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Review: ‘Generation Kill’

From its opening salvos, “Generation Kill” is raw. That’s probably the best way to describe HBO’s new seven-hour miniseries, which focuses on the Marines of 1st Reconnaissance Battalion as they invade Iraq from Camp Mathilda, Kuwait, at the beginning of the war in 2003.

Based on a book of the same name, the story told by embedded Rolling Stone reporter Evan Wright pulls no punches in showing a grunt’s-eye view of the opening days of the war.

Vulgarity, racist jokes and misogyny are a part of life. Equipment shortages dog the unit. And its members are tasked with so many unconventional missions that team leader Sgt. Brad “Iceman” Colbert (Alexander Skarsgard of “Zoolander” fame) wonders why highly trained recon Marines have been dropped into the middle of a “demolition derby” if they’re truly the finely tuned sports cars of the Corps.

Like any good television series, “Generation Kill” is about characters such as Colbert, who share devotion and camaraderie that is immediately apparent, as viewers make the bloody trip from Mathilda to Nasiriyah to Al Kut and beyond. Unlike many television series, however, most of these characters are real people.

About 20 Marines play a central role in the series, running for seven weeks beginning July 13 on Sunday nights, including Gen. Jim Mattis (Robert John Burke of “Gossip Girl”). Some of its best moments come from the Marines that Wright (Lee Tergesen, best known for HBO’s “Oz”) was closest to: those in his own Humvee.

There’s Colbert, the adopted son of a rich couple who chooses to go to war despite the privilege his life offers. There’s Cpl. Josh Ray Person (James Ransone, formerly of “The Wire”), the wisecracking Humvee driver who won’t shut up once he’s hopped up on Ripped Fuel. And there’s Lance Cpl. Harold “James” Trombley (“The Black Donnellys”), who itches for his first combat kill — and later kills two Iraqi children and their camels, causing an uproar.

In the midst of it all, there is incredible attention to detail in portraying military life and Marine culture. Marines chew out newbie Trombley for eating Charms candies on the trip, which grunts superstitiously perceive as bad luck. The unit is pumped to score an ammo crate for a makeshift toilet, and angry when a Marine soils it with a bad aim.

Reporter Wright is taught how to dip smokeless tobacco (and later has to swallow his chew, after a call of “gas, gas, gas” sends everyone scrambling to get their masks on). From the images of lone Iraqi children standing alongside the road to body parts lying in the desert, the production team best known for the realism of HBO’s cop drama “The Wire” manages to get the Corps right.

There’s also plenty of hurry-up-and-wait, leaving the characters time to reflect on the war and weigh in throughout the series on what they think the Corps’ role in the military and America should be.

“The Marine Corps is like America’s little pit bull,” Person tells Wright, when asked why the battalion doesn’t have the supplies they need. “They feed us, mistreat us, and every now and then, they let us out to attack someone.”

In the first five episodes — episodes 6 and 7 weren’t available for review — the series is imminently believable. Moreover, for all their flaws, its Marines come across as likable, deeply conflicted individuals who made deep sacrifices to join the Corps.

As an introduction to the Corps for much of America, it’ll be jarring for viewers unaccustomed to the field life of the Few and Proud.

But “Generation Kill” also sheds some light on the psyche of “America’s pit bull” — and after watching, it’ll be hard for America not to root for the dog to win.