television authorship

Reading and watching Generation Kill made me curious to see what other TV shows about war there were and what characterized them. When we first began to learn about the police procedural we looked at Dragnet so I thought this might be interesting and maybe helpful. I found a site that provides a comprehensive list and description of war films and television.

http://www.taphilo.com/history/warmovies.shtml

The first series about war that came to mind was M*A*S*H which was set during the Korean War. It was a dark comedy like the Robert Altman film of the same name. The series was antiwar and aired during the Vietnam War. Generation Kill does not the same humorous tone. Gomer Pyle U.S.M.C. was another comedy that did not mention the war Vietnam War that was occurring throughout the shows run. Hogan’s heroes was another war comedy series. Generation Kill is a miniseries so it isn’t directly comparable to these long running series but I am curious to see how Generation Kill can be studied among members of the same genre.

Additionally, I was wondering how Generation Kill matched up with other films/TV series about the Iraq war. I have not seen any films about the war and I have read that most Iraq was films have not done well at the box office. What makes Generation Kill different from those works.

Finally there was one particular quote that I though would make for good discussion. In an article for the New York Daily News, reviewer David Hinkley writes “Generation Kill is an anti-war film mostly in the sense that all honest war films are anti-war.” Is this true?

Also, on an unrelated note, here is the ridiculous Marine Corp add they discuss in the second episode.