Military Movies

February 4, 2010

Kate Hoit does a good job of explaining why military movies are usually letdowns for veterans.

The year is 2004, the Baghdad streets are clean, almost too clean, and dust lingers in the air, soldiers appear...in the wrong uniform. Soldiers deployed to Iraq in 2004, the year The Hurt Locker was suppose to take place, were not wearing the Army Combat Uniform. I should know I was there. We still wore the Desert Camouflage Uniform. How hard would it have been to get this correct? Apparently so hard that no one working on the movie could be bothered to consult anyone with knowledge on military dress, or visit the local surplus store. Congratulations, what seemed like a would-be decent military movie to those who had actually served was now automatically ruined within the first few minutes. And for future reference, military personnel do not roll their sleeves up in a combat zone. read more

As a member of the military, you've had certain things drilled into your head, like the proper wear of the uniform. A lot of the reasoning behind that is so we can easily spot someone trying to imitate a soldier and potentially compromise security. For instance, if I see someone in an Army uniform with their name tag stuck on the wrong side, that little detail is going to make that person stick out like a sore thumb and it will immediately arouse suspicion.

When I'm watching a military movie, all the little errors attract so much of my attention that I can't enjoy the actual plot of the movie. Some of the errors are so bad that it becomes funny to me when the movie isn't even a comedy.

I imagine it's the same thing for doctors watching medical movies or TV shows.

Full Metal Jacket (great example of Basic Training) and Saving Private Ryan (great example of military courtesy and strategies) are a couple of the most accurate military movies. Most of Renaissance Man was squared away, too.

That movie Basic with Samuel L. Jackson and John Travolta was just all around ridiculous.