GatorFarmer
Member
This is an interesting film on several levels. One first must ponder why the USMC is always the go to force to defeat an alien invasion. The 80s remake of Invaders from Mars, to a certain extent Aliens (with the Colonial Marines), Independence Day and now this one. Beyond that we have one of a handful of films to show a glimpse of modern American forces in urban combat - albeit against a fictional enemy.
I didn't get a chance to see this in the theaters when it came out. Curiously, I also don't remember them playing it on base, though I suppose they might have. I do remember it getting mixed reviews. One complaint was that the film seemed to contain only military jargon for lines, other complaints varied.
Essentially you do have a formula at work here. In fact, in some ways, the structure of the film is like "The Green Berets" with John Wayne - force assembles, force goes into battle and has mixed results, force goes on a special mission and has some success though with loss. Same formula was used in Starship Troopers and many a WW2 movie produced during the war. For war themed films, it is arguably a formula that works fairly well and allows for propaganda value.
This is also noteworthy as being the first pro military - and esp pro USMC - film that I can recall in recent years despite the long running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other films touching on those conflicts portrayed either negative or somewhat critical views of the modern military - "Hurt Locker" and that Matt Damon one come to mind. Whereas this film notably has characters portrayed as veterans of the current conflicts and is straight forward about putting them front and center. We see a cool headed NCO who's specifically mentioned as serving in Iraq and a Navy Corpsman that alludes to how he'd rather be (back presumably) in Afghanistan.
Unlike in 2005's War of the Worlds remake, or even the 1953 version, this is one of the first films to portray an alien menace as relatively "flesh and blood". Technology wise it's a pretty even match - bullets kill the aliens, they have armor but it isn't always effective, and they seem to use basic tactics.
Meanwhile their own weapons aren't all that superior, but they benefit from surprise and overwhelming local force. Current issue ESAPI plates and helmets don't offer a magic protection from the alien weapons but offer something like realistic partial protection given what is portrayed.
The gear that we see is mostly accurate as well, though no one puts on their ballistic eye protection in the film since that would make the actors harder to recognize on screen.
Early on we see a particularly effective scene as the Marines advance and have to pass through a crowd of refugees fleeing the attack. We see an abandoned stroller, some wounded, and then vehicles and bodies as the Marines advance towards contact with the enemy. It's actually well done - a mortar firing in the background, confusion, etc.
The military bases and units mentioned in the film are actual ones. For example the 40th Infantry Division is a National Guard division and does have a brigade and other assets in California.
Once one accepts the premise that one is watching a film about aliens invading, it becomes possible to look over some plotholes. Scenes like briefings, TVs being on tuned to CNN for information, and the quest for who had the tasty MRE flavors suggest a technical advisor familiar with the subject. We also get to see what amounts to an advertisement of sorts for ACOGs....
If there is one thing that I'd complain about it is that the portrayed response, for all that it has mixed results - is actually better than anything that could be assembled in real life, at least at short notice. The Marines were apparently part of a unit set - in the film continuity - to deploy within two weeks. Thus it makes sense that they'd actually be ready, have ammunition and weapons handy etc.
Unfortunately in general it takes a certain amount of time to assemble and move a military force. Movement orders have to be given, logistics figured out and there ends up being gear lost, missing or - in the case of National Guard formations - of a substitute standard nature. One also wonders if the idea of holding a modern American city or defending a beach head is anything that has seen much practice and planning since the demise of the plans for dealing with a Canadian invasion. (Updated and current at least through 1935 for those keeping track of such...)
There's also the unsettling realization at the end, as relatively few helicopters head in to make a localized counter attack of "Where would more troops come from beyond those few?" Because there really aren't any large scale mobile reserves to be had in the United States. The mechanism for conscription has largely become dormant since the 1970s. There's little real infrastructure to begin an emergency production of weapons along the lines of WW2 either. Thus after the thin line is gone... what's left? Hand out M16A1s, old steel pots, and hidden away M1 Garands and try to assemble a scratch army I suppose. (Some states do in fact have State militias to defend themselves in case of aliens or German U Boats or similar problems. VA, SC and TX are among them, though these forces mostly just direct traffic, aren't generally armed, and only in vague theory are "infantry". SC raised theirs in 1941 with an official uniform of Confederate Gray to watch for German U Boats landing raiding parties. It still exists today. Though without the Confederate Gray. Or the U Boats to patrol for...)
Thus what starts as just escapist fantasy, if you think about it in the end, can raise the question of "what would happen". Prior to HG Well's writing War of the Worlds, there was infact a whole genre of "invasion" fiction set in the UK with French, the Germans/Prussians and even the Americans as the invaders. The general message was that England ought be prepared and that the thin red line (later khaki line) was stretched rather thin. For those that care to look beyond the surface, there would seem to be similar themes at work here.
I didn't get a chance to see this in the theaters when it came out. Curiously, I also don't remember them playing it on base, though I suppose they might have. I do remember it getting mixed reviews. One complaint was that the film seemed to contain only military jargon for lines, other complaints varied.
Essentially you do have a formula at work here. In fact, in some ways, the structure of the film is like "The Green Berets" with John Wayne - force assembles, force goes into battle and has mixed results, force goes on a special mission and has some success though with loss. Same formula was used in Starship Troopers and many a WW2 movie produced during the war. For war themed films, it is arguably a formula that works fairly well and allows for propaganda value.
This is also noteworthy as being the first pro military - and esp pro USMC - film that I can recall in recent years despite the long running wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Other films touching on those conflicts portrayed either negative or somewhat critical views of the modern military - "Hurt Locker" and that Matt Damon one come to mind. Whereas this film notably has characters portrayed as veterans of the current conflicts and is straight forward about putting them front and center. We see a cool headed NCO who's specifically mentioned as serving in Iraq and a Navy Corpsman that alludes to how he'd rather be (back presumably) in Afghanistan.
Unlike in 2005's War of the Worlds remake, or even the 1953 version, this is one of the first films to portray an alien menace as relatively "flesh and blood". Technology wise it's a pretty even match - bullets kill the aliens, they have armor but it isn't always effective, and they seem to use basic tactics.
Meanwhile their own weapons aren't all that superior, but they benefit from surprise and overwhelming local force. Current issue ESAPI plates and helmets don't offer a magic protection from the alien weapons but offer something like realistic partial protection given what is portrayed.
The gear that we see is mostly accurate as well, though no one puts on their ballistic eye protection in the film since that would make the actors harder to recognize on screen.
Early on we see a particularly effective scene as the Marines advance and have to pass through a crowd of refugees fleeing the attack. We see an abandoned stroller, some wounded, and then vehicles and bodies as the Marines advance towards contact with the enemy. It's actually well done - a mortar firing in the background, confusion, etc.
The military bases and units mentioned in the film are actual ones. For example the 40th Infantry Division is a National Guard division and does have a brigade and other assets in California.
Once one accepts the premise that one is watching a film about aliens invading, it becomes possible to look over some plotholes. Scenes like briefings, TVs being on tuned to CNN for information, and the quest for who had the tasty MRE flavors suggest a technical advisor familiar with the subject. We also get to see what amounts to an advertisement of sorts for ACOGs....
If there is one thing that I'd complain about it is that the portrayed response, for all that it has mixed results - is actually better than anything that could be assembled in real life, at least at short notice. The Marines were apparently part of a unit set - in the film continuity - to deploy within two weeks. Thus it makes sense that they'd actually be ready, have ammunition and weapons handy etc.
Unfortunately in general it takes a certain amount of time to assemble and move a military force. Movement orders have to be given, logistics figured out and there ends up being gear lost, missing or - in the case of National Guard formations - of a substitute standard nature. One also wonders if the idea of holding a modern American city or defending a beach head is anything that has seen much practice and planning since the demise of the plans for dealing with a Canadian invasion. (Updated and current at least through 1935 for those keeping track of such...)
There's also the unsettling realization at the end, as relatively few helicopters head in to make a localized counter attack of "Where would more troops come from beyond those few?" Because there really aren't any large scale mobile reserves to be had in the United States. The mechanism for conscription has largely become dormant since the 1970s. There's little real infrastructure to begin an emergency production of weapons along the lines of WW2 either. Thus after the thin line is gone... what's left? Hand out M16A1s, old steel pots, and hidden away M1 Garands and try to assemble a scratch army I suppose. (Some states do in fact have State militias to defend themselves in case of aliens or German U Boats or similar problems. VA, SC and TX are among them, though these forces mostly just direct traffic, aren't generally armed, and only in vague theory are "infantry". SC raised theirs in 1941 with an official uniform of Confederate Gray to watch for German U Boats landing raiding parties. It still exists today. Though without the Confederate Gray. Or the U Boats to patrol for...)
Thus what starts as just escapist fantasy, if you think about it in the end, can raise the question of "what would happen". Prior to HG Well's writing War of the Worlds, there was infact a whole genre of "invasion" fiction set in the UK with French, the Germans/Prussians and even the Americans as the invaders. The general message was that England ought be prepared and that the thin red line (later khaki line) was stretched rather thin. For those that care to look beyond the surface, there would seem to be similar themes at work here.
