So aye, saying - if the soldiers are as happy to be journalists as the journalists are to be soldiers, then what need is there of the Evan Wright’s of this world? This is the question Generation Kill subtly poses, and answers, of course, by existing.
“Look, fuck that” says St Talbot reading over my shoulder. “Is the Goddamn thing any good or is it not is all that I want to bloody know!”
“It is” I tell him, jabbing at the Save As…, thinking of that grim, handheld Greengrass-aping aesthetic, itself engaged in some sort of dialogue with those cameraphones thrust all roads and directions. Thinking of how astounding those performances were. Thinking of how funny it was, but how wrenching and harrowing also (it’s all in the dead-eyes - that inexplicably eerie sequence involving the shell-shocked soldier wandering aimless about the roadside; that shot of the father carrying his daughter’s bloodied, broken body; the close, those faces turning away from the images on the laptop screen - the power of those moments, of all of them, from the dead-eyes derived every time).
“It is any good. Bloody brilliant is what the damn thing is, matter of fact, if you must know what it is, is bloody brilliant.”
Thanks, folks.
View the Generation Kill trailer.
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Article comments
1 - El Bicho
ah, a duke by any other name...
what I found intriguing about the show is how during the fog of war everyone seems to being engaged in a war of their own. sure, there are frequent intersections, but never for too long. the actor who played Capt. America seemed to revel in his character's unadulterated jackassery.
now, go rent The Wire
2 - Aaron McMullan
Sir Bicho, i have promised to myself if no-one else that i will finally get to The Wire sometime in the next couple months. Also, I'm intrigued no end by - The Corner, is it called? The pre-Wire drug dealer number? But one thing at a time, and any Thing involving Steve Earle is always going to be the priority.
The private wars - yes, that struck me also, and what it arrived on the back of - the sense of each individual being absoloutely, totally removed from the ernormity of what they were doing - that was often fairly terrifying.
Few more chilling scenes have I spied in these past whiles, for example, than that in which the Whopper Jr. business was explained.
3 - El Bicho
The Corner is very good as well, and less of a time commitment. A year on the streets of Baltimore that will no doubt take the wind out of your sails from a devastating gob-smack as the last episode hits the final sequence before the credits.
re: the removed from the enormity bit. I think what that comes from is how can any training prepare them for what they find. They have to step back to protect themselves rather than risking becoming part of the chaos that surrounds them.
A scene that sticks with me is when they are in Baghdad and the solider tries to fire a warning shot at the oncoming car. brutal.
4 - Mary K. Williams
Well Duke - your Priest would be all over my --- if he knew that I too, have never seen The Wire. Nor Generation Kill for that matter.
Although your views on the latter are as entertaining as always - hilarious even - I have no inclination to see either project.
Now, El B - don't yell at me! : )
5 - Aaron McMullan
Sir Bicho - that sequence stuck with me also, although the one that has blazed the fiercest is the encounter with that shell-shocked soldier wandering half-mad about the roadside. An instance of What The Hell Are We Doing puncturing the fugg amidst the fog, to fairly devestatin effect.
Sir Mary - maybe we could set up a support group of some kind for such lamentable cases as we. On the Facebook - Dammit I Have Never Seen The Wire Just Yet! Who would be brave enough to join us? A rare one indeed.
6 - Aaron Fleming
Excellent, and welcome Aaron McMullan to the world of blogcritics. A young chap such as yourself, with energy such as your own, and a pen razor-sharp and inked with mighty imaginative insight, will fit in quickly and without obstacles to the ways of BC. Always good to discover fellow northern irish writerly folks, especially ones living out their lives in London, contributing to this dear site. We must get together some time to discuss our common neglect of the Wire. Are you familiar with the Salisbury on Green Lanes, perchance?
7 - Aaron McMullan
Heh, well thank you Sir Fleming, and do you know this, i HAVE encountered that tavern - many's the squad o' holligans - googleigans - i have encountered therein. i dare say we could show them a thing or two about what Sister Act was called in Mexico, them crowd.