And everywhere, the Marine Corps' clarion call: " GET SOME!" In the US, early promo discs of the show were sent out with a 15-page glossary.Īs the First Reconnaissance Battalion of the United States Marine Corps thundered towards Baghdad in the opening days of the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, right at the very speartip of the first incursion, they were joined by embedded Rolling Stone journalist Evan Wright. Beyond the obvious, phonetic alphabet stuff ( OSCAR MIKE, FOOT-MOBILE), their lexicon extends from the prosaic ( BLUE/RED) and the functional ( CLEARED HOT), to the inventive repurposing of military tech talk ("Oh, he's a belt-fed motherfucker all right!"), and constant deployment of the simple, multi-applicable noun "ass"). But they share with their forebears a rich and detailed argot derived from battle, boredom, and bullshitting in barracks. They're fighting HAJIS, not gooks or krauts, and "global terrorism" rather than "godless communism" rice paddies and jungles give way to sandstorms and ancient Mesopotamian cities flamethrowers and grenades yield to RPGs, FIDDIES and JAVELIN anti-tank systems. They don't listen to Creedence they aren't getting loaded in their tents or fragging their lieutenants and, worst of all, there aren't any miniskirted hookers cooing, "Me love you looong time, GI!" Soldiers through the centuries may, at their core, remain the same but still, this ain't their daddies' war. This is the postmodern videogame/internet demographic, raised on Reaganism and post-1989 assumptions about American military power (underscored and amplified in the wake of 9/11), breastfed on MTV, YouTube and Fox News, born in peace, doomed to fight. In Generation Kill, the new Iraq war drama from the creators of The Wire, we get a state-of-the-(martial) art portrait of young men in a new war. Just as happens over and over again in Generation Kill, you can bet that Roman legionaries in Gaul and Spartan soldiers all at some point sat in their RACK or sentry posts, terminally bored after a hard day's killing, and bitched deep into the night about their "fuckin' pussy-retard officers". From the Peloponnesian war to the invasion of Iraq, the archetype endures, whether the warrior comes at you with a sling and a spear or an M-40 and a rocket-launcher. The longhorns affixed to the front of the Delta company humvee reminded me that there's not much customisation of vehicles going on (no Enola Gay-style pet names, no curvaceous women).Soldiers are soldiers always have been, always will be. And while we're on the subject, are Chef Boyardee products nice? Are they the Fray Bentos of North America? Who taught Person how to eat? First, he covers his cheeks in milkshake, then he lets the precious contents of a tin of Chef Boyardee flow down his chin. Yes, a promotion for Colbert it will be - unless they give Bravo to Captain America, too. Plus Godfather calls him by his first name. He may be the brass's biggest critic, but they don't know that yet. If the discontent with his refusal to tow the line does result in Fick's removal, I predict a promotion for Colbert. Another lesson from the bard (I know Simon doesn't like the Shakespeare comparisons, but still, it's a compliment), is that you don't make enemies of flatterers as Fick has done with Gunny. Lieutenant Fick is, of course, the counterpart to Captain America's madness, but there is surely the real possibility he will be stripped of his command in the final episode. I can believe that there are officers who let their subordinates and their mission down, but to do so while channelling Jim Carrey? Really? It's also unsettling for this viewer, though, as the character seems to border on caricature. The way he switches from fear to glee so quickly is unsettling for his men, disastrous for the victims of his recklessness and just another example from Simon and Burns of how institutions throw handfuls of grit into their own machine. The gurning, gleeful face he pulls at the beginning and the end of the show as he looks to traumatise (or worse) a captured enemy combatant is like that of a five-year-old child hopped-up on additives. In what I found the most disappointing episode of the series so far (Colbert's huff didn't convince, and Person's 90 click-per-hour version of a Shakespearean fool is beginning to grate), he very much took the biscuit. It takes a chance midnight encounter with Godfather - the lieutenant colonel appearing out of nowhere like the ghost of Hamlet's father, urging him to action - and the news of the mission to Baquba to raise him out of his funk. Colbert's chin is just about dragging across the floor for most of this episode, so disconsolate is he at the absence of the activity for which he signed up. Quite how well any marine would be suited to occupation is a subject for debate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |