This film is 100% the real deal. I spent 14 months in support of OIF in 2003-04 as an infantryman. While there was perhaps a little more combat then this film portrays, the basic strategy was the same. Give them money, keep them happy, and hopefully they won't shoot at us anymore. Nothing could have been more frustrating to a group of soldiers.
This shouldn't discourage anyone from joining the military, but it should help future soldiers understand that war is not the glamorous Hollywood version you see on TV, and it never will be unless you're Special Forces. The reality shown in the film of families falling apart back home, while you're "defending freedom" is vividly portrayed, as well as the fact that so many soldiers do come home a mere shadow of their former selves. PTSD has claimed more lives from Suicide then actual combat.
The film receives -1 star from me because I don't think the reporters narcissistic comments were relevant at all to the film. If he would have kept the focus on the soldiers it would have been
This shouldn't discourage anyone from joining the military, but it should help future soldiers understand that war is not the glamorous Hollywood version you see on TV, and it never will be unless you're Special Forces. The reality shown in the film of families falling apart back home, while you're "defending freedom" is vividly portrayed, as well as the fact that so many soldiers do come home a mere shadow of their former selves. PTSD has claimed more lives from Suicide then actual combat.
The film receives -1 star from me because I don't think the reporters narcissistic comments were relevant at all to the film. If he would have kept the focus on the soldiers it would have been