Mel Gibson's production company has a new documentary out about life on an aircraft carrier. I'd urge all of you to check it out. Read more about it here.
It's amazing what these 18, 19, 20-year old kids do on the flight deck, a land of heat, noise and the constant danger of drowning, being ran over, snapped in half by an arrestor cable, sucked into an intake, burned, asphyxiated, you name it.
Also, I like the warts and all view of the Navy. No sugar-coated "Accelerate Your Life" slick commercials here. They showed this really stupid enlisted female getting busted for having alcohol aboard ship, a BIG no-no. They also showed how the chain of command doesn't always work, especially when it comes to getting ahead and getting out of being the lowest form of life on the enlisted food chain.
The part about the callsigns was hilarious. No Mavericks here. Just ask Dodo how he got his! Great stuff.
The camera work is magnificent and you really get to see a carrier for what it is: a living, breathing warfighting organism rendered in steel, nonskid, composites and flesh. Awesome stuff.
Check it out. It comes on PBS, which is something I haven't watched since Ken Burns' Civil War documentary. To find out when it comes on in your area, go here.
1 comment:
I agree. The look Carrier gives of military service is really unlike anything else I've seen during these years of war and occupation The filmmakers aren't drawing conclusions for us about the larger mission, but they're giving us an idea of what it means in human terms for the US to project power all over the world. I feel like all of us who aren't going to war should watch this. It's at once awesome and pathetic.
PBS is showing it again over the summer an hour at a time.
-Hal
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