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Friday, July 29, 2005
TV Reviews From Those Who Have Been “Over There”
Image (C) 2005 FX Networks, LLC.
Evidently, the FX network (a sister station of Fox) has an “epic original series” called Over There, which is a dramatization of the Iraq War. It debuted last night. I will ignore, for now, the horrid forbodings it offers for the forthcoming Oliver Stone 9/11 movie, and just relate the story of how Over There was screened for actual Iraq War soldiers, and the unanimous reaction it got: disgust.
A few choice quotes from the real heros who were given a chance to see the show at Camp Murray in Washington state:
“They make us look like idiots. We’re not idiots!” a first lieutenant exclaimed after seeing the TV depiction of soldiers’ reactions to an I.E.D.
“Bogus” was the preferred adjective among the eight soldiers.
“Thank God that’s over,” said a master sergeant as the credits rolled.
“In real life, training takes over. Not in Hollywood,” said Sgt. Dan Purcell.
The flags on the trip wires got an “F”: roadside bombs in Iraq are typically hidden in watermelons, hay stacks, animal carcasses — not marked for easy viewing. “A flag to mark an i.e.d.? What is that — like ‘don’t land here’?”
“You do not, under any circumstances, pull off on the side of the road. You stop in the middle.”
One [soldier screening the show] said a young soldier [on the show] who brags about slitting the throat of a child sentry “makes us look like murderers.”
Master Sgt. Jeff Clayton complained that cameras deliberately dragged out the death scenes of Iraqi insurgents after a firefight, lingering unnecessarily on the carnage. “It made me sick.”
The Camp Murray soldiers dismissed the military firefights as “bull–- ” (“Where is the air support? Where is the armor support?”)
And where, soldiers asked, were the scenes of soldiers building schools, Iraqi kids waving American flags?Thanks to Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter M.L. Lyke for writing this story.
UPDATE: Military bloggers are weighing in: The Indepundit, John @ Argghh, Commander Salamander, and Blackfive. Read the comments at Blackfive.
Posted on July 29, 2005 12:31 PM. Permalink 