Is Over There accurate?
- Thread starter AndrewTB
- Start date
Blackwater OPS
New member
No.
Is it accurate??? Probably not, but neither was, IMHO, Combat or Tour of Duty. I do enjoy the show...just spent the day watching all the Tivo'ed episodes. I do see similarities to Combat and Tour of Duty...same squad, tough sergeant...as in Combat it appears they patrol and attack the same village/town in every show...can't say the same for Tour of Duty, jungle all looked the same to me. I believe they set up the characters pretty well. I can't confirm this, but they also appear to be better equipped and supplied. This was not seen in the other shows I've mentioned. I believe this to be a sign of the times for the modern military. Anyway, I'll keep watching it...it's entertainment, simple as that..
OneInchGroup
New member
Is OVER THERE Accurate? This is a question???
As a member of the BTDT tribe, vintage the '70's (S.E Asia War Games, 2nd Place) and having some Storm and Shield and a couple OIFI and II Vets for relatives, we'd all put up a unanimous......"Are You Nuts?"
Stevie Bochco must be doing all of the photography in BAJa Kalifornia, since the terrain is kinda similar, but NONE of the tactics and precious little of the goofy dialogue would ever happen in a serious combat situation.
They are portraying the whole scene like some kind of OK Corral "cowboys with SAWs" horse opera. Real war, real combat, is mostly standing around waiting to go somewhere, anywhere else, and hoping the bad guys can't shoot worth a damn.
Then there's that five or six minutes once a week or so when all your decisions are life and death, and your fire team comes together to make sure it's the other side whose day turns to crap.
Want to get a good guess at what it's really like? Take a tape of Apocalypse Now, and cut to the most extreme firefight scenes, but run them at 2X, and that's about what it feels like when you're in it.
As for the other 95% of the time spent in the war, do the same thing with the dumbest, dullest, slowest sections of the same show, but run that at 1/2 speed for around an hour....that's about what a regular 15 minute real time scene is like, when nobody is under fire.
My dad once said that the first few minutes of Private Ryan was EXACTLY right, and he was in one of the first LCs to hit Normandy beach, so I have to respect that opinion.
My show was Apocalypse, and the kids that are in Iraq now are going to have to wait awhile before they get their signature show...maybe Mel Gibson will get around to it, a few years down the road.
No regular Hollywood types wil ever get it right, because they are all about "making a statement" and the staement is always the same....
"I didn't have to go and never paid any attention to it because I was too smart to get into the military, but I know it must have all been wrong, it was all about Big Business running the Country, and all you guys that went came back bent, somehow, and it was all for nothing but gee the gunfire looks neat and ....blah de blah de blah"
Makes you wanna puke, sometimes. :barf:
As a member of the BTDT tribe, vintage the '70's (S.E Asia War Games, 2nd Place) and having some Storm and Shield and a couple OIFI and II Vets for relatives, we'd all put up a unanimous......"Are You Nuts?"
Stevie Bochco must be doing all of the photography in BAJa Kalifornia, since the terrain is kinda similar, but NONE of the tactics and precious little of the goofy dialogue would ever happen in a serious combat situation.
They are portraying the whole scene like some kind of OK Corral "cowboys with SAWs" horse opera. Real war, real combat, is mostly standing around waiting to go somewhere, anywhere else, and hoping the bad guys can't shoot worth a damn.
Then there's that five or six minutes once a week or so when all your decisions are life and death, and your fire team comes together to make sure it's the other side whose day turns to crap.
Want to get a good guess at what it's really like? Take a tape of Apocalypse Now, and cut to the most extreme firefight scenes, but run them at 2X, and that's about what it feels like when you're in it.
As for the other 95% of the time spent in the war, do the same thing with the dumbest, dullest, slowest sections of the same show, but run that at 1/2 speed for around an hour....that's about what a regular 15 minute real time scene is like, when nobody is under fire.
My dad once said that the first few minutes of Private Ryan was EXACTLY right, and he was in one of the first LCs to hit Normandy beach, so I have to respect that opinion.
My show was Apocalypse, and the kids that are in Iraq now are going to have to wait awhile before they get their signature show...maybe Mel Gibson will get around to it, a few years down the road.
No regular Hollywood types wil ever get it right, because they are all about "making a statement" and the staement is always the same....
"I didn't have to go and never paid any attention to it because I was too smart to get into the military, but I know it must have all been wrong, it was all about Big Business running the Country, and all you guys that went came back bent, somehow, and it was all for nothing but gee the gunfire looks neat and ....blah de blah de blah"
Makes you wanna puke, sometimes. :barf:
In the roadblock episode, a car is coming at them and they presume it to be hostile......so the sargeant orders all the other people (including the SAW gunner and the guy with the M203) to hold their fire while he and the other guy (equipped with an M-4 and scoped M-16 respectively) take it out.
Now. I am by no means an expert, but why would'nt they utilize the SAW in that situation? Or the M203 (well, okay, it may have been to close for that)
Anyway, it is entertaining to watch. The situations they are put in are rediculous sometimes though.
I'd kinda like to see an episode where they interact with Marines, 'cause that might be funny.
Now. I am by no means an expert, but why would'nt they utilize the SAW in that situation? Or the M203 (well, okay, it may have been to close for that)Anyway, it is entertaining to watch. The situations they are put in are rediculous sometimes though.
I'd kinda like to see an episode where they interact with Marines, 'cause that might be funny.