Hollywood Will Never Change

I noticed that there was a lot of attention today about the new show on FX called "Over There." The show is supposed to give people a melodramatic look at the GWOT Phase: Iraq. Melodramatic is correct, as many bloggers—especially the excellent milblogs—have pointed out. Cliché after cliché, and mistake after mistake was made in the show. From the small mistakes, like which side of the weapon the spent cartridge is ejected from (a minor mistake in comparison; they reversed the angle) to showing a young soldier smoking a joint out behind the Motor Pool shed.

Now, I’ve never been in the military, so I can’t comment on the technicalities that many of the milbloggers are. I have a lot of "book knowledge" on the military, and I’ve talked to my fair share of veterans. So, I think I’m mildly qualified to speak, in part, on the military technicalities. The pot smoking soldier wouldn’t be around much longer. Random drug tests are conducted in the military, and especially in the field. And I criticize Steven Bochco, the creator of the show, for the laziness in this aspect. I’ll give two very different, yet similar arguments in the respect.

First, the movie "Gettysburg." When it was done, we all knew that it was going to bit a bit on the melodramatic side. A story here, and a story there, no different than the phony backstory for "Titanic," but the overall subject of the movie was as dead-on accurate as possible. When Ronald Maxwell began production, he wanted as close to reality for the movie as possible, and took to the task of building both armies. He used Civil War reenactors for that feat. They wore the right uniforms, used the right tools and weapons, and looked the part. Maxwell did his homework.

Second, "Black Hawk Down." The movie based on the ill-fated mission in Somalia on 3 October 2003. Now, there were some "authenticity" issues with the movie, like the names of the soldiers on their helmets. OK. Yes, it’s not right, but the movie isn’t about the helmets, it’s about the mission. I have spoken with a few Rangers that were there in Somalia, and each one has said that Ridley Scott did his absolute best to maintain that authenticity. The people that were there were represented properly, and the soldier’s stand behind Scott for his cinematic interpretation. Again, Scott did his homework.

There’s my point, when it comes to the basics of the show, it’s authenticity, Bochco didn’t do his homework. There’s a scene where the team is assaulting a mosque with heavily-entrenched insurgents inside, and a tank is off to the side and isn’t used. Many a soldier that I have spoken to that have come home from Iraq, and premier milbloggers like Austin Bay, have stated that wouldn’t happen. That tank would be put to good use in such an assault. I agree. It’s sound, simple reasoning.

But I have a further point to make. I didn’t always write politics. I didn’t always work on non-fiction. I started writing fiction, and many a people have told me it was good. I’ve got a sound imagination, I create believable, non-cliched characters, and I can drive a story. I follow all the rules of fiction writing, and mine was even more constrained because it was science fiction writing. But it wasn’t Star Wars "sci-fi." I paid a lot of attention to the science part. I didn’t laud my readers with Asimov or Clarke types of science explanation. Brief, and to the point, and it works.

The other complaint that many stated after watching this show was it wasn’t believable. It wasn’t real. The characters were two-dimensional, the situations were simply outrageous, and, as I stated above, the characters were all cliché. You have the pot-smoking black kid. An idiot lieutenant. A screaming sergeant. The country hick that loves the Army, but appears to be a bit dim. A college dropout. Blah-blah-blah. This show looks more like the GWOT through the eyes of Oliver Stone as many have cited in the comments sections of the milbloggers on this show.

Many people have done what I did, which is to compare the show to better movies, like "Black Hawk Down." Others have really eviscerated the show, thoroughly. If you’re interested in reading their thoughts, some links are below, including a couple of bloggers that actually live-blogged the show. (For those not up on your blogger speak, live-blogging is to blog during an event you are blogging on. It’s sort of like a running commentary.) Read them. These people know what they’re talking about.

Of course, I’m not above enjoying the occasional escapist entertainment. We both love the show Alias. OK. Fine. Even I can dumb myself down with escapism for about an hour. I still have 23 hours in the day, and plenty of things to do in those 23 hours. But I really wish Hollywood would finally learn a thing or two. Like how not to tick off half of America over your idiotic portrayal of our volunteer military? We all knew something wasn’t right with the show when so many of the newspaper reviews were glowing over this show. Personally, this show will be lucky to last through one season.

And for those that watched it and liked it, and are going to see the promos with the "acclaimed critical review," remember that those words were written prior to the first show. This lauded praise will be like much of anything else Hollywood puts out. It will be magical, but it’s also all fiction. Come to think of it, that reminds me of the MSM.

http://www.blackfive.net/main/2005/07/over_there.html
http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/004376.html
http://cdrsalamander.blogspot.com/2005/07/over-where.html
Charmain Yoest Live-blogged it: http://www.charmaineyoest.com/archives/2005/07/liveblogging_ov.html
http://airforcepundit.blogspot.com/2005/07/over-there.html
http://www.swankyconservative.com/2005/07/27/over-there/
http://targetcentermass.net/?p=987
http://grumbles.mu.nu/archives/107233.php

Publius II