Thanks for the reminder to watch that series. I liked The Wire and We Own This City by David Simon so I’m assuming it is a more thoughtful show than the title and imagery suggests.
I actually just finished it, wish there were more episodes. There was a lot more humor than I was expecting which really helped to offset the depressing aspects. Yeah, I really can’t imagine the government supporting the show aside from it portraying the US as an absolutely dominating force.
From a casting angle I think it’s kinda funny Jarhead had a Sarsgaard and Generation Kill had a Skarsgård. I also kept thinking the Rolling Stone writer (Lee Tergesen) looked like a relative of John Michael Higgins.
The actually cool way of increasing recruitment would be to pay higher salaries and increase the work place safety, with tax money taken from crying billionaires.
There’s no way you can make fighting for the interests of American oligarchs “safe”, though. Even as advanced as our military is; it still ultimately comes down to putting boots on the ground.
And being the boots on the ground is to walk into a meat grinder.
Recruitment. They were sponsors so that people think it’s cool to be in the army.
Same reason they do flybys and giant flag-things and shit at sporting events.
We have a literal propaganda division that helps with movies like transformers as long as they have a say in how the military is portrayed in them.
And rarely you get to see gems like this from the movie Sgt. Bilko (1996):
If only that movie wasn’t terrible.
I had the displeasure of seeing it in the theater.
Maybe if the US Army had cooperated it wouldn’t have been so terrible! At least it provides a chance to see Phil Hartman.
The only way to make that film not terrible would be to not make it at all.
Or, I suppose, blow up every copy before it was distributed. The Army could definitely have helped with that.
Generation Kill also didn’t have support from the US Army. All the US military gear show was either Jordanian or CGI.
Thanks for the reminder to watch that series. I liked The Wire and We Own This City by David Simon so I’m assuming it is a more thoughtful show than the title and imagery suggests.
It’s real good and let’s just say there is a reason the Pentagon isn’t sponsoring this one.
I actually just finished it, wish there were more episodes. There was a lot more humor than I was expecting which really helped to offset the depressing aspects. Yeah, I really can’t imagine the government supporting the show aside from it portraying the US as an absolutely dominating force.
From a casting angle I think it’s kinda funny Jarhead had a Sarsgaard and Generation Kill had a Skarsgård. I also kept thinking the Rolling Stone writer (Lee Tergesen) looked like a relative of John Michael Higgins.
The actually cool way of increasing recruitment would be to pay higher salaries and increase the work place safety, with tax money taken from crying billionaires.
There’s no way you can make fighting for the interests of American oligarchs “safe”, though. Even as advanced as our military is; it still ultimately comes down to putting boots on the ground.
And being the boots on the ground is to walk into a meat grinder.
We could also have a pizza party!
Don’t forget VA benefits
There, FTFY. The unfettered truth.