An in-depth examination of HBO’s powerful 2008 mini-series
In the distance, there is a small hamlet – one small portion of civilization in the middle of a vast desert. You lay on your stomach peering through a spotting scope, observing these mud structures for any movement. The hardened berm you watch from is littered with broken rock that jabs into your body; still, it is a welcome change from the cramped hummer you’ve been riding in for hours on end. The slight breeze, albeit warm, helps to break up the waves of heat radiating off of the sun-baked sands. You squint as a grain of sand is blown into your eye and re-adjust the ever-heavier Kevlar helmet that has slowly slid forward over your brow. In the distance, birds are singing and the laughter of children comes from the structures you have been watching.
The serenity is broken, “We’ve had eyes on the village for over one hour now, there are seven women and children, no adult males, no sign of the men who fired those mortars. How copy?”
Sergeant Brad Colbert demonstrates just one of the reasons why he has been nicknamed “Iceman” by his fellow marines, as he calmly radios in the status of the village. Colbert’s reputation was earned in Afghanistan and he stands to be one of the most respected men in the company of reconnaissance Marines.
The radio crackles, “This is Hitman-2, Solid copy.”
The smell of some sort of baked concoction gets caught in a gust of wind. Colbert turns around and expresses his concern, when he finds Corporal Josh Ray Person attempting to make cookies out of left-over creamer and peanut butter packets; fearing the RTO may burn his face as he had done weeks ago at Camp Matilda just before the Marines broke through the Iraqi border.
As Person offers some sort of clever retort, most likely fueled by his overconsumption of “uppers” known as “Ripped Fuel,” your attention is directed back to the songs of birds and laughter of children. A reporter, embedded as part of an assignment for Rolling Stone Magazine inquires about the possibility of Republican Guard insurgents in a small cluster of trees in the background. Colbert calmly assures him, “I’m confident in the birds.” The reporter stares on confused, a private kneeling at your side pipes up after a pause, “Anything moves in those trees…Birds don’t sing.”
Once again, attention shifts back to your spotting scope and onto the hamlet. Three children dance around as a couple of older women dust what look like rugs outside of their huts. A large screech screams towards the Earth, piercing your ears. It’s only a fraction as deafening when compared to the explosion that follows. The small grouping of buildings has completely disappeared in a cloud of dust, no evidence left standing of what was.
“Did we call it!?”
A sense of confusion and panic fills the air.
“Godfather called it in, it was a thousand pounder,” Doc Bryan, a navy corpsman accompanying the marines during the invasion, mutters having heard the call over the radio. “We had enemy mortars fire at us from somewhere near that hamlet, maybe inside.”
Colbert sounds like he is out breath as he tries to keep his calm in front of the men.
“The bad guys shoot and scoot, by the time we hit back they’re gone,” a disgruntled private exclaims.
Standing up, bearing the trademark two-thousand-yard stare, Colbert sounds exasperated, “I’m not the one who asked the enemy to mix in with the civilian populous and use ‘em as cover to attack us.” This is not the first time, or the last that Colbert will have to try to understand, and positively convey the poor decisions of his superiors
n 2008, HBO released the mini-series Generation Kill, based on Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright’s book of the same title. Directed by the creators of the hit show The Wire, the series follows the United States Marine Corps First Reconnaissance Battalion, Bravo Company during the Invasion of Iraq. The seven-part series is a must-watch, even if you aren’t a military, history, or war-drama fanatic. Generation Kill provides an in-depth look at several controversial aspects of modern-day warfare, several of which can be found in scenes such as the one previously described.
The scene shows the miscommunications which would result in the death of thousands of civilians during Operation Iraqi Freedom. The destruction of the hamlet, a scene that is no longer than two-and-a-half minutes, shows the stress and guilt that plagued the Marines – soldiers who were trained to kill from the day they joined the corps. However, the death of innocent civilians takes its toll as it becomes a reoccurring event during the invasion. Yet, it is arguably that the stupidity and ignorance of those in command of the Marines has the biggest impact. A range of “higher ups” continually send the members of Bravo Company on dangerous and, at times, completely unessential missions – most of which get cancelled or altered in their early stages. While the death of the innocent and the stupidity of command will leave the viewer upset, disappointed and frustrated, it is the portrayal of the soldiers themselves and the tale of these men that sets Generation Kill apart from the rest.
The Marines of First Recon are highly trained to observe and come the time kill without hesitation; the viewer comes to know what the men who see themselves as, a part of the “warrior society,” deal with the day to day struggles of combat. One of the most memorable characteristics of these men is their sense of humour and opinions. They vary from soldier to soldier; some are relatable, some hilarious, and some are crude enough to make those with the darkest sense of humor cringe. Yet as the series progresses it becomes apparent that dark humour and unpopular opinions are often the way that the soldiers deal with the stresses of war. These stresses are not only contributed to by civilian casualties and the stupidity of superiors but also the unpredictability of insurgent warfare.
The events depicted in Generation Kill will leave the viewer laughing at witty banter and farfetched concepts of the marines, enraged by ignorance, and, at times, in complete disbelief, as you have to remind yourself that these events actually happened (and are documented by numerous sources). Yet, what may stand out the most, especially for our generation of teens, 20-year-olds, and 30-somethings is the fact that Bravo company arrived in and left Iraq with 65 men, experiencing only a hand full of injuries and no deaths. We have grown to expect cinematic portrayals of war ending with the death of one too many of the characters that the story revolves around. Generation Kill shows that, in modern combat, the losses are not always felt in the death of fellow soldiers, but in the loss of innocence in their surrounding environments.