If you didn't watch the premiere of this FX/Steven Boccho series tonight, then get started next Wednesday. China Beach updated to Iraq. Almost unbearable.
My boys were about four when China Beach was on. I used to sob through entire shows. This I just watched in a state of quiet terror.
PS: It's being repeated right now.
8 comments:
My hubby and son are watching it right now...I am not happy. C. http://journals.aol.com/gdireneoe/thedailies
It was pretty intense... I taped it for my guy who's out long hauling and not able to see it.
I didn't catch this one. Heard a bad review about it on NPR today, though. Reviewer seemed to think that it took too noncommittal a stance on the war. He believed it needed to be told from either a pro-war or anti-war viewpoint. My personal feeling is that the more neutral it stays, the better. But I should really watch it next time it's on, in order to form my own opinion. Lisa :-]
My son said it was intense! He really liked it.
V
I just listened to the NPR review and I couldn't disagree with the reviewer more. (Well, I agree that they barely introduce the characters before they pitch them into battle, so it's hard to grasp much about them as individuals in the first show -- as a result, I had to go to the show website to sort them out afterward.) First, I don't think the show would be nearly as powerful if it took a position on the war in Iraq per se; as it is, it reveals much of the national ambivalence about the war by NOT taking sides. Second, I think it does takes a clear position on the nature of war, which is that war does itself have a horrific pull on peole -- as the Cornell character says (more or less): "...the tragedy here is that we're savages; we're monsters -- and war is what unmasks us-- yet there is a certain grace to it."
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who cried over China Beach. I really liked that show despite the sadness.
I'm not sure about watching this one though. I heard an interesting commentary on NPR where they said that people have basically turned of any news about the war -- they don't want to know about it. The hope is that a fictionalized account might draw them in and help them to understand what is really happening over there.
Just to clarify - my comments were not based on the NPR review but rather on a commentary which was actually very positive. It was by someone involved with the production of Nightline who was still angry that reading the names of the dead in Iraq was seen not as a way to honor them but as a political statement.
I'm going to watch this; thanks!
Judi
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