LOS ANGELES — According to its creator, David Simon, the HBO miniseries “Generation Kill” is a story “about what modern warfare has become.”
The story is potent because it is demanding, almost to the level of Simon’s “The Wire.”
“I actually think it’s a deeper and more resonant journey for viewers. It makes them lean in. It’s a different way of watching television.”
At a news conference here, Simon joked that his lack of simplistic exposition is designed to get low ratings. HBO executives were not amused.
“We make you work, but at the end there’s more payoff,” he said.
While the subject of war is controversial, the film is straightforward. “There’s a lot of political swirl about the war, but it didn’t really affect the series,” Simon said.
In fact, HBO executives stress the lack of a political point of view in the work, emphasizing that it plays like a dysfunctional family road trip.
Evan Wright, the author of the book by the same name who was embedded with Marines in Iraq and served as consulting producer, said, “As a reporter, I recognized that even if there’s no shooting, I have a really great story here, because these guys are hilarious. It’s fascinating how this family unit works.”
In the series, James Ransone plays Marine Cpl. Josh Ray Person, who is sort of the maternal figure in this family; Alexander Skarsgard plays Sgt. Brad “Iceman” Colbert, whom Wright pictured as the paternal presence; and Billy Lush plays Lance Cpl. Harold James Trombley, the childlike member of the pack.
When the crew screened the film at Camp Pendleton for Marines this week, they were told the miniseries had captured the dialogue perfectly.
“That’s how Marines talk,” said Eric Kocher, former U.S. Marine of the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, who served as a military adviser on the production.
The decision to forgo a musical soundtrack was based in reality. The Marines tended to sing throughout the journey. Their joking repartee and songs become an absorbing backdrop.
