From the team of David Simon and Ed Burns, the executive producers/writers of The Wire and The Corner, comes the 11-time Emmy-nominated Generation Kill on DVD and Blu-ray. The seven-part HBO miniseries is based on the book by Rolling Stone writer Evan Wright, which began as a three-part series of articles, the first of which went on to win a National Magazine Award for Excellence in Reporting in 2004. He details his time in 2003 embedded with the Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion during Operation Iraqi Freedom. While the deserts of the Middle East are half a world away from Simon’s normal milieu of the streets of Baltimore, the theme of individuals struggling within a bureaucracy is a familiar one in his work.
As the series begins Wright (Lee Tergesen) joins up with the Marines in Kuwait where he is assigned to ride in Bravo Company’s lead vehicle, which is commanded by Sergeant Brad “Iceman” Colbert (Alexander Skarsgård) and driven by wisecracking Corporal Josh Ray Person (James Ransone). The Marines aren’t thrilled about having to deal with Wright; they figure his left-leaning magazine will paint the soldiers in a bad light to its hippie readership. However as consolation, many of them enjoy the picture of Wright’s girlfriend.
Over the course of the seven episodes, which roughly covers the three months Wright was in the field, we witness the Marines’ journey as they invade Iraq and occupy the city of Baghdad. The days are filled with lethal action and relentless tedium, and they never know if the next Iraqi they meet wants to shower them with flowers or bullets. The fog of war affects their efforts, as does being poorly supplied.
On the front lines, they are constantly put at risk having to discover the correctness of decisions; some of which are made to impress higher-ups while others are no more informed than a coin flip. A few men question their superiors at different times, but this stems from losing trust in their superiors’ competence to adequately protect the men. As a result, two captains have been derisively nicknamed Encino Man and Captain America.
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