Like in The Wire, I feel like it’d be safe to say that in Generation Kill we are also looking at the power dynamics in a specific ‘community’. The diversity of emotions pertaining to the situation in Iraq is amazing and sometimes disturbing to watch.
But are we told the same message that maybe there is no hope in fighting whatever it is we’re fighting? In The Wire corruption existed on both the police force and in the drug and black community focused on. But from both sides we were characters that, at least from their point of view, were fighting for what seemed to make most sense in their own world.
So is it comparable for this show? The power dynamics in Generation Kill are so interesting: so many people in high positions simply screw up, make the wrong decisions, or blame problems on others. The situation in episode 2 dealing with the lack of battery supplies for the marines was very strange for me–I would think that in any situation that enough supplies wouldn’t ever be squandered for men/situations that didn’t need them. The show brings to light how so many glaring problems in the military go unseen by others.
The scene from episode 1 that really disturbed me was how the men responded to the letters they received from children in the United States. The foul way they talked about the little girl and her letter was kind of shocking. At least based on pop-culture depictions of people in the military, I was aware it was a hyper-masculine environment, but not the point of suggesting having sex with a pre-pubescent little girl.
Many of the men shown simply don’t care for the war, and many thirst to kill. I feel like the show really doesn’t try to ‘teach’ the audience anything, which is refreshing–but in the show’s aim in trying to be realistic, does it show a bleak situation that has no hope of being truly resolved?
3 responses to “Same message as in The Wire?”