Generation Kill

Ed Burns and David Simon, creators of The Wire, were the minds behind HBO’s latest war epic miniseries, Generation Kill, based on a book written by an embedded journalist in Iraq. I had a bit of difficulty getting into the series. I had high expectations after seeing The Corner and The Wire, but for some reason I watched the third episode about 4 times before I got all the way through it. I think a lot of this had to do with the fact that the subject matter is quite familiar due to the documentaries, books, articles, and movies that we have been inundated with over the last half dozen years. It also had something to do with my inability to connect or empathize with any of the main characters for those first three episodes. They characters portrayed seemed to embody all the stereotypes I had come to formulate about the military: ignorant, racist, uneducated, poor, etc…I think some characters who displayed more positive aspect of the military man began to emerge as these characters had devotion to each other, critical thought, wit, intelligence, and confidence in their decisions and ability to lead by example. The incompetent officers and their foolish decisions also became a core theme in the film. The dialogues acting and production values again were top-notch like any HBO production. In the end I came to respect the production , but it adds to the growing dismay at how little thought was put into invading and occupying Iraq, and how so many factors seems to exacerbate the situation with no end in sight.