August 17, 2005
Television Goes to War
In May, we were invited by the Directors Guild of America to screen parts of "Gunner Palace" for a panel discussion called "Directors Under Fire". Also screened were clips from Iraq themed episodes of "JAG" and "ER" and the first episode of Steven Bochco's "Over There". The conversation was moderated by Richard Schickel from Time who has a lifelong interest in war reportage and war cinema.
At risk of sounding like a TV critic, I can say that it was odd sitting in an airconditioned theatre watching fictional representations of a subject that is so close to me--knowing that in two weeks I'd be back in Baghdad. At the same time, I realized that in this war, like in any other, fiction will play an important role is shaping perceptions of the conflict. Will we get it right? Only time will tell.
Today, The Hollywood Reporter is running a story about a WGA moderated event in LA entitled "Televison Goes to War" hosted by Michael Kinsley. Much like the DGA event, the discussion was centered on how to fictionally represent an event that is playing out in real-time.
Steven Bochco, co-creator and executive producer with Chris Gerolmo of FX's Iraq war drama "Over There," said during a panel session Monday that they sought from the inception of the show to keep its focus on the lives of "grunts" on the ground and not on larger questions of U.S. foreign policy, morality or geopolitical concerns.Panel moderator Michael Kinsley, editorial and opinion editor at the Los Angeles Times, suggested that the lack of explicit discussion of the politics of the war in Iraq among the main characters in "Over There" was in and of itself an anti-war statement given the show's gritty portrayal of the chaos and carnage enveloping those grunts. But Bochco and Gerolmo disagreed.
"It seems to me that if we make an overt political statement in 'Over There' about the war ... then immediately the debate becomes not only about policy, but it becomes about our politics, Chris' and mine, as opposed to a discussion or a provocation about the human consequences of war," Bochco said. "The moment we become overtly political, half the audience dismisses us and doesn't pay attention to us because they disagree with our politics. And the other half discuss us ... in the context of our political leanings. And that's just not what my goal is with this show."
Gerolmo added that in his view, the dramatist's role should be to provide thought-provoking stories rather than proselytize about a particular position.
"We're bringing the real world insofar as we can through stories into your living room, and we're trying to use the power of stories to illuminate morally complicated and morally ambiguous situations in the grand tradition" of great TV drama, Gerolmo said.
As a soldier says in "Gunner Palace", "For y'all this is just a show, but we live in this movie."
In Karrada with friend, June 2005
