Generation Kill: Difference between revisions

This complete lack of political correctness in favor of realism is a major cause of criticism for both the book and series. Negative reactions tend to be [[Ripped from the Headlines|questioning of the material's validity]] at best, and accusations of it being [[But It Really Happened!|anti-military, biased and fabricated]] at worst. The miniseries DVD extras include a discussion with the real Marines, during which this phenomenon is brought up: Ray Person tells a story about meeting people who, despite his own ability to validate the material, refused to believe American serviceman would even swear so much, while Gunnery Sergeant Colbert hypothesized that this mindset among some viewers might be traced back to the tendency of older war movies to depict war as more civilized and glamorous to the point where it's become a case of [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]. The author himself has spoken out against media trying to use the book and miniseries as anti-military.

 

 

See also: Michael Herr's book, "Dispatches", also by a Rolling Stone contributor about the [[Vietnam War]] for a similar POV.

 

* [[As Himself]]: Sgt. Reyes. He was slated to be played by someone else, but the actor became ill.

{{quote|"Engage those buildings... [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}UhGIFLWadEU Move into position!] '''Engage ENGAGE!!! [[Leeroy Jenkins|FOLLOW MY TRACERS!]]'''"<br />

"He's shooting at scraps of metal."<br />

** [[The Sixth Ranger]]: Corporal Walter Hasser

** [[Mentors|The Mentor]]: Lt. Nathaniel Fick

** When Sergeant Major Sixta is reprimanding Pappy about his mustache the second time around, another Marine can be seen goosestepping in the background in a Nazi Salute, to mock Sixta, and to remind Pappy that the 'Hitler 'stache' that he wears falls within the grooming standard

** Random marines quoting [[The Big Lebowski]] when Encino Man is informed by his Marines that they consider him a woefully incompetent leader.

** Manimal dropping a box of grenades, followed by a Marine yelling that "This is why we can't have nice things!"

** Rudy taking a run in full combat gear while Marines cheer him on, urging him to [[Join the Army They Said|"slay that dragon"]].

* [[Glamorous Wartime Singer]]: Woefully subverted. While Person has dreams of being a rock star, in the miniseries, if they sing, they suck. Played a little more straight with Cpl. Walter Hasser in the book, who apparently has a wonderful country music singing voice (and doesn't like to sing!).

* [[Genghis Gambit]]: Sixta is smarter than he appears; he knows exactly how ridiculous it is to keep harping on the Marines for the grooming standard, and not only does he do it so they can hate him as an outlet, he has Gunny Wynn tell him when moral drops so he can time it right.

* [[Gratuitous Spanish]]: Actually Portuguese. Sgt. Baptista is a Brazilian immigrant and during times of stress he unconsciously starts radio chattering in his native tongue, which drives the other Marines crazy.

{{quote|'''Person:''' "Goddammit Baptista! How would he like it if I joined the ''Brazilian'' Marines and only spoke English?" }}

** Ray after Rudy checks him too hard during the football game. Rudy's response is to BSOD ''even worse''.

** Subverted the first time Trombley kills someone. For a second, he ''looks'' like he's about to BSOD, but then:

* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]] - [[The Wire|Ziggy]] and [[True Blood|Eric]] were marines and Captain America went to military school with [[Malcolm in the Middle|Francis]] - and the reporter is no other than Beecher from Oz.

** Person needs [[Twilight|Emmet Cullen]] move the fucking Humvee.

** All of the combat footage seems to be taken from real life tactics and methods, with the outlandish stuff actually occurring, such as Trombley exposing himself without regard for his own life to find a AAA gun trained on the humvee column, or Person getting out of his humvee in the middle of an ambush to yell at the various column drivers to back up and get out of the kill zone.

** The show possibly has tracer rounds used accurately, too; that is, the tracer rounds are only every couple of bullets, with rounds you can't see going out in-between them. Military fiction practically never gets this right.

** In an interview, Wright confessed that he wasn't so much concerned about shooting a civilian as he was about causing all the Marines to shoot at something that wasn't a target (his potentially accidental gunshot setting off a full-fire from the rest of the platoon). Apparently he never even kept his finger near the trigger to avoid it.

** There's also the old man at the end of a refugee column who gets killed when a Marine fires off a 40mm smoke grenade to warn off a passing car, only for the grenade to ricochet off the pavement and into the back of his head so hard it looks worse than a gunshot wound.

* [[Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy]]: In contrast to the hyper-competent shooting of the Marines, the Iraqis can't seem to hit the ground with their hat. Probably explained by the fact that most of the regular army had retreated or deserted, and the fighters the Marines encountered were [[We Have Reserves|little more than cannon-fodder]].

* [[Insufferable Genius]]: Brad Colbert has shades of this trope, usually condemning religion and the desire to have children, he has a [[Freudian Excuse]] though

** "Captain America" whose activities include hoarding Iraqi fallen goods, spazzing out on comms about being attacked by every little thing, abusing prisoners, demanding the Marines shoot something or someone at random, shooting at random people when in the convoy, and freaking out at the slightest problem.

** "Encino Man" whose claim to fame includes attempting to order an artillery fire mission in which his men were right in the way (called "Danger Close"), but failing to do so because he didn't have the right protocols, and generally being distressed whenever anyone questions his orders. He actually tries to court-martial a few subordinates after they demanded that he not call in the artillery strike. The book doesn't specifically mention what happened as a result, but Encino Man was eventually removed from duty for another unrelated incident. Lieutenant Fick made Captain at some point between OIF-1 and leaving the Corps, so it's likely that no one took Encino Man or Casey Kasem very seriously in the long run.

{{quote|'''Cpl. Michael Stinetorf:''' "It was weird. In OIF-One I hated him. But as soon as he became our platoon sergeant, it was clear that tactically he knew his shit, he trained us really well, and he was definitely not afraid to fight. I really like the guy."}}

** In his own book, Nathan Fick explains why First Recon ended up with such incompetent officers. Recon is primarily intended to send small teams of highly-competent troops into enemy territory to perform recon missions. The company and battalion-level officers are primarily assigned to do organizational and logistics work, and were never really intended to command in the field. The enlisted Marines, NCOs, and platoon commanders are extremely well-trained and highly competent men who are supposed to operate mostly independently of battalion and company-level command. Thus, the book and series showcase what happens when you take a unit trained and organized for a specific mission and then use them for something completely different from their original purpose.

* [[No Good Deed Goes Unpunished]]: Every time the more reasonable marines try to deal with [[The Neidermeyer|The Neidermeyers]].

** In fact, they had to tone down some of the more bizarre shit that Captain America did. Yes, he was actually worse than what was portrayed in the mini series.

** Another notable example of excluding something on account of [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]; when {{spoiler|Pappy was shot in the foot}} and reported it by first referring to himself in the third person with his tongue planted firmly in his cheek, Doc Bryan started laughing because it meant he was okay. The laughter part isn't in the mini-series, because Wright was worried the audience wouldn't quite understand why someone would laugh, given the situation. The miniseries also left out the fact that during the bridge ambush, while Colbert was calmly gunning down enemy troops, he was singing. Yes, in the middle of a giant ambush, Colbert was quietly ''singing to himself''. There is a ''reason'' they call him the "Iceman." <ref>''Sundown'' by Gordon Lightfoot, in case you were wondering.</ref>

* [[Third Person Person]]: Lt. Col. "Godfather" Ferrando at times, sometimes with his surname and sometimes his nickname.

* [[Those Two Guys]]: Bravo Company commander Captain Craig "Encino Man" Schwetje, and his senior enlisted man Gunnery Sergeant Ray "Casey Kasem" Griego. Note that despite the show's assertion, Casey Kasem could have been either Ray Griego, or his brother Gunnery Sergeant Daniel J. Griego.

* [[Throw It In]]: An interesting case. The actor who was slated to play Sgt. Rudy Reyes became unavailable. In a stroke of genius, they hired one of their military advisers to play the role... Rudy Reyes himself.

* [[True Companions]]: The men of First Recon seem to be this, even accepting the reporter as part of their team. The reporter is a subversion; this type of character is usually the [[Butt Monkey]] to the far more badass troops he's around. This is how it ''starts,'' but it quickly switches around when he mentions having written for ''Hustler'', and his status in the close-knit group is further cemented when he stays after his first time being shot at instead of leaving immediately thereafter. In the book, Wright notes that he thought everyone hated him as early as Camp Matilda when Marines would start ambushing him around corners and poking him in the side with their knives; when he saw them doing it to each other as a way of passing the time, he realized it meant they were actually starting to like him.