Musings

You know how some people have an addictive personality, where they get immediately addicted to any substance that is the least bit addictive? Well, I think I have an obsessive personality. I get obsessed with things quite easily. Luckily they only last a short time, anywhere from a few days to a few weeks, and I realize it and can manage it somewhat, but it's kind of annoying, mostly to my roommate I'm sure, since she has to listen to me go on and on about whatever I'm obsessed with at the moment. Mostly my obsessions deal with hot guys, movies, TV shows, books, concepts, ideas, possible careers, well okay pretty much anything. I only ever have one at a time, and my current obsession is "Generation Kill".

To be honest, it's a damn good show and well deserving of an obsession. The dialogue is HILARIOUS, and most of it is legit, what was actually said by the actual people at the actual time. For any of you out there who have managed to miss the media blitz of information about it, Generation Kill is a 7-part HBO miniseries adaptation of Evan Wright's book of the same name. It's an account of the role played in the invasion of Iraq by this one particular battalion, First Recon. Which apparently is some sort of hot-shot special forces Marine division.

Based on everything I've read, the show is very accurate down to the smallest details. As part of my obsession I ordered the book from Amazon and inhaled that in less than two days, so I can tell you that at least the show is extremely accurate to Wright's account in his book, right down to the dialogue. And every episode has at least one fantastic quote that cracks me up every time I think about it. It tends to be alternately hilarious and horrifying, which in itself is disturbing.
Although, as funny as it is, I always feel strange laughing, because this really happened. These were real people living through these real events, and those kids that were vaporized when the bomb was dropped on them really died. It seems morbid, macabre, and just plain wrong to be laughing, even when there's a joke, because the situation was as serious as it gets. A recap I read said it best; "this makes a much better TV show than it does real life."

It's a strange paradox; watching something that is clearly entertainment and was designed to entertain people, but is also more than that, it's a moment in the lives of these people, who really did these things and spoke these lines, which weren't lines to them but simply comments. It must be a really strange experience for Rudy Reyes, who is actually playing himself. How do you "play" yourself? How much is just being yourself and how much is acting? He's speaking lines that were taken from things he actually said. How existential is that?

I also think that this is an important thing for Americans to see, because the producers pull no punches. They show both the good AND the bad, and don't try to explain or apologize, they just show it. For myself, I had no idea that most of this had happened; I was a senior in high school preparing for graduation, a school trip to Spain, and then college while all this was happening. I couldn't have cared less about what was happening half a world away, other than generally knowing that it was happening. Right now I think that I had an appalling lack of concern about world events, especially considering one of my other, ongoing, obsessions: the media and news in general. But I'm going off the subject: what I meant to say was that I didn't really know what had happened, or any of the details of the invasion. I HAD NO IDEA that it was this bad, that these things had happened, that this many people had died. Or that the sheer incompetence was so mind-boggling. And I would guess that most Americans didn't know either, or care even if they did know, as it happened to other people in another place. This show, by providing us with faces and names, makes it real to us. And that's important.

Sure, Hollywood undoubtedly left its touch on the purity of the show, making easy themes and right-versus-wrong clearer than they would be in real life, but they also did a good job showing how insane things get in war and how hard choices sometimes have to be made. They also showed how the military is a bureaucracy at heart, and bureaucracies make mistakes. A lot. Now don't get the idea that I'm one of those flag-waving, blind support of the military type of people, because I'm the opposite, I'm a complete liberal, I don't believe in violence or war. But really, what this show comes down to is this: people are people. Just that, nothing more. Some are good, some are bad, most can be both. Sometimes good people do bad things and sometimes bad people do good things. Sometimes stuff just happens. Life is all about choices. People can do good things if they simply make that choice to. And that, I believe in.

I'm going to leave you with a few of my favorite quotes from the six episodes there have been so far. I have a somewhat wacky sense of humor and I found a lot of the dialogue from this show to be freakin' hilarious.

"You gotta respect the pajama."
--Brad Colbert

"It was the enemy who stole your food from you, and you should be REALLY REALLY mad at them! Before we step off on this next mission, I'm reminding you of who your enemy is: the enemy!"
--Encino Man

Innapropriatin' your chemical filtration device by attemptin' fornication wi' it?! Jeee-sus, do I have to tell you not to DEE-secrate your mask with PER-VER-sions?"
--Sixta

"Fuck that. You can fuck with me all you want but do not, I repeat, do not fuck with my men. I'm putting it down, Gunny. You picking it up?"
--Nathan Fick

Encino Man: "We all know how much the men look up to you. I'd like to know what you're thinking."
Doc Bryan: "I don't think so, sir."
Encino Man: "Doc, this is your chance to get a little something off your chest."
Doc Bryan: "You asking me to speak frankly sir?"
Encino Man: "Yes! Well..."
Doc Bryan: "Well sir, it's just that you're incompetent, sir."
Encino Man: "I'm doing the best I can."
Doc Bryan: "It's just not good enough, sir."

"Goddamn Baptista! How the fuck would he like it if I joined the Brazilian Marines and only spoke English!"
--Ray Person

Christeson: "Q-Tip, what the fuck?"
Q-Tip: "I had to get medieval on his ass!"
Christeson: "What is it?"
Q-Tip: "Don' know. It's got fur, four legs, a little bit of meat."

"Bad news is, we don't sleep tonight. Good news is, we get to kill bad guys."
--Nathan Fick

Person: "I'm on the Nevada, Missouri Wal-Mart Wall of Heroes. Even got my dress blues on."
Colbert: "If my mother ever distributed my likeness without written authorization I would disown her."

"Gentlemen, we just seized an airfield. That was pretty fucking ninja."
--Brad Colbert

"I knew you were a fucking gay-ass liberal. You tried to pretend by invading Iraq with us, but I knew!"
--Ray Person