I have been watching some series and revisiting film on a certain theme. I stumbled across the HBO series “Generation Kill” yesterday and was so impressed by its gritty nature, its absence of non-diegetic music. I’ll have to say, I love that, especially for something as irreal as war. The series does well in portraying absurdities, surrealities, mindblowing military protocols and formalities in the running, executing, and justifying of the war machine in Iraq. The series is focused on a group of highly trained marines who must experience and encounter everything as it comes while attempting to maintain some semblance of sanity even if that sanity is the kind that has been proferred them by their ranking superiors. Apparently, the series received high praise from marines for its accuracy. It also made me think of “Apocolypse Now” though there is more invention in the Coppola interpretation of Vietnam with its incorporation of Joseph Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness.” Below is an interesting podcast critiquing Coppala’s project. In it is also a discussion of “distance killing” which is something I began to question when I dated someone midlife who was involved in this kind of warfare in the Middle East. I wrote an autofiction piece about our dating experience which I then subbed to a journal, but then withdrew it when I realized it needed more work. I am puzzling through some of this stuff, something to think about during so many things going on in our world. Cheers, good people, on this Monday. Peace.
War in literature and film
23 Monday May 2022