This comment belongs in a museum

But I guess a pinned comment will have to suffice

Actually - no. Show very much does espouse messages about right or wrong, there ARE villains and heroes, and it IS very much "pro-troops" and thus indirectly "pro-war" propaganda - a common trick when direct propaganda can't be sold to the audience on account of making "us" come off as "the baddies". And "our troops" can't be the baddies! American Service-Members' Protection Act made sure about that, enshrining into law that an "United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government [are protected] against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court". So that whole thing about the Geneva Convention... fuck the Geneva Convention. US Congress sure did. Back in 2002. Just in time for a bit of the old "all is fair in war and war". Like torture of prisoners. The show still needing its villains they are recruited from the ranks of distant officers, bureaucracy, incompetent lower-ranked leaders, POGs and "the madness of it all". Even god. But not the troops, never the troops. When Trombley shoots and almost kills a child, our boys nearly stage a mutiny to get that child medical attention, standing up to their officers - Trombley is praised for being a stone cold killer for making that shot. Tragedy to comedy and our boys can do no wrong. By the end, even stupid cosmetic orders about grooming standards are shown to be wise and benevolent, keeping soldiers' hands from going idle. Meanwhile, Iceman having an obvious nervous breakdown is shrugged off and then celebrated with cans of Chef Boyardee and porn. Pee Tea aSs whom? Conspicuously absent are political or even directly military reasons for "the madness of it all". Or the parts of the book where "our boys" go off script - like praising socialism or pissing on the floors of Iraqi offices while trashing the office furniture and equipment. American soldiers can't act like animals. Or socialists. Or child molesters like Sixta. And those are the bits that made it through, after publisher's editing and the personal editorializing done by Evan Wright while writing. In comparison, his "Scenes from My Life in Porn" paints and image of men in said industry who are either monsters, morons or mindless zombies and women who are at best victims, but also idiotic and rather dehumanized sex objects. He makes a lot about personal failure to connect emotionally with actresses and even his girlfriend - all being infected by "the madness of it all", leaving him dazed and traumatized. Which makes you kinda wonder where's the similar shock when overexposed to death and war to that he felt when overexposed to porn. "Embedding journalists" was a propaganda technique designed to achieve exactly what it did - make you hate the game, but not the player. I.e. Hate the "madness of war" if necessary - but support the troops. Unquestionably. Cause as long as you do support the troops the war can go on just fine. And it did.

@@d3nza482 L take

Well said. People are people. Easy to say, "They're all heroes," and put their image up on a news network -or Walmart. But they are human after all. Marines. But still just humans, like you or me.

The best show ever put to screen showing what the military is like. Army infantry myself but I use this show as a prime example of what war is like and what its like being in the military. It's my go to when people ask what it's like being in the military.

just the radio chatter alone makes the series worth watching.

That’s awesome this was one of the shows that got me to join the military and I came in late I was 35 and didn’t think I would make the marines so I went Army and did so well and finished basic in 05 n was boots on the ground 06 in Sadr city talk about culture shock

We're grateful for your service, trooper.

write it for your family at least. it would be a shame for your personal experiences to go to the grave because 1RecBn took your story.

No lies detected 😂

@@brentsacks keep making vids man. This one is great - you're gonna make it big time. The ending is amazing...true to the show.

@@diekemperd omg thank you 😭

Would the show have to pay any royalties for just singing the songs acapella and not having the music?

Absolutely. So rich with meaning and subtext without floating it to the surface

You a smoker, sir? Nah, just lucky I guess.

when people ask what it was like being in the military, I tell them to watch this

05-09 here. Absolutely the same, tasteless jokes and all. It's a good representation while also being a "you had to have been there" moment. I still watch this from time to time to reflect.

Yup I was in 05 - 11 deployed 06 - 07 for the surge. This show is just so spot on. I think his selection of the turning the Iraqis back was a perfect representation of that type of a situation. A morally questionable scenario, bringing up the issue, and some young LT having to enforce whatever the stupid order from a BC was and then you dropping it and moving on. No one likes it but that's life in the military. Youre not a robot and no one ever expected you to be, unless you were a cherry private you were free to ask questions and even question an order, and then you went and did your job. That was a really well done scene.

08-12 here. I caught the tail end of this era in the military. Army started changing right as I got my DD214. Haven't looked back.

Wait I’ve never noticed that 😂 holy smokes that is amazing

😂

This was extremely common as the fine sand (referred to as moondust) would get everywhere and the last place you want fine particulate is inside your goggles

I'm very happy to hear it! Thank you for commenting!

100% Also what? How did you italicize that??

@@brentsacks Thanks for your work, the heart and comment/question. Use an underscore before and after the words and punctuation you intend to italicize. _Like this!_

I am not worthy

We're you in Iraq? We're you a marine too?

@@AndrewDangerously if that is directed at me, no, not a Marine and never got to deploy to the Middle East. At least, not yet.

This ☝🏻

It could pass as an article of stoic life philosophy if seen in that way.

😂

Stuff was dope. The bread was abysmal, but with some of thay queso? Almost edible. Just don't be surprised when ya get the Hershey squirts.

One kid got some jerky in a care package. Heard crunching in the night... God damn camel spider was chowing down on the bag. That was a fucking saga, boys.

@@KrusherMike I hate this

And even if you didn't like it yourself, it was so popular with everyone else that having it was like having a $50 bill to buy something off the other guys with.

Agreed. If more civilians saw Generation Kill then maybe this mess in Afghanistan would make more sense. Iceman is always trying to help the locals and the few times he ever complains is about the stupidity by U.S. that is going to lose the war.

no ied how blow up

He's not a civilian driving toward a coalition convoy in Iraq so he doesn't blow up yet.

Did you translate everything as very thankful to be liberated?

@@CrowDawg11 without a doubt!!

As I understand "Fruity" Rudy Reyes played himself, so at least one of the cast was. :^)

@@username12120 and some of the other Marines served as advisors and played bit parts even as professional actors played them on screen! Like Sgt Kocher

@@username12120 I'd forgotten all about that, but you're right!

I’ve never paid close attention to the lyrics, but of COURSE this was a perfectly chosen song!!

Thank you 🙏🏻 I appreciate this!

Did someone show my video in a film class??

Um, WHAT 😳😳😳

@@brentsacks yes my friend. Great video and thanks for posting. I'm very proud of this show and all my dear friends who worked on it with me. All the cast and crew are still close friends.

@@danthestuntman this is remarkable. I’m so stoked you watched this, and thank you for leaving a comment. GK is near and dear to my heart, so I’m glad the cast and crew keep in touch. This series was lightning in a bottle.

@@brentsacks I would do it all over again tomorrow. I look forward to watching more of your videos. Dan

I’ve seen it all the way through probably 8 times and read the book twice. I still pick up on things every time I watch it

It is quite good

It passes the time, brother! 🤣

If you are talking about Evan Wright, the Author of the book, the only reference I can find was this from an interview from Godspydotcom: "On October 6th, I went down to Camp Pendleton, to see some of the wives and friends of the Recon Marines I wrote about. The guys I wrote about were returning from Iraq, and they invited me to the homecoming. I went there and checked in to the base. I identified myself as a reporter, no problem. I go on the base, and a Marine from First Recon who worked in the supply unit, he actually had a couple of marines grab me, put me in handcuffs, twist my hands behind my back, and they threw me in the back of a car. But since I hadn’t done anything wrong they couldn’t arrest me. I asked him why he was doing this and he said “We don’t like what you wrote. We don’t like your book. We don’t like what you said about our officers.” He was out of control. You can’t do that to people. That was the only negative reaction. But what was funny was that a week later the base newspaper did a story about the book and called it a cool book." So either you are confusing it with someone else or you are misconstruing what happened.

@@leonardwei3914 If true it was probably that officer he made look like an idiot 😂

@@whatabouttheearth The real Sgt Espera said he got kick out of the core cause they thought he was a militant racist

@Dawn Soap White man's gotta rule the world, dawg

@@bulma12345678910 interesting choice of words

Agreed. Seen a lot of times, read twice 😂

Thank you so much! Glad you’ve enjoyed my stuff!

Thank you 🙏🏻

Some things never change

Thank you!! I appreciate it!

Thank you very much for this comment!!

@@Bakarost I’m glad you did too! I obviously really like it 😅

THANK YOU 🙏🏻 I agree; for my money, one of the best things ever put to camera.

Nah

Thank you 🙏🏻

Omg thank you 😭

Rah

Thank you for watching!

Thank you, and agreed! Love it when a show isn’t moralizing

Thank you for the kind words! And thank you for serving across the pond. Always appreciate the UK 🇬🇧

💯

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it!

100%. I'd be curious to hear more about this!

Tell your friends 😂 I need to make some more videos. Not enough hours in the day!

They reeled you in! 😂 I’m glad you watched it though, and thank you for watching and commenting! Once you know what the signs of realism are, you’ll see them all through the series 👍🏻

NEVER JOIN

Thank you! It’s true-hopefully now you have the vocabulary to articulate why that is 😁

Not a Jarhead myself (Put me out of my misery if I ever become one.), but I find this part of the series the best. The banter, the language, the feeling of brotherhood etc. are all traits that the series and the actors nailed perfectly and which makes this series realistic as hell. They really feel like the guys of a military unit.

What Marines fail to understand is that any experience they have in service isn't exclusive to the Marine Corps.

​​@@065Tim yeah the marines is literally the Army but with boats and having to wrar class a and b uniforms more often 😂 their DIs lied to them about them being special

I was in the army, and most of this miniseries was 90% accurate for us

@@CubeInspector being in the army myself, i'm honestly surprised the marines have the money to afford boats lmao

I’m glad you thought so! Hopefully a second viewing would be good!

Thank you!! 🙏🏻

Definitely a crazy cadre of officers

The rank-and-file soldier is always going to bitch that the officers are stupid usually because they don't have the same information. From what I understand is that the show is a bit hard on the officer's competency. The entire company was thrown together for that invasion, The Captain "Enicino Man" wasn't a combat officer but worked in intelligence so he wasn't really trained for the role he was in.

@@jasonscottjenkins this is correct. Usually the officers in the recon units are a mix of recon-trained officers and regular ones. And the battalions typically didn’t deploy as battalions with the whole staff of officers; normally they would deploy small teams to augment other units. So like you said, it was pretty thrown together and a lot of people were out of their depth

@@brentsacks They kinda let on that "Encino Man" was actually more capable/charismatic when they showed him with the men playing football at the end of the series. I think the Sgt. that hit him was mad that he didn't act like that out in the field but I don't know.

@@jasonscottjenkins That’s a very interesting perspective I hadn’t thought about. I always figured he hit him because he was acting like a tool. But like you said, he was also being aggressive and competent, which is good when you’re in combat

So I re-read the book a couple years ago, and they noted that the selection process for Recon Officers was not a prerequisite for getting assigned to the unit. So the really squared away guys like Fick and Captain Patterson had been through the Recon training, while some of the messed up guys were just picked up from wherever

The is not based on fiction. It is the written experience of the author, he was imbedded for Rolling Stones. He stands by his portrayal of all personnel in his book. And he has to, he was threaten to be sued by a couple of the actual officers. His stance; “well, I have the notes, the photos and the AUDIO TAPES”. The problem, back at Camp Pendleton, a majority of the officers did not participate in any active reconnaissance training after initial selection/assignment to recon btn. It was the SNCO’s that conducted training exercises and skill set improvements for the enlisted. Unfortunately for these Marines, the officers (and enlisted) portrayal in the film, is accurate as can be for a film. Can’t remember the author, but Google the title. There is a lot of information on the post effects of the book and movie. In a nutshell, the USMC officer corps found this portrayal disturbing, but also as a learning experience that they used going forward (supposedly). Also a lot of the enlisted got shitted on by USMC based on the book and movie. Careers were ended prematurely.

The other thing that was going on, based on Nate Fick's book, is that in years past First Recon Battalion had never deployed as a unit. It was always parcelled out as attachments to other units: a squad here, a squad there. (This makes a lot of sense when you remember that their mission is reconnaissance: you don't need a battalion to do sneaky scouty stuff, you need a few guys to do the scouting and then a bunch of other forces to use that information.) So the companies and the battalion were basically administrative formations, not combat units. Your company commanders needed to organize training exercises, deal with personnel issues, all that sort of thing... but they weren't expected or expecting to be combat leaders. And above the platoon level, they weren't necessarily selected to an elite standard. Captain America, whose "uncle is a colonel at CENTCOM," probably got sent there because it seemed like a cool assignment that would carry a little shine, but which he couldn't screw up too badly because he'd never be within ten miles of combat. But then for some reason the whole battalion was sent out in one package to drive humvees into Iraq, which turns into just as much of a shitshow as you'd expect.

Definitely not propaganda!!

As a GWOT vet.. this is by far the closest thing I’ve seen to what it was actually like. Whole thing was a shit show, and as young men it was easy to “stay flexible”

Great book

I didn’t know they’d written books!

@brentsacks I used "the corner" in work for the university two years ago. The book doesn't talk only about crime and drugs, talks about how the economy and the politics drive the city to this days.

Crazy times!

So good!!

Are you a podracer?

@@brentsacks used to be. I don't talk about those days though...

It’s so realistic that it actually hinders many potential audiences from fully enjoying it! One thing I love about it is they never stop to explain things to the audience. For folks not familiar with the military, it might prove too much. But because of this creative choice, it has this unshakable quality to it, this uncompromising commitment to realistically portraying what happened. It’s magnificent

I’m glad I could copy it from the Recon Marines and impart it to you 🙏🏻

@@brentsacks I'm the exact kind of motherfucker that experiences a lot of movies via video essay, wrote this comment before I saw the scene in the video lol.

Haha!! Fantastic

Definitely. You form bonds easily even with total strangers being a veteran

Spot on 💯 Where did you serve?

​@@brentsacks Austrian military, I was imbedded in a surveillence/fighter jet squadron as a military aircraft mechanic (assistant because we were mandatory recruits and aren't enlisted by contract). Great analysis btw and amazing video keep it up 🤙

@@c.robtoz7252 love to hear it, and thank you!

Absolutely

Great book! I forget if I read it once or twice 🤔

I love this. I was just telling my brother yesterday that it’s a roadtrip comedy. He still hasn’t watched it 😔

RAH

💯 What did you do when you were in?

@@brentsacks I was a ABH on a carrier. Basically a fancy way of saying I moved Jets around the deck and pushed a broom lol

@@Krieg-ch8ot I’m a fellow navy man myself 👊🏻

One of a kind. People compare it to Band of Brothers, which is one sense is similar, but the shows themselves are so different.

@@brentsacks Ive seen this comparison too. Tonally it couldnt be more different.

@@lonestarpiper4917 yep! And stylistically too

That is genuinely brilliant 😂 don’t know if I should laugh or cry

Same honestly

Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked by Cage the Elephant!

@@brentsacks Thanks, dude! I appreciate it!

@@villeandersson1487 of course! Enjoy it! Great album of theirs.

Thank you!! I don’t think I’ve heard of that one. I’ll add it to the list!

That is cool af. I always appreciated the little wink they give to the audience at the end of the show that seems to indicate he’s in on the joke, so to speak.

I’ve actually never heard a civilian complain that it’s unrealistic, but I definitely know people think it’s boring (because it’s TOO realistic!!)

Many such cases!

I can’t get any of my friends to watch it! 😂

@@brentsacks luckily a buddy of mine just so happened to have stumbled across it this year so I get like fresh eyes to talk to abt it

Never heard of this before, but looking at it, it looks good!

Fick is a solid leader. I'd follow him into battle.

💯 I reread the book a few years ago, and I forgot that _tons_ of the officers in the battalion didn’t go through/didn’t have to go through the basic reconnaissance course that all the enlisted do, which is part of why so many of them were grossly out of their depth. Traditionally, reconnaissance battalion didn’t deploy as a whole command, but in small teams where the officers weren’t required

(But Fick did go through it, as did Capt Patterson, hence their reliability!)

Absolutely

I suppose!

I would be curious to see a source for that claim, because the show covers the whole book.

I’m not sure I understand what you mean

Like much of the rest of the series, I love that scene because it's not broadcasting a message to you. You can make what you want of it. Each Marine has his own thoughts and feelings about the video and walks away for his own reason. Some in disgust, some in admiration, some out of boredom.

Remaster like release in 4K?

Haha sorry you didn’t like episode one. My guess is if you gave up halfway in, it probably wasn’t for you. But if you do watch my video at some point, it may give you an interesting perspective on how the show is made! I’ve had a few comments recently of people saying they want to watch it again with a new perspective, and they may end up liking it more. Maybe worth a shot!