Fans of a war drama praised for being highly realistic have been encouraged to watch a documentary which was nominated for an Oscar and depicts the real thing.
Generation Kill is a well-regarded war drama based on a book by Evan Wright and his experiences as a reporter embedded with troops during the invasion of Iraq in 2003.
It was adapted into a miniseries in 2008 and veterans said it was pretty much spot on, with a former intelligence analyst for the United States Marine Corps saying parts of the series were 'very, very realistic'.
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"Uniforms, banter, petty politics, and lack of gear. The way the actors talked, they way they moved, they way they carried their kit… a lot of effort was put into that, and it showed," was the verdict from former analyst John Anderson.
However, he did say it would be difficult to find such a concentration of incompetent officers as Generation Kill depicted as there were idiots but they 'aren't clustered like we see in the show'.
If you are a fan of war dramas which strive for realism then you might as well take some time to seek out the real thing, a fly-on-the-wall documentary named Restrepo.
It follows US troops beginning a 15 month deployment in Afghanistan in one of the most dangerous regions of the country.
The documentary portrays the lives of the soldiers as they are regularly under fire and struggle to gain the trust of local leaders.
Watch the trailer here:
Restrepo was named for Juan Sebastián Restrepo, a Colombian American soldier who was killed in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan.
The documentary was produced for National Geographic by British photojournalist Tim Hetherington, who would be killed by shrapnel in the Libyan Civil War the year after Restrepo was released, and American journalist Sebastian Junger.
It follows the pair as they are embedded with a platoon of the US Army in the Korengal Valley, which was nicknamed 'the valley of death' by American troops.
The two of them said they 'wanted to capture the reality of the soldiers' and had no intention of making a particular statement on war.
Restrepo opens with a fire fight on a narrow mountain road after an IED disables a military vehicle.
When the soldiers decide to construct an outpost in the valley they named it 'OP Restrepo'.
A follow-up to Restrepo was made by Junger four years later titled Korengal.
Restrepo is available to buy on AppleTV.
Topics: TV and Film, Documentaries, US News, World News
Joe Harker