Marines give new HBO series positive reviews - Marine Corps News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Marine Corps Times

Marines give new HBO series positive reviews

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. — Marine Corps, meet the Marine Corps.

With free cups of popcorn and soda in hand, a few hundred people — Marines, mostly — settled in at the base theater last week and belted out some hearty laughter during playful scenes and raunchy tirades among the men of a platoon of recon Marines depicted in the first two episodes of HBO’s newest miniseries, “Generation Kill.”

There also was silence, at times, as an intense firefight and scenes of dead Iraqis, even a child, played on the movie theater screen during the July 9 showing, provided as free entertainment by the cable network. Several cast members, including a few real Marines, attended the preview, billed as an unofficial, not-command-supported event.

The details, both large and small, were all very familiar to most of the leathernecks who’ve spent at least seven months — if not accumulated years — in the sandbox with their weapons in Condition 1. Some who attended the preview appreciated the attention to the minutiae that the producers, writers and military advisers tried to recreate of a combat environment.

A packet of Skittles candy on the dash of a Humvee, for instance, is something that Cpl. David Bade can relate to quite well.

Bade, a 20-year-old heavy equipment operator, has chalked up a combat tour in Iraq. While he wasn’t even in high school when the 2003 invasion depicted played out, some Marine things — the hurry up-and-wait, the jokesters in the unit, the absurd fixation on appearance rules, the adrenaline rush under fire — are universal and somewhat timeless.

This includes the portrayal of the Marines pressuring the embedded reporter, Rolling Stone writer Evan Wright, to join them in a popular infantryman past-time, a pinch of smokeless tobacco. Wright joins in, and during a suspected gas attack, swallows the wad after he struggles to don the gas mask and protective suit.

Such moments provide levity for the stressful, anxious moments in combat. “It’s like, ‘Oh, he’s going to puke! He’s going to puke!’” said Bade, relaying his own experiences with tobacco newbies. “The first time they chew, they always swallow it.”

Other scenes, like the cacophony of Top 40 pop songs and oldies belted out by the men in the platoon’s vehicles, have that “been there, done that” familiarity.

Lance Cpl. Tyler Bliss said he loved how the series captured the story of the Marines during what was a historic push into Iraq and up toward Baghdad. Bliss, 21, called it “a road trip.”

Sgt. Gregory Lunsford, also a veteran of a combat tour, said he and his Marines, most who went to war with personal iPods and other music players, weren’t too picky about what they sang.

“Just whatever we had,” said Lunsford, 22. “I think it is a pretty good-hearted portrayal … it’s all good fun.”

While Lunsford and Bliss said they weren’t aware of the back story about how the HBO series came to be, Bade had already read Wright’s book, “Generation Kill,” published from three articles he wrote about his month embedded with 1st Reconnaissance Battalion’s Bravo Company.

“I know a lot of Marines who read it in Iraq,” Bade said.

It’s unclear how the American viewer will relate and react to the seven-part series, airing on the cable network during July and August.

Writers and producers said they tried to avoid the politics of the war and instead focus on the human story, the Marines’ story.

“It’s the perspective of E-5s and below,” Wright said. “I hope that this doesn’t have politics in it. The focus is on these guys.”