When Hollywood tells the stories of OEF and OIF, will they get it right?

SGT Ben Keen — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 10:45:37 -0400

So for those of you that I had the change to meet at RPx2014 know, I'm a huge nerd but I'm okay with that. Anyways, while sitting in the wonderful construction traffic that will never end here in Pittsburgh, I was looking through my Google Now feeds and came across this article and I thought it was interesting.

We all know that Hollywood never gets it right. I do believe by law they are not allowed to show the uniform exactly correct and this has resulted in many of beer drinking games to pick out the faults during a movie. Some movies get close. Saving Pvt Ryan and the mini-series Band of Brothers brought WWII to our living room. Platoon brought the jungles of Vietnam to America. Yet others were way off.

My question is this, how far will Hollywood take our story? To those that served in Vietnam, Korea, Desert Storm, do you get upside when Hollywood take things too far?

15 Things Hollywood Will Get Wrong About Iraq and Afghanistan

Someday Hollywood will start churning out movies about Iraq and Afghanistan like they did about Vietnam. If Vietnam is a model then it will probably be 10 years before this country can really open up about it with serious filmmakers getting out there and ripping open the old wounds. We predict they’ll make a lot of similar, stupid mistakes. Fifteen of them to be exact because, unlike Hollywood, we’re a meticulous crowd that pays attention to...

Response by SFC Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 11 at 2014 10:49 AM

SFC Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 10:49:28 -0400

I would say that they are already doing movies and failing at getting it very accurate at this point. Hurt Locker and The Green Zone illustrate this.

Response by LTC Paul Labrador made Sep 11 at 2014 10:52 AM

LTC Paul Labrador — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 10:52:47 -0400

I think the problem is two-fold:

1) we are still fighting the war. It's hard to get perspective on the war, let alone show that perspective objectively, when we are too close to the subject.

2) Hollywood is overwhelmingly liberal. I am worried that the film makers will inject their own politics into the movie.

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Sep 11 at 2014 1:48 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 13:48:40 -0400

Hollywood is nothing more than a political caucus that makes more money than our legislative branch. Getting it right means a smaller box office gross, so IMHO, very few (Hanks & Spielberg aside) are interested in "getting it right"

Response by SFC Mark Merino made Sep 11 at 2014 7:09 PM

SFC Mark Merino — Thu, 11 Sep 2014 19:09:01 -0400

And who will play the role of SFC Merino? George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Chunk from "The Goonies"???

Response by SSG Pete Fleming made Sep 18 at 2014 12:23 AM

SSG Pete Fleming — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 00:23:39 -0400

SGT Ben Keen, have you heard/seen the new Film Fort Bliss? I haven't had a chance to see it but was told they did really good job... much better than Hurt Locker or Green Zone...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2093995/

Fort Bliss (2014)

Directed by Claudia Myers. With Michelle Monaghan, Emmanuelle Chriqui, Pablo Schreiber, Dash Mihok. After returning home from an extended tour in Afghanistan, a decorated U.S. Army medic and single mother struggles to rebuild her relationship with her young son.

Response by CPO Jon Campbell made Sep 18 at 2014 11:57 AM

CPO Jon Campbell — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 11:57:21 -0400

No. Having worked as a consultant on several documentary programs and movies, I can tell you that Hollywood is not interested in getting it right. The ONLY interest in Hollywood is the bottom line. That means that what they produce has to generate revenue. The way movies get made is by following proven models that convert the real story into a story that can be told in measured intervals (for TV) or in 100 - 200 minutes for silver screen movies, and in a way that will be well received by the demographic it is aimed to play to. A well-funded production may hire fact checkers and consultants, but even with this, the final cut will likely only represent about 10% of what really happened. If the real story took place in 10 minutes time, filler will be added to lengthen and bulk out the plot. If the story is more than 2 hours, it will be edited and reduced to the point that it bears little resemblence to what actually happened. It isn't a bad thing. Raw war footage is often boring and shot from eye level or from a great distance. A good movie tells a story with enough fact to make it believable and enough fiction to make it enjoyable. (It's much harder to work on a documentary where facts should over ride drama.)

Response by SSG Pete Fleming made Sep 18 at 2014 12:45 PM

SSG Pete Fleming — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 12:45:21 -0400

I was once told "never confuse 'facts' with a good story..."

Response by MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca made Sep 18 at 2014 1:33 PM

MAJ Robert (Bob) Petrarca — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 13:33:12 -0400

They've already screwed the pooch in "The Boys of Abu Ghraib" The actors playing members of the 800th MP Bde are wearing the patch of the 43rd MP Bde, my old unit. We weren't in country when any of that BS happened, had nothing to do with the 800th and we CLOSED Abu Ghraib.

Response by SSG Private RallyPoint Member made Sep 18 at 2014 1:37 PM

SSG Private RallyPoint Member — Thu, 18 Sep 2014 13:37:32 -0400

If by getting it right you mean making an epic masterpiece that even remotely portrays things with any minute amount of accuracy such as Saving Private Ryan, We Were Soldiers or Full Metal Jacket, then no. I don't think that they'll ever get it right. Documentaries like Restrepo, Korengal, and The Hornet's Nest are going to be the best we get I think.

Response by SGT William Howell made Oct 17 at 2016 12:50 PM

SGT William Howell — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 12:50:40 -0400

History is doomed to repeat itself. Ask the Vietnam Vets if Hollywood ever got a movie right. According to Hollywood every Vietnam Vet is a drug addicted, mentally unstable, psychopath, baby killer.

You think it will be any different for us. Hell, the news makes everyone of us out to be a PTSD homicidal/suicide machine ready to explode at the drop of a fire cracker on the 4th of July. According to the media 22 of our brothers and sister kill themselves every day. Which is total shit, but nobody will refute it publicly because it sells stories. You think they are going to tell the truth or sell movies?