the portrayal of race and racism works. One thing that stuck out was the men getting the food from the Iraqi corpses outside Baghdad, and one guy saying that the dead kid was going to become a terrorist. Then later, the look on the face of the Hispanic character who claims not to like hanging around Hispanic people, after they shot the guys fleeing out of the truck. The singing of Teenage Dirtbag was pretty chilling in the context of everything that's going on, and I was also happy that Ziggy made a point to sardonically call into question Evan Wright's theory that gangsta rap and violent video games have desensitized these soldiers to violence.

Also pretty interesting was Fisk's choosing not to bitch -at all--about any command decision anymore.

Really liked this ep as well. Good characater piece. I feel like I know all the people now. I still can't follow the dialogue though. Too much jargon. I can hear what they are saying, I just don't understand what any of it means. It would also help to have an understanding of rank. I have no idea who is a superior to whom or how many units there are in a platoon/brigade/whatever. Despite all of this, the show is entertaining as hell to watch. And I continued to be baffled at huge amount of fuck-up-ery there is.

I loved it.
And yeah, now that i can actually identify people it's way more enjoyable.

Anyone else wants Brad to be cast as Captain America by Marvel?

Thank you Ray
Thank you, Sgt.

Filler? Hell no, that was great. A lot more comedy than usual perhaps, but in true Simon style, he sets you up for one tone and then whips the rug out from under you with another.

Starting to learn all the names now, which helps the enjoyment. Really like the Brad character.

I've got the feeling that i'll enjoy the series more the second time i view it. Being able to identify people is key.


Also, i know this is based on a book. Did the rolling stone guy write it? His line regarding the preacher that won't hold a weapon vs the reporter that would was great.

Also, this kinds of reporters are trained for this shit, right? They are former marines or have some experience in combat? or are they just given a flack jacket and good luck?

The book is based on a series of articles the Rolling Stone reporter wrote. Not sure if he wrote the book though. I've heard that the show is a watered down version of the book and the book is a watered down version of the article series. If I'm this upset at the fuckery displayed on the show, I can only imagine how raw the articles must be. I wonder if they are archived somewhere.

Mr. Wright won the unusually intense embedding assignment by hounding a commander in Kuwait City in the prelude to the war. The marines were not quick to warm up to a leftist rock-magazine journalist in their midst, referring to him only as ''the journalist.''

But fairly soon they came to respect the bravery (or foolishness) of this tall, often sheepish writer, especially because Mr. Wright seemed keen to ride into the most dangerous situations. They often had him ride ''on point,'' or in the lead vehicle, which normally draws enemy fire.

''He was in the worst possible place to have a reporter,'' Sergeant Kocher said. ''During the first firefight, he took 10 rounds in his door.'' He added, with some admiration, ''After the first firefight, he didn't give up.''

Mr. Wright said a stubborn playground instinct had kicked in. ''Partly it was about not losing face,'' he said. ''I reverted to be like a 12-year-old on the playground. I wouldn't back down. And there were times when I knew we'd be shot at, and I'd fantasize about requesting getting taken out of being embedded. But then I'd make it through and not be injured, and I'd be flooded with this deep sense of, 'There's no way I'm leaving this.' ''


More jere

Might be spoilers for the rest of the show in there, but I guess that's par for the course.

You guys really, really need to read the book. When the DVD's come out I highly recommend reading the book and the watching the episodes along with it. Its fun to pick out the differences, and you also realize just how close the show looks to how it must have been. I think this series is one of the closest adaptations to a novel I've ever seen. The only thing the series is missing are the amusing anecdotes by Evan Wright as he writes about what he's witnessing going on around him. But even some of those get changed into dialogue for the series.

Thanks for that. Very interesting read!

Only watched episode 1, the next 3 are on the computer waiting to be watched (perhaps tonight), but I'm kinda surprised that no-one else has mentioned Jarhead!
Now, I haven't read the book (but may do) but It's kinda similar in regards that nothing happens sometimes in war, and you may not see not alot of action.

Keep in mind, you watched one ep of a seven ep miniseries. Trust me, these guys see action.

The differences between Generation Kill and Jarhead are about the same as the differences between this conflict and the one prior (meaning there is a helluva difference).

That firefight where they get boxed in the killzone near the bridge was fucking awesome.

I think I'd use "intense" instead of "awesome", but it was indeed amazingly well done. Can't wait to own this on DVD or Blu-Ray.

Yea, I agree that was an improper use of the word 'awesome' but I was really impressed with the firefight, surprised actually. That was better than most war movies do with 4x the budget. This was my favorite episode by far to this point, equally beatiful and intense. Just a great episode.

Hell, how long was it? From the moment the choppers started interfering with the NVGs to the final pullout, I was on the edge of my seat. I think I even said out loud at one point, "Back the fuck up you assholes!".

How many episodes is this thing?

Seven eps, but they all run for more than an hour apparently.

Outside of the ambush at the bridge, I'm enjoying the Fick storyline more than any of the others. You just feel bad for the guy, because he seems like a good leader who's smarter than the others, and his intelligence winds up being more of something that gets him into trouble then actually helping. The curse of middle management I guess.

I also jumped when that mortar vaporized the village. My immediate reaction was "WTF just happened?!" (much like the marines, I imagine) followed by "Holy shit they just vaporized those villagers."

I don't think I've chimed in yet, but this is a great show. I watch the clock on Sundays now, waiting for 8 to roll around. The firefight was very intense in tonight's ep. Something that didn't really kick in until tonight was that, much like the Wire, there is no score. There's stuff on radio's and the soldiers themselves singing, but no music. Which really makes some stuff draw out. You don't have some strings in the background telling you that what happened was triumphant or glorious or frightening. It's up to the viewer to decipher that. And that's fantastic.

For me, this burns Jarhead to the ground, a movie that I like. It's just this is less concerned with showing all sorts of shenanigans and how fucked up people "have to be" to join the Marines. GK comes off far more observational and balanced than finger pointing and let's the scenes with bad commands and kill hungry Marines exists with guys who are concerned about not feeling something after they've killed someone and regretting decisions that they've made.

Downloading ep 5 after watching 2,3 and 4 in a row.
One of the best things I have ever watched. The battles are short, but amazing. I think they got a very good effects house on this. The extra tanks and that on the highway that they were crossing looked great.
Agree with an earlier poster about the actor playing Brad should be the in the next Captain America flick.
I mentioned Jarhead earlier because of the non-action scenes and lack of action, even the SAW gunner said that it was boring out there, and look what happened to him when they started shooting! Jarhead was a film I didn't like when I saw it at the cinema, partly because I missed the beginning (rushing from one screen to another after watching the Psycho remake) and that put me out. Enjoyed the film better on TV. Butthe series gives the characters space to breath.
Also loved the scene where they were taking turned doimng impressions of the translator and that.
This is a def for me on BD as this is not turning up in the UK on FX until next year. Gonna get the book sometime this year.

I get more and more depressed after watching each episode. It's a testament to how well portrayed the story, characters, and action are. Seriously, what a fucked up war.

He doesn't even have to say anything. It's in his eyes.

Amen. As mentioned above, the lack of a soundtrack only benefits these character interactions. You're left on your own to decide how you feel about each individual's actions, never manipulated into any particular camp of thought. I think it's superb.

I wouldn't be able to deal with that shit. Thank god my roommates have similar tastes to my own, cause I'd kill em' if they started getting in the way of (or insulting) my TV/Movie viewing habits.

Really nice details:

- blonde hair on Valentine's Day drawings in an Iraqi classroom

- casual racism in a predominantly white unit - embarrassment over explaining what "NJ" stands for

- Meesh makes a reference to Saddam's son none of the men caught

I thought Fick's line about "This is the opposite of what's supposed to happen" -the Iraq war is rallying people to come defend Iraq and join al-Qaeda- was didactic in a similar way to the Wire was at times. They already made that point while standing around the Syrian college student, and it came off like they were artificially spelling it out more clearly in case an audience member didn't catch it.

I went back and watched the bridge ambush. A wonderful buildup of tension and letdown from it. And the end was important: just like they're eating dog, they are now accustomed to civilian casualities, so they just move on after shooting that guy in his car. It's not Trombley who did it, but Walt, who's sympathetic and sleep-deprived.

Agreed. It seemed obvious on its face as they looked at the wounded man's passport. Then again, this is America, where you have to practically hammer people on the head to get the simplest of points across.