Generation Kill

Transmission: July 2008

  • HBO: 7 x 60mins
  • Writers: David Simon, Ed Burns & Evan Wright
  • Producer: Andrea Calderwood
  • Director: Susanna White & Simon Cellan-Jones
  • Executive Producers: George Faber, Charles Pattinson, David Simon, Ed Burns, Anne Thomopoulos; Co-Executive Producer: Nina K Nobel
  • Starring: Alexander Skarsgard, James Ransone, Stark Sands, Jon Huertas, Lee Tergesen

Generation Kill is a seven-part miniseries based upon the highly successful book by Evan Wright, which was published in 2004, and won the Los Angeles Times book award as well as several other prestigeous prizes.

Generation Kill follows Marine platoon Bravo Two of Bravo Company, First Marine Reconnaissance Battalion, at the spearhead of the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. The action covers a one month period up to and including the fall of Baghdad, with the story being told at ground level, from the gritty and shocking perspective of the Marine unit traveling in a small convoy of Humvees. Wright was embedded with the platoon throughout the initial assaults on Iraq.

Photos: Paul Schiraldi / HBO

PRESS

"...an unsettling, distinctive, utterly riveting seven-part miniseries that captures the surealistic nuts and bolts of launching a war better than any project in recent memory." The Hollywood Reporter

"Generation Kill...combines bone-rattling action, lacerating drama and comedy as dark and as dirty as a night time sandstorm." Time Magazine

"The drama is all in the staging and cutting, and in the almost musical alternation of long stretches of relative quiet with passages of brilliantly rendered violent action." LA Times

"Few films - and none about Iraq - have focused so effectively on the humdrum, confusion and unvarnished hilarity of the lost hours waiting for combat as Generation Kill." Washington Post

"Generation Kill, which has a superb cast and script, provides a searingly intense, clear-eyed look at the first stage of the war." NY Times

"Terrific...remarkable television." New York Magazine

"One wild, cliché-busting trip...head spinningly thoughtful work." Entertainment Weekly

"The most authentic depiction of troop life ever to hit the small screen." Vanity Fair 

AWARDS

  • MPSE Golden Reel Awards
    Winner, Long Form Dialogue and ADR in Television 2009
  • Gracie Awards
    Winner, Susanna White Individual Achievement: Director -- Entertainment Series or Special 2009
  • Emmy Awards 2009
    Winner, Sound Editing 2009
  • Emmy Awards 2009
    Winner, Sound Mixing 2009
  • Emmy Awards 2009
    Winner, Visual Effects 2009