But don't sit down with HBO tonight expecting a "Greatest Generation" depiction of these Marines. The men - and they are all men - chronicled by Wright are, in the main, far too pessimistic and self-consciously ironic to present themselves that way.
"See, the Marines are like America's little pit bull," one of the men in the featured platoon, Cpl. Josh Ray Person (James Ransone), tells Wright. "They beat us, they mistreat, and every once in a while, they let us out to attack someone."
The remarks are part of a darkly humorous and bitter critique on the lack of support given these warriors. It includes an account of the driver and sergeant in charge of the lead Humvee having to spend $500 out of their own pockets to try and make their thin-skinned vehicle a little safer and more efficient. They are still waiting for a gun turret shield for the Humvee that they tried to buy off eBay.
Person, Wright and sergeant Brad "Iceman" Colbert (Alexander Skarsgard), who all ride in the same lead vehicle, are three of the characters most quickly and skillfully delineated. A fourth rider in the Humvee, Lance Cpl. Harold James Trombley (Billy Lush), also stands out in the way he comes to embody one of Wright's major themes.
In an illuminating introduction to the book, Wright explains his goal of using the microcosm of this Marine unit - particularly the crew in the lead Humvee - to examine the current generation of young adults as warriors. He wondered how growing up in single-parent homes (more so than any other generation in U.S. history) while surrounded by an inescapable media web of violent video games and TV shows would affect them. Would they be better, worse, the same or different from the Greatest Generation that fought World War II and the baby boomers that went to Vietnam?
The miniseries is not as deft in distinguishing one Marine from another or in providing the generational context found in the book. But some viewers will likely get the latter from the title.
By and large, the Marines in Generation Kill are portrayed as multidimensional human beings, and not psychos or saints. Some of the most powerful moments in the miniseries involve the Marines bearing witness to the results of what U.S. military bullets and bombs have done to innocent civilians, especially children - often as the result of a foolish mistake made by officers in command.
