Rob:
Comparisons between the two shows are like night and day -- literally.
Although OT was on basic cable, they had to keep the "salty" language to a minimum; whereas the F-bomb flies pretty regularly in GK. OT was shot primarily in California, around J-Tree and Death Valley. The problem is, you can dress a lot of places here to body-double other countries, but it still looks like California. GK took its production company to Mozambique and Namibia to film a lot of the desert sequences, and some backlot shooting in Kragbron, South Africa.
I also thought that the characters in OT were almost a bit stereotypical of Army grunts. The hot-headed staff sergeant, the college-educated PFC, the introspective Soldier of Middle Eastern descent, the street-smart SAW gunner from the 'Hood. It was like they all came from Central Casting. GK's screen Marines had their actor counterparts -- including one former Marine, Sgt. Rudy Reyes, who plays himself in the series.
Also, both productions received no assistance from DoD. The Marines, even though they OK'd the showing of the first two epsiodes of GK to troops, local veterans and some family members at a theater aboard Camp Pendleton -- coincidentally, it's the home to the 1st Recon Battalion (or "1st Suicide Battalion" as they joked), they were quick to distance themselves from the production.
Talking with a Marine PAO friend of mine, he said what he saw on-screen by the actors portraying the real members of 1st Recon as "very close, but the Corps isn't gonna endorse the show." Since 2003, over 350 Marines from Camp Pendleton have been killed in Iraq.
NPR also covered GK back in March. Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88578840
Also gotta give props to GK's production company and HBO for putting a troop drive link on the GK website. HBO and its partners (some big brand names) will send care packages to troops -- one item per email address, at NO COST to the donor. And the donation item list is long -- from beef jerky to towel wipes, videos to phone cards.
Dale Dye's "Warriors Inc." tech advisory company was not involved in this production, as he's got his hands full with the upcoming HBO series "The Pacific" -- the Marine version of "Band Of Brothers" -- currently shooting in Australia. Far North Queensland, a very tropical environment, is body-doubling for Peleliu, Saipan, Guadalcanal, Wake and Okinawa.
Comparisons between the two shows are like night and day -- literally.
Although OT was on basic cable, they had to keep the "salty" language to a minimum; whereas the F-bomb flies pretty regularly in GK. OT was shot primarily in California, around J-Tree and Death Valley. The problem is, you can dress a lot of places here to body-double other countries, but it still looks like California. GK took its production company to Mozambique and Namibia to film a lot of the desert sequences, and some backlot shooting in Kragbron, South Africa.
I also thought that the characters in OT were almost a bit stereotypical of Army grunts. The hot-headed staff sergeant, the college-educated PFC, the introspective Soldier of Middle Eastern descent, the street-smart SAW gunner from the 'Hood. It was like they all came from Central Casting. GK's screen Marines had their actor counterparts -- including one former Marine, Sgt. Rudy Reyes, who plays himself in the series.
Also, both productions received no assistance from DoD. The Marines, even though they OK'd the showing of the first two epsiodes of GK to troops, local veterans and some family members at a theater aboard Camp Pendleton -- coincidentally, it's the home to the 1st Recon Battalion (or "1st Suicide Battalion" as they joked), they were quick to distance themselves from the production.
Talking with a Marine PAO friend of mine, he said what he saw on-screen by the actors portraying the real members of 1st Recon as "very close, but the Corps isn't gonna endorse the show." Since 2003, over 350 Marines from Camp Pendleton have been killed in Iraq.
NPR also covered GK back in March. Here's the link: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=88578840
Also gotta give props to GK's production company and HBO for putting a troop drive link on the GK website. HBO and its partners (some big brand names) will send care packages to troops -- one item per email address, at NO COST to the donor. And the donation item list is long -- from beef jerky to towel wipes, videos to phone cards.
Dale Dye's "Warriors Inc." tech advisory company was not involved in this production, as he's got his hands full with the upcoming HBO series "The Pacific" -- the Marine version of "Band Of Brothers" -- currently shooting in Australia. Far North Queensland, a very tropical environment, is body-doubling for Peleliu, Saipan, Guadalcanal, Wake and Okinawa.
