HBO
Generation Kill

Warning: in this review, I ramble a bit, so if you're interested in the gist, feel free to skip the first two paragraphs and start reading directly from the third. Regardless, I strongly advise anyone against continuing with the reading.

Although as a youngster (even though, in truth, even today the hair that's supposed to now cover my mature and virile cheeks appears rather timidly and in patches... could it be hormonal problems? but oh well, let's not digress...) I was somewhat obsessed with war-themed films and books (I would love to say it was solely for the sense of the romantic sublime and the horrific allure that war can evoke, but unfortunately, in my youthful ignorance, there was also that stupid epic and heroic fascination that conflict can exert on easily impressionable and malleable minds), with age and awareness, I have increasingly distanced myself from the genre, with some commendable exceptions, though in these latter cases it often involved films where war was more of a pretext to talk about something else. Even films or series that achieved significant success like "Saving Private Ryan," "Band of Brothers," and "The Pacific" did not captivate me nor convinced me 100%. Sure, the war was shown in a more brutal and raw manner, but there was always a certain underlying rhetoric. The war was perhaps shown without much embellishment, but presented as something ultimately right, like "a dirty job, but someone has to do it, and if they die, anyway, relatives and friends can always console themselves with the medal of valor and the pride that their son died fighting for their country and democracy, that we are the American crusaders led by God, and we kill the bad Japanese/Nazis/communists; and if there are some bad apples among us, these are isolated incidents because we are the best." But then again, from a director for the big audience like Spielberg, who is certainly not known for his sparing use of rhetoric in his films, much else could not have been expected, and it must be said that the average level was still quite high.

Instead, this "Generation Kill," published once again by the never too praised HBO and with the collaboration of the creators of The Wire (okay, it also involves a journalist from Rolling Stones, but it seems that even they occasionally produce something decent), turned out to be a real gem in the genre. It's a miniseries of 7 episodes, each about an hour long, which is based on the namesake book/report by Ewan Wright, who personally followed a battalion of Marines engaged in reconnaissance work, from the start of operations in Kuwait until their arrival in Baghdad. The primary goal, according to the programmers, was to achieve the utmost authenticity, almost a kind of documentary, which is why Marines who participated in the conflict at the time were involved in the production, a goal that seems to have been achieved given the abundant praise that has been lavished upon it.

As far as I can say as someone who fortunately has always been external to certain events, the style seemed, in any case, much drier and more essential than many films in the genre, battles are limited and never epic, and the life of the soldiers is shown, primarily made up of downtime and a great deal of boredom, the rhetoric is close to zero, and we don't witness any glorification of the armed forces, which are often shown in a not very flattering light (so much so that in America, there were numerous criticisms about the army being shown as too incompetent and not glorified as usual), especially regarding the higher ranks, but thankfully it doesn't fall into the opposite cliché of the soldier=psycho jerk and/or killing machine; instead, the Marines are described as mostly regular young men, maybe a bit naive and ignorant. The enemy is no longer a mere soulless target to kill, although, of course, the described viewpoint is still from the Yankee perspective, but in general, there is also some focus on the Iraqi people who are mostly depicted as victims of events rather than a nation of fanatical backward terrorists.

While here on DeBaser, this series is not likely to stir up controversy as it might have in its homeland, nor to enlighten anyone on the road to Damascus, as I imagine the average DeBaser reader will only see their impressions confirmed here (perhaps even finding it too moderate and biased), I can only recommend this yet another hit from HBO, which nonetheless offers a plausible viewpoint on an event of our recent history and succeeds in entertaining excellently, thanks in part to a fair amount of humor throughout (which might seem out of place or disrespectful at first glance, but I personally did not find it so, but rather it reinforces the tragicomic nature and irrationality that often characterize war), like the soldier who justifies mistakenly killing camels by saying he actually aimed at people. In short, I'm not telling you to binge-watch the entire series in two days like I did, but if you have some time (and as already mentioned, since there are only seven episodes, it doesn't require much), have a look, and I'm fairly confident that you might enjoy it.