A miniseries set during the Iraq war has been praised by US Marines for being one of the most “most accurate” portrayals of the soldier experience.
Generation Kill, an HBO show that aired in 2008, is based on Evan Wright’s book about his experience as an embedded reporter with the US Marines during the Iraq invasion in 2003.
It was nominated for several Emmys and a Royal Television Society Award, and won three Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards, a Golden Reel, and a Gracie Award.
The stellar cast features Alexander Skarsgard, Jon Huertas, James Ransone, and Lee Tergesen.
Ahead of filming, the actors were put through a six-day boot camp led by Eric Kocher and Rudy Reyes, known for his role in the Channel 4 reality show Celebrity SAS: Who Dares Wins.
Reyes was a sergeant in Bravo Company, 1st Reconnaissance Battalion and came on board the show as a military advisor, but it wasn’t long before he was cast as himself. Director Susannah White said in The Telegraph: “He’s like a unicorn. There is no one else in the world like him. So, we cast Rudy as Rudy.”
Wright, the journalist who joined the Marines, said the miniseries was different to the book as there was less context provided. However, he felt this was a good thing as it allows the audience to experience “action of the film in a way that’s much closer to the way we experienced it on the ground”. He told HuffPost: “In that sense the adaptation is more realistic than the book.”
The miniseries has an impressive rating of 8.4 out of 10 stars on IMDb after more than 62,000 reviews. One reviewer wrote: “As a US Marine I can pretty much relate to everything that went on in this series… From the banter among low ranks, to the stupid games we have to endure, to living in terrible conditions, it’s all here. To weapons jamming and MRE’s, this series really has it all.”
Another, who said they were a Marine who had been deployed to the same place, commented that the show did an “excellent job of capturing the ‘essence’ of what the invasion of Iraq was like to the men who were there”.
They added: “This show comes closer to accurately portraying wartime Marines than any other show I’ve ever seen. I think this is as close as Hollywood can get short of being there and filming it live.”
A third posted: “As a marine who was part of OIF/OEF & the invasion and crossed paths with and personally knew members of the Force Recon unit profiled, it’s one of the most accurate wartime movies I’ve ever seen! Absolutely perfect to the smallest detail!”
Generation Kill is available to rent on Apple TV.