Well the woman who directed this partnered with ex-husband James Cameron on Aliens. I guess this trope repeats itself in many movies, and she milked awards from it. Nice if she considered the story of Ripley to be equal to servicemen in this horrific real world we serve in.
i love ho this movie just ignore the fact that USA started the war pretending to search for nuclear weapons that dont exist, at the same time discribes the enemies, the iraqis as terrifying minions who might shoot u in the back if you arent watching. and this movie got the oscar. meanwhile, other popular movie of the same year, Avatar, the protagonist said something ironic, Jake Sully: This is how it's done. When people are sittin' on shit that you want, you make 'em your enemy. Then you're justified in taking it.
Interesting point about the director, Kathryn Bigelow. She has made three movies now that are BASICALLY about people who are addicted to an extreme adrenaline rush. Point Break (about bank robbers who are also into extreme sports), Strange Days (about a futuristic technology that people become addicted to that allows you to experience the violent and/or sexual experiences of other people) and this film, about a soldier addicted to the adrenaline rush of war and makes rash decisions just so he can feel that rush. She definitely likes dealing with these themes. Also, The Hurt Locker is one of the only films I've seen that depicts how the shockwave from a blast is what usually kills, not the fireball.
Strange Days is an underrated movie. Wish it was available on Blu-ray or even streaming. I had a DVD copy 20 years ago, but lost it at some point. It's OOP now I believe (in the US), perhaps it's some music rights issue, or conflicting studio problem why you can't seem to find it anymore.
Kathryn Bigelow made history with this film,by being the first woman to win best director at the Oscars. Very well deserved. All her movies are amazing.
I have a friend whom i went to high school with in 2001-2005 and after high school he joined the army. He worked as an EOD technician, same as this movie. He unfortunately was KIA in 2012 while trying to dismantle a bomb. So this movie kind of hits home a ton with me. RIP Spc Kyle McClain!
You should totally do a reaction to “End of Watch” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Micheal Pena. 10/10 movie and one of my favorites. Does a great job of illustrating what police officers are actually like.
So a few things: these guys are EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) they specialize in blowing up and disposing of IEDs and undetonated munitions. The guys in the desert in the Sniper scene are PMCs (Private Military Contractors) they're basically mercenaries fighting in a war zone that aren't military personnel of either side. Their use in designated war zones is controversial. Despite being unrealistic to real military protocol and tactics, one of the best things is how this movie captures the tension, paranoia and uncertainty of fighting a war against insurgents and guerilla fighters, especially when those insurgents are hiding amongst civilians.
I was never a fan of war movies either until I watched "Patton". My husband pestered me to watch it for 2 years before I finally gave in. After just one viewing it became my all time favorite movie. George C Scott's portrayal of General Patton is nothing short of legendary. I'd love to see your reaction to this masterpiece.
Couldn’t agree more! “Patton,” and George C. Scott are phenomenal. Although I’m curious if you have even watched “Patton 2!” I didn’t even know it existed until a few years ago, and haven’t watched it, as it seemed like a ludicrous concept, even if it still stars Mr. Scott! 🙂☺️
Totally agree! Scott's performance is fantastic And beyond his acting, the whole movie, the sets, locations, production, everything, is excellent... On the flip side though, now I simply can't see George C. Scott in a movie without picturing him as 'General Jack Turgidson', his character in 'Dr. Strangelove'... His portrayal as a gung-ho General in that film is one of the funniest, and best, I've ever seen; he totally steals the show, and that movie is 100% in my Top 5 favorite movies of all time mostly due to his performance! "...But...but... he'll see the Big Board..!"
Bless you, Cassie, for finding the silver lining in this by thanking those brave warriors who give the rest of us this precious blanket of freedom and security by their many sacrifices. I am not a veteran, but I have read a great many of their reactions to this movie, and they are very nearly universally opposed to it on grounds of its extreme degree of inaccuracy, and the particular ways it is inaccurate. Things like, EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) would never go outside the wire without an infantry escort (too valuable), would never conduct a 3-person house raid (that's Special Ops), would never pull on a wire to expose IEDs (improvised explosive devices), would never put on the suit and deactivate the device, but would rather detonate it with robotics. As stressful a job as it is, as are most jobs in a war zone, EOD were not a bunch of adrenaline junkies who couldn't make it back in the world. Hollywood loves this movie as a gritty portrayal of the realities of war and the toll it takes on a person's humanity and sanity. Most veterans think Hollywood should stick to subject matter they know and respect, neither of which describes Hollywood's attitude toward modern war in general, or this one in particular.
That scene where he is staring at ALL the cereal explains why we choose to go back, its just so much easier. I mean, when we deploy, we all have our jobs to do while you are there. It is scary not knowning who you can trust and who you can't, that thought of "the guys in here are mapping our camp"; but if you do not see any children on the streets, something is going to happen; we went out to, didn't see any kids, two days later we where fighting in Najaf.
All of your choices are made for you. What to eat, when to work, when to sleep. When it's time to work, you know the person to your left or right has your back no matter what your personal differences are. It is something I miss, even 20 years later.
I think for Renner’s character it’s more the insignificance. He goes from doing a job that is dangerous, crucial and in the end saves lives, to a world where his wife’s most important decision is picking the right cereal, cleaning gutters and other trivial tasks. That’s why he’s got that big smile on his face at the end. He’s doing what he loves. He doing what matters.
@@PortaPooper Thank you. I was never at the army or etc. But this saying, serving the country in totally sellflessness. And when you come back that soldier cant undertand civilians worries about trivial things. Can you confirm my thoughts. But i see it like that. You join the army with 18 years. At that age i had to learn how to handle my life as an adult. Incurences, finacials, old-age-security, buying a flat, a car, searching for job and neogations for my higher loan, hiering contractors etc.- And then hitting social problems with friends, and many other things that can go wrong. It is not simply easy to become adult. But wheny you are in the millitary for 10 years, you dont learn these things. you have expirienced so much in your time at the army that you think nothing in life can worrie you again. And when you become civilian, your friends at your age have evolved, became independent and you struggeling to understand how taxes work. Ofcourse everybody is differnt and can handle their life differntly. And no one can tell me its more than just a job. yes with ca. 0,2% fatality ( only in afgahnistan) rate one of the most dangarouse jobs, but other jobs are not so fare of and you and its not only for the a short time like serving in afghanistan. But i give them that. There is a lesser chance to become a hero when you deliver amazon packeges even it has fatality rate of 0,025%
@@McPh1741 That does play a part but the filmmakers have also said the cereal aisle is definitely a juxtaposition of how complex the simple life can seem versus how focused a combat life can feel. So, it's a combination of things. So many choices but none of them "matter" versus much fewer choices but every one of them matters.
For me, I eventually just stopped caring. I'm the opposite of twitchy. I always think something bad is about to happen, I'm always ready to grab a knife out when I hear any sound in my house, but my heartrate never gets above 60. About 10 years back I was in a car accident that annihilated half my car and half the car of the girl who hit me. I was perfectly calm kicking the door out of my car, perfectly calm pulling her out of hers, and perfectly calm sitting on the road waiting for cops. There's just nothing there anymore. I don't *want* to die, but I also don't really care if I do. I think I'll be relieved, more than anything.
Some people are made for situations like that and some people go insane from the pressure. I did a very dangerous job for 15 years. Everything I did could lead to death or serious injury. At some point I just accepted my situation and put that worry out of my mind. If you don't, you end up paralyzed by fear and eventually give yourself PTSD b/c you constantly put yourself in a state of anxiety and fear.
@@17thknight Please consider you may need some help with that. Maybe you don't but it never hurts to sit down with a professional or even just a peer group and talk it through. When you were in the field, I imagine you did basic equipment checks even when you were sure the equipment was fine. Your brain is also a valuable piece of equipment. No harm in checking.
I really appreciate you talking about not taking our freedoms for granted. As a veteran, thats the best thing you can say to us, and it goes so much further than the cliche "thank you for your service."
As a veteran I have always loved Flanders Field. Luckily I was never in combat. My father was in Vietnam for 2 and a half years. He is now resting with his friends in Arlington. Here is a poem he showed me years ago. If you are able, save for them a place inside you, And save one backward glance when you are leaving, for the places they can no longer go. Be not ashamed to say you loved them, though you may, or may not have always. Take what they have left, and what they have taught you with their dying, and keep it as your own. And in that time that men decide, and feel safe to call the war insane, take one moment, to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind. Major Michael Davis O'Donnell Dak To, Vietnam. January 1970
@@bugvswindshield: My father survived Vietnam as well. I should have made that more clear. His one wish that he ever mentioned was his desire to be interred at Arlington. I am so glad we were able to get that accomplished for him.
@@geeebuttersnap2433 - why? Mostly somebody from US would say it, and some of the vets don't like that "saying" - especially how they are treated after all that "service" is done (when they got serious PTSD, injuries, or have lost some of the limbs - and it is very difficult to get any long term support for it). And most know that all we are fighting for is some political/corporate interest anyway. And I'm saying that as a vet myself.
This move takes a LOT of liberties with over dramatizing how soldiers act (going rogue, sneaking off base, a 3 man team trying to clear a building with a base full of back up right behind them). However, what it did really well was show how incredibly tense and anxiety ridden operating in Iraq was, having to watch all directions at once, any random person on the street could be a threat in hiding, at any moment an IED could detonate, etc.
This movie doesn't take liberties with over-dramatizing how we act. It outright fictionalizes our war to the point that it is unrecognizable beyond the setting, the gear and uniforms (which they often fuck up), and the weapons. I know what combat in Iraq looked like, and it ain't anything like this. This is some comic book shit. If it was a cartoon and they didn't market it as being the real Iraq war experience I wouldn't hate it so much. But it isn't, and they did. Too many people think that this movie is what OIF was really like because of this dumpster fire of a movie, and twelve years after being forced to sit through it with my ex-girlfriend and her dipshit friends I still hate it just as much.
@@ThunderTaco206 hahahahahahahaha WOW look at me louie much buddy boy. Maybe you should have ended up like Guy Pearce's character so the world wouldnt have to bother with you
Among the things I love about you and your channel/videos: 1) For someone with such limited experience (until now) with movies, your reactions and observations are unexpectedly perceptive and insightful. You'll make an observation comment and then, in the next line or 30 minutes later, you'll be shown to be "correct". 2) Your ability to recognize the value of movies that you don't "like", or that make you uncomfortable, like this one. 3) Your willingness to overcome your preconceptions (e.g., "old" movies are unrelatable) and recognize their redeeming qualities.
Here, here! I agree with all three of your observations. I have noticed that there are a number of other reactors are who are unexposed/opposed to/against "old" movies; wither they are from the 40's or the 90's. Side note: I don't yet consider myself old so can we agree that 90's and 2000's movies aren't either? Cassie has watched seminal war dramas like "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan" at the beginning of her channel. She continues to expose herself to some really heavy material. Coming from her "chick flick-only" background, I admire her courage pushing herself outside her comfort zone. Side note 2: Speaking of courage, we have yet to have her watch "Courage Under Fire" but it's on my list along with "The Pacific" miniseries that followed "Band of Brothers"
@@CYB3R2K In general, I agree with the OP, but yeah, I was pretty disappointed in her Dr. Strange reaction. It's fine, people don't have to agree on everything, but she seemed uncharacteristically obtuse during that one.
Personal story about this. I was watching this with my best friend in college and then was telling me his dad was Navy EOD for a time and while they were watching it, his dad got so frustrated with its portrayal that he stopped the movie and walked out. He also told me a lot of the stories his dad told him while he was serving, honestly a humbling experience. Loved this reaction, for more war movie recommendations, "Flags of Our Fathers," along with "Letters from Iwo Jima." Both were directed by Clint Eastwood and are about the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
That's how it is basically with all films that depict a trade. Never watch Grey's Anatomy with a doctor/nurse, never watch anything about video game creation with a video game dev, never watch anything about IT with a techie, etc. They will never get it fully right.
Cassie, the most sweet and beautiful, I just wanted to thank you for remembering us, the veterans. Canada has been like Britain, a great friend with us American veterans and we truly appreciate your support. Thank you! They are E.O.D. Cassie, Explosive Ordinance Disposal. Somebody has make the bombs not be able to kill our soldiers as they police the area. Plus keep the indigenous people who are innocent safe as well.
@@IanCaine4728 I mean, the supermarket scene at the end wasn't bad. The rest of it is a fucking abomination. My ex-girlfriend and a couple of her friends sprung this shit on me when it came out on DVD a couple years after I got back from Iraq. Did not turn out well.
I just watched this the other week and I love your channel as although you haven’t seen so many great movies over the years in a way seeing your reactions remind me the feelings of how it was seeing these movies for the first time as you don’t get that feeling twice
This movie was praised by critics for its realism, and promptly lambasted by vets for getting nearly every detail and procedure wrong. As a combat engineer who has worked with a lot of EOD (Explosive Ordinance Desposal, that's the unit in this movie), I can tell you that the characters are constantly putting themselves in needless danger or just making their own problems worse. The opening scene would have had that area surrounded and closed off in a wide radius, with soldiers threatening to cut people in half with machine guns if they even tried to approach the area while EOD was working. That car-bomb, for instance, was in an isolated enough spot that it should have been blown up from a safe distance and not messed with. We never kick or pull explosive components, much less as a first resort because you never know what kind of triggers it may have been rigged with. The main character isn't just a suicidal idiot, he actively endangered the lives of everyone around him. Everything about that sniper scene in the desert was absurd from them being picked off at that range by scopeless AK's to the jamming 50 cal rifle, and using spit to clean the blood off it while everyone else is standing around doing nothing. All of it feels like it was written by a child. As far as war films go, this one is pretty low on the ladder. Still worth seeing your reaction though.
Thank you. Thank you. Seriously, thank you. Every single time I see someone reacting to this movie I start getting angry before I even click. So I just pause it the second after I click and start hate-reading the comments. I was a combat medic in an infantry platoon and we had an EOD team living at our COP for a few months. This movie makes me so f***ing angry. I'm a pretty chill dude most of the time. I really am. But this movie...
@@mattyice2099those guys couldn't hit a structure at 400m with AKs let alone hit 3 guys consecutively at distance. The movie is complete fantasy, not just that one scene. 3 EOD guys driving around alone in a single HMMWV, EOD setting up and manning a sniper position (with 3 guys), EOD hunting guys through an unsecured, non-permissive environment (again 3 EOD guys). It's very ridiculous, there's not really any redeemable factors to this movie as far as it's attempt at realism...
@Wile_E._Wolf LOL yeah exactly none of it would happen. The tali with the SVD, if skilled enough and had match grade 54r, could hit those guys. But not that fast and probably not that accurately where they are dead instantly hahaha
@@ThunderTaco206It's a movie. You think movies about schools or hospitals or whatever are realistic? Plot over realism. If you want realism, watch a documentary.
I'm combat engineer with EOD 1. Sadly I never got the opportunity for EOD 2. They only chose 4 guys from our platoon for the training. They do some extremely risky shit in this movie. You should not touch anything you don't have to. Just identify and blow it up. Also the suit keeps you safe to some point but you'll probably get your hands blown off. If it's a bigger explosion then you die but your body stays mostly intact so you can go home to your family in one piece.
I have a friend that was EOD in Iraq in this timeframe. He said that they stayed in the Humvee 90% of the time and used the EOD Drone to do most of the work. He said they were royally pissed off when they did have to go out in person.
When Desert Storm was well under way I had the opportunity to go to Iraq as a contractor to drive trucks. I went and was there a year and 2 months. There was a company that supplied cargo transport vehicles and drivers and if we stayed over a year all the money we made while there was tax free. I drove tankers that delivered water and fuel to the bases and outlying posts. Tankers were targeted more than other vehicles because of the possibility we were transporting fuel at the time. We always had a military escort no matter where we went. IEDs were the main threat to us. The type of devices they are disarming in this movie. When we weren't driving we were required to stay in the base areas for safety. It is an experience I will never forget. The stress knowing that at any moment my life could be over was extremely hard to handle sometimes. I could not imagine what it would be like for the combat soldiers that were there. I did one tour and that was enough for me. While I would never want to do that again I am glad I did do it. I learned a lot about myself from that experience. The experience made me appreciate our military personnel more than I already did before going there.
That was good when even you knew at the scene where he pulled several artillery shells out of the ground by wires, that you don't just pull on wires that you find buried in the ground. I've seen military vets react to this film, and they said among the many unrealistic scenes in it, that one was one of the worst. Even Cassie knows not to just tug on wires sticking out of the ground in a war zone!
Also he was pulling up some 400 lbs or so, those things ain't light. I have a friend who was EOD and he hates this movie with a passion with how much it constantly gets wrong, not just the bomb stuff but also the uniform errors.
@@worsel555 Yes. It's wrong, but, NOT inaccurate. The EOD team leader was based on a real EOD tech, who came out and said it was based on him, and EOD guys like myself dealt with guys like him in the field. So yes, the way it's SUPPOSED to be done and "wrong" in the film because of that, isn't WRONG, because idiot's in the field do that shit, and The Hurt Locker made a movie about one of those moron's.
@Paul J. Phelan - partly true, as this is just a movie. But also... the scene when he was doing his shopping is pretty much spot on. A lot of vets cannot find themselves in a normal reality, they are craving in a way to go back there - as this is the only reality they know (war, or being on deployment). And it is very difficult for them to ajust to a "normal" (cilivian) life. A lot also doesn't know anything beyond military life. If you have a classic PTSD, any other psychologial issues that they have later on, injuries, or more serious health issues - yeah... all of that doesn't look great, and I think at some point the move was trying to show that problem, beyond any obvious "mistakes" (as I recall the budget for that movie was not that great either, so this also limited the realism of some of the issues).
On a more light-hearted note, when my dad was a civilian contractor for the military, he saw soldiers in the EOD bomb suit several times. One event that stood out was when the soldiers had a competition (whether they were EOD or not). They'd put on the suit and see who could run 100 meters the fastest. Since the suit weighs 80 pounds or more and the base he was at was in a desert in the US, the competition quickly turned into only how far the suit wearer could run before tapping out.
Thank you so much. You and your reactions put a smile on my face when my wife and I had to go though her cancer. Thank tou she is all done and cance free. So thank you again for making use both smile. Much love
What movie best encapsulates my military experience... definitely Jarhead. The story of Anthony Swofford, a Marine that served during the first Gulf War. A great story about what it's like being a Marine. I really enjoyed the book too.
Jeremy Renner's first Oscar nominated performance, and then he was nominated for "The Town", the following year. This movie is a classic, and received multiple Oscars, and they were well deserved.
You should watch the 1946 movie, "The Best Years of our Lives", a movie about military men returning home after war. It won multiple academy awards. Everything you like in movies, even romance.
Hey: I served 3 years in infantry reserve. I never deployed in foreign missions or any combat zones, but from my training I know that it typically goes like this: 1x platton (20-60 people) of infantrymen- carrying variety of wpns including rifles, granade launchers, M72s and Carl Gs (bazookas, if you will), light machine guns and GPMGs (general purpose machines guns- I was trained to use a carry the tripod system allowing this weapon to fire up 5kms affecting a wide area). Sometimes also backed up by artillery and/or mortar section. 3x Field medics- typically carrying rifles, but most field medics I trained with were also trained on the machine guns. 1-2 radio/signals. Carrying the huge fucking radio like a G. 1-2 sections (8-12 people) of combat engineers. Typically carry explosive charges, and other specialized equipment for the mission. On top of carrying a rifle. These guys are normally the ones that ACTUALLY go and deal with defusing/finding landmines. Though as an infantryman I was narrowly trained on how to scan for explosive wire, because well, ain't no way the few combat engineers are gonna personally escort every infantryman into every building. There can be other people that go on the mission, depending on the actual objective. But a typical exercise (training event) would form teams of about 100-150 people from different units and bearing different responsibilities to work together a defeat a simulated enemy. One I didn't include- Armoured/Cavalry units. Because even teams of infantry have their own vehicles and troop transport system, but if you are doing anything LAV or Tank or Mounted GPMG, it typically involves them.
You're wrong about a couple things, but right about a couple. An active duty infantry platoon only has one medic. Source: Am former infantry combat medic and Iraq vet Combat engineers are NOT typically allowed to BIP anything larger than a couple pounds, so most IEDs are going to require EOD intervention. Unfortunately EOD usually takes hours to get there, even in a place like Baghdad where they are relatively close no matter where they are based out of. There are a finite number of EOD teams in each AO, and they take calls in order they receive them. They also have to have an escort of at least three vehicles. If they end up contacted, or if they're on site long enough, they'll have to go back to the FOB and refit before going to the next call. Takes FOREVER. That said, you are absolutely correct that EOD doesn't ever go out by themselves. And engineers sure as shit aren't going into a building ahead of infantry. In fact, most infantry companies don't have engineers attached anyway. During the GWOT everything got restructured in active duty because of the need for dedicated route clearance packages to defeat IEDs ahead of large convoys. That is almost entirely what combat engineers did for most of OIF and OEF.
One of these days please watch The Best Years of Our Lives. 1946 Best Picture Oscar plus 6 more Oscars. It is one of the best depictions of veterans returning home and emphasizes the importance of family in helping them readjust.
My cousin, who was in the Marines for 20 years, goes out and disarms unexploded ordinance all over the world. Now he works for a company that does it. A lot of mines and cluster bombs.
Now after seeing you watching this movie I'd like to recommend 'Jarhead' to you. It's starring Jake Gyllenhaal (I know you like him) and Jamie Foxx and was directed by Sam Mendes (that's the one who also directed '1917'). It is based on a book of the same name written by an ex-Marine-sniper named Anthony Swafford, and in it he describes his very personal experiences during the 1991 Gulf War.
@@StayFractalesque Yes, I think so too, especially the way he portrays this very special kind of madness that one obviously must have to function as a marine and the scenes with the burning oil wells were so spooky and impressive. Almost like the real thing.
@@Utonian21 However, this applies to every reasonably good war movie, otherwise it would have to be called propaganda. It's rather the narrative style, which is subjective but also exemplary for the reality for so many soldiers, seems to me what makes this film special. If I remember correctly, only 'All Quiet on the Western Front' works in a similar way.
I was an EWO in Iraq. They would have Vehicle Receiver Jammer CVRJ systems to jam most cell phone or RCIED. It was to 100% and there are other ways to detonate such as Victim operated. Just watched a few videos of yours. Your off the cuff comments are actually insightful. You may not articulate the issues with a film like a professional critic but you manage to hit the target.
This was an intense movie, I remember seeing it in theaters when it came out. My friends and I were at a lose for words for about 10 mins after. All we could say was how amazing the film was. It is no surprise that it won Best Picture that year.
This movie was so dumb and incredibly inaccurate it is a wonder it won the Oscar but the fact that Libtards run Hollywood and reward other Libtards it wasn’t too surprising. Try watching The Longest Day or A Bridge Too Far for accuracy.
My Oldest Son is a Veteran, and as his Father he will always be my 'little boy' in My Heart. He is truly a Man who's done So much, keep our country free🇺🇸👊🙏
Cassie, it's another non-Patreon film suggestion. Haha. I know you watched several versions of "A Christmas Carol" last year, but the absolute best version of the holiday classic is *"SCROOGE"* (1970) with Albert Finney and Alec Guinness. It is a musical version and SPECTACULAR! You won't regret it. *"Thank you very much!...*
Specialist is an Army rank they created because their promotion system is a bottleneck and there were too many soldiers stuck at Private First Class, so they made "Specialist" which is the same paygrade as Corporal, but wedged between PFC and Corporal.
Thought that a Corporal was a nco leadership role like squad leader and will attend BLC for promotion. Specialist rank is non nco type role and most Specialist do not attend BLC.
That is incorrect. Specialist used to go all the way up to E-9. Periodically when I was in from 2007-2011 you'd still hear the term Spec4 because of this. As in Spec4, Spec7, etc. The specialist ranks were created to allow soldiers with a great deal of aptitude in their MOS but without a lot of leadership potential to still move up in rank. They were scrapped in the 80s, but Specialist was kept as the default E4 paygrade in lieu of corporal. Corporal was later reinstated as a junior NCO rank, but while I knew several corporals, none of them were promoted directly from PFC. All of them were made corporals laterally from SPC. CPL is widely regarded as the worst rank in the Army. Same pay as a Specialist, same responsibility as a SGT, and if there is a shitty detail that requires a NCO, you're going to get it. CPL is also fairly rare in the enlisted ranks. Most who make SGT are promoted directly from SPC.
Great reaction again, Cassie! If you’re interested in more war/military films, there’s a lot to recommend, but right now I’d suggest you check out PLATOON (1986), PORK CHOP HILL (1959), BATTLE CIRCUS (1953), TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (1949), THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961), and PATTON (1970).
I always got the feeling James WANTED to die. He put himself in a low % survival situation multiple times and even gave his teammates the option to do it while giving them a excuse "the detonators always fail.' The ending when he looked out of place at the store and then immediately reenlisting made me solidify my opinion that he was trying to die. His first bomb defuse he even bumps into the guy that was suppose to detonate it and looked like made fun of him but waving the charge in the guys face, like he was egging him on like 'haha you lost this time.'
It isn't about wanting to die, it's literally doing everything to feel alive. The simplest time in life is when you're just trying to survive. Day in, day out. The real world is so gray that there's no vibrancy to it, no color.
Nah to me he's playing a game of chicken with death. He's used to feeling death on his shoulder so he wants to see just how close he can get. Oddly enough there are many examples of this in real life.
I also think its more about him not feeling alive without this. Which equals death for him, so why care about the risk, he would die either way, spritually or actually.
You’ve seen many of the war classics: this movie, Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket, Hacksaw Ridge, Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, Fury, Dunkirk, and 1917. Here are five more for you to watch: Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Born On the Fourth of July, The Deer Hunter, and American Sniper. I believe all of these movies were nominated for awards. Some won. All of them are intense and good, in different ways. They’ll add to your knowledge base.
The scene where Renner's character is home, reunited with his family and he's in the grocery store looking at hundreds of different cereals and unable to even comprehend which one to choose ...because no matter which choice he makes there are no consequences. The fact that he had forgotten how to even comprehend a choice without consequences I think is the true thunder of this film. It shows what war does to those who have served. It makes the rest of Thier lives all about war, and they never truly forget those days or years that they spent fighting that war. It is now just as much a part of them as their own blood and that to me is the true horror of it. It can't be surgically removed. No shrink can make them forget. They are trained how to fight, how to shoot, how to disarm huge bombs, how to kill with knives and even their bare hands, all without thinking. They practice it and then perform it untill they can do it in their sleep...but when it comes time to go home, if they even make it out alive, there is no way to untrain them. They can still do it in Thier sleep. That cereal aisle was too much for him to understand. By that time, war was all he understood and that is the reason he goes back to it, and probably will until it kills him. Harrowing, horrifying and very, very real for many of these warriors. God bless them and keep them, Americans, Canadians, all of them. Please God let them be able to come home and find some semblance of peace. Great reaction, Cassie.
Heh. As a retired sapper myself I can honestly say (aside from the brain injury, fractured neck, compressed spine, limp left arm, and permanent nerve damage to my left leg) that fiddling about with explosives, IEDs, mines, and recovered ordinance with the EOD wallahs on a couple of tours were fun times. Great film, though sadly not quite how the work gets done.
Wasn't in the military myself but my friends dad fought in Vietnam and swore up and down that the explosive disposal guys were always crazy. He told me that when they'd set up Forward Bases they'd basically put up chain link around the bases because RPGs have an impact detonator in the nose of the explosive and chain link could basically catch them. Only problem was they'd get lodged in the fencing and it was up to the EOD guys to go safely remove them. My buddy's dad swears to this day that he witnessed one in boxers and a tanktop with no kit except a helmet walking up and down the fence line banging them with a hammer to unlodge them.
Have you reacted to any of the "Naked Gun/Police squad" movies? Leslie Nielsen is great in these, they're slapstick comedy, a nice break from these intense action, war movies.
14:25 William James (Renner) is either a Staff Sergeant (E-6) (per IMDb) or Sergeant First Class (E-7) (per wikipedia). Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) is a Sergeant (E-5). Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is a Specialist (E-4). Either way, James outranks both of them. EDIT: 16:45 they're British private contractors (mercenaries). During the early stages in the Iraq invasion, the US-led Coalition developed a set of 'Playing Cards' to help Coalition troops identify certain members of Saddam Hussein's government (with Saddam himself as the Ace of Spades). Those guys had 2 of them in their custody. When the shooting started, the leader (Ralph Fiennes), having already known that the bounty on their heads was the same whether they were dead or alive, killed them to keep them from escaping.
This movie is great, despite the inaccuracies and over dramatization. What I think this movie does best with is the dark humor. In certain branches of the military, in certain career fields, there are a lot of depressing and scary things. Dark humor is one of the coping mechanisms that some people use to get through it. These moments are not understood by most people and forms special bonds with the people you experience them with. That's about the simplest way I can explain it, but I think the movie does a great job visualizing it because the characters work so well with each other despite them constantly fighting each other. In fact their fighting is one of their coping mechanisms to form such great synergy.
i am a ranger i was with the 75th. I worked with a few bomb guys in both sandboxes. After Iraq and Afghanistan i did a few years of contracting in different parts of the world. Its a funny thing how they can teach you how to love something so much, but they cant teach you how to turn it off when its time.
Love your channel. I would love to see you react to Restrepo and it's sequel Korengal. 2 great documentaries by Sebastian Junger about the war in Afghanistan.
I forgot that so many MCU actors were in this movie before that series really took off, Renner of course, but also Anthony Mackie, Evangeline Lilly, and Guy Pierce
so back when this movie came out, i watched it with my Dad who was a Combat engineer in Vietnam, which of course, these are considered as Combat Engineers in the new Army. so i was watching this and my dad would be telling me so much about mine clearing and clearing enemy clearings and such and what not after we watched this together. ive only seen it once and yeah truly a good movie. :P good reaction :)
There's nothing more terrifying than being in those situations. But there is nothing that feels better than surviving them, both in the instant, and collectively. It is sort of addictive. And not in a good way where you seek the high. No. It is different. You become aclimated to life or death situations to the point that your chemistry and wiring, your very personality and logic are geared towards emotionally surviving these situations. It is the brains way to cope with the impossible. The reason people start seeking high risk behavior isn't for the high, as much as it is to feel ANYTHING. To feel alive at all, or to feel a purpose or reason. That scene, shopping in the supermarket, playing with your kid at home. You can enjoy those things, but they don't feel real. You feel disconnected, a ghost. It's NOT a good feeling. And it can take years before your body again will aclimate to normal life. And in most cases it WILL. IF you can avoid the pitfals of drug use, prescribed or not, or alcoholism, or being abusive, or some other risk seeking behavior, whether it is war, or crime, or crime fighting, whatever. The only cure for young men who experience these things, is time. And avoiding the temptation to feed the adrenaline to feel alive. This happens to cops, soldiers, firefighters in extreme conditions. It is not everybody's story. But a lot of combat units that saw heavy risk, and virtually all bomb disposal units, over a period of time, you do aclimate to the danger, which desensitizes you to almost everything else in some cases. It makes it hard to function in relationships when you go home. It's good to have friends and counselors, even family, who can relate and understand. This also happens to criminals who are in gangs who are at risk of kill or be killed on a daily basis. They too become desensitized, and can never go home, because they are already AT home. All they can do is go to jail, which is just another form of hell, or try to escape the life.which is an impossiblity for many of them. This is a really good movie because it shows what it is like to be at risk of death all the time, to the point where it is normalized. And what happens to people when they are in that state. The two soldiers talking about wasting their team leader, because if the high risk of him getting them killed. The team leader not being able to stay home and adjust to a less risky existence. The likelyhood very strong that if he keeps going back and doing the same thing, he will eventually die. But in the meantime, at least he will FEEL like he is alive. Not a ghost. Databyter
So the main characters portray EOD.. Explosive Ordinance Disposal, essentially the guys that neutralize explosives. In the conflicts they focus on recovering/disarming/destroying IEDs or Booby Traps. You would expect that destroying would be quicker and safer but ultimately recovering and disarming is more beneficial. Each IED is a crime scene from which you can learn new tactics and techniques the enemy is using to defeat the militaries' countermeasures. It is the same reason why the locals always record, they want to capture the tactics being used to neutralize their explosives (going so far as to set fake charges just to see tactics).. It is a continuous game of adaptation that occurs. Any explosion going off is investigated and cataloged for the think tanks... each sector in the larger area of operation has a particular style of booby/IED being used. Its how trends are spotted and information passed down to various units. Activating the IEDs/explosives themselves have various methods..it could be activated by a phone, a direct wire that operates from a button, or even locally when the victim operates/completes the circuit that is set up at the site..... think of the circuits as activating a blasting cap (the small silver piece he cuts early on) the little boom that kicks of the bigger explosive.... each of these activation methods has a counter.... Its a very intricate game where simple low budget adjustments made by the bad guys require flexibility and adaptation by troops on the ground...
BIP, or blow in place, is the preferred method. If you cannot BIP, due to proximity to structures, people, etc, then you render safe and move to a place you can dispose.
The team is referred to as EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal). Day to day operations EOD guys deal with dud weapons such as bombs, grenades, artillery shells, and when deployed IED (improvised explosive devices much of what is depicted in the movie. They also deal with domestic stuff such as the US president visits and in Europe alot of EOD units deal with unexploded bombs from WW2. No joke the British Army EOD is called all year round for bombs they've found scewed throughout the contry. The guys they run into are contractors, civilians ex military. Iraq and Afghanistan highlighted the use of hired civilian contractors to minimize military casualties. If a contractor dies its no issue, if they got wounded they didn't get benefits because theyre not military. Lastly as cvilian contractors they are not bound by the military code of justice and so are free to commit other duties the military would be in hot water for. "Blackwater" was just one of several in Iraq and now operates under a different name doing the same work.
Have you never seen, Passchendaele (2008) its based on a Canadian Soldier/Soldiers in WW1 and its a love story too. Not sure if its Canadian made but it was shot in Canada. If you haven't seen it should maybe watch it with your sister
🙋♂️ I'm a iraq war us army veteran and I liked Scott Eastwood THE OUTPOST, like this too and many others! Truth is and obviously, any movie will lack some realism and accuracy from the real thing because, obviously, you cannot show the real exact thing! That would be going to combat and record it and showing it on theaters, plus the obvious confidential things not for civilian eyes and ears! But you do a great job on this videos! Love them👍
That's a shitty excuse, bro. No one is asking them film the real thing to be "totally accurate". Much of this movie is inaccurate and turns what could have been a look into the lives of an EOD tech into a hollow Hollywood blockbuster. It's the same problem with Hacksaw Ridge; that movie is a disgrace to Desmond Doss' legacy and all of us combat medics.
I was deployed twice and I enjoyed this film. It might not be the most accurate, but not many modern ones are nowadays. At the end of the day, its a hollywood movie designed to entertain us. The only reason it gets crapped on by vets is because it won best picture and people think they can do better
You sure you're a veteran? That's a weird take to have for someone whose supposedly been downrange to think that's the only reason someone deployed might take issue with the film? Two-time CSAR IAVA here. A lot of guys crap on the movie because it got a reputation for being a "realistic" approach to how we handle modern conflicts in the Middle East, which is wholly untrue. As a functioning piece of entertainment, it does its job. Even the dark humor matches pretty well with how we tend to cope. However, in the end it takes some pretty heavy liberties to get the drama across and paints EOD techs like some kind of modern-day John Wayne that refuses to follow in-place procedures and romanticizes some glaring inaccuracies (like the dramatic shot where he pulls on an entire unidentified daisy chained set of IEDs even when he sees that the connections go in all directions). No one would work with a guy that reckless. Everyone's trying to make it home, not put up with some wanna-be cowboy's personal issues.
Lol jesus this is what I mean. It’s a damn film, stop reading too much into it. It’s clear that the protag is unhinged, no one is suggesting that every EOD tech is like this 😂 Yes I’m a veteran and we made fun of people like you
Regarding the opening scene, Plan A in bomb defusal is to set up a smaller bomb next to it, which is then blown to wreck all the wiring. Increasingly, this smaller bomb is set against an angled tank of water, with the explosion effectively turning it into a cutting force (like with a power washer). This is so much safer (and easier) than trying to dismantle the thing by hand.
This film. Oh, this film. For a film that tried to position itself as “the Iraq war movie” it is, amongst servicemen and veterans, widely considered a joke. From the cringe worthy disregard for comms to the “world’s strongest man moment” (when he lifts those 155 shells), just about every part of this movie is canon fodder. What’s more annoying is that it’s actually not too bad of a movie.
In the end of the day, it's a decently good movie. But dammit, a lot of shit in it annoys the fuck out of all combat veterans, and rightfully so too, lmao.
I'm a combat vet and EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) guys have one of the hardest jobs in the military. Having to hunt down and trying to disarm IEDs (improvised explosive devices), in the midst of a potential combat zones, takes a lot of resolve under pressure (especially when a lot of those devices are planted in civilian areas). Motion, radio frequencies, cell phones and hidden triggers can potentially detonate the device right under the soldier. These guys save so many lives, all at the risk of their own. This movie is a definite gem that highlights their sacrifice and shows the impact of such a terrifying job.
This movie has a lot of the same problems for EOD that a lot of us combat medics have with Hacksaw Ridge. They're so blatantly inaccurate and played up for drama that it's incredibly frustrating for someone who actually performs those jobs. Yes, movies should be entertaining and plenty of other films make the same mistakes, but this is generally the go-to movie that non-military personnel point to as an indicator of what EOD life is like (like combat medics in Hacksaw Ridge) when it's just romanticizing and misinforming people. I won't say it's an awful movie, per se, only that I'm not surprised so many veterans were against the movie's portrayal. It's hard to give credit to the movie for highlighting the struggles these guys go through without also being disappointed in the manner they went about it. It feels more like an hollow (if patriotic) gesture than a real attempt to look into the lives of someone in the role. Nobody's going to work with this kind of cowboy--that turns off his comms, disobeys protocol, pulls up an entirely buried daisy-chain (not feasible or practical) and endangers his guys just for his own personal issues. It's a fucking disgrace to show him as "badass" and brave in a movie that tries to depict itself as the de-facto "Iraq War" movie.
Congrats on watching this one. This movie makes those who've never been deployed, like myself truly appreciate the psyche of what the military goes through. I've never been but my brothers and others I have met have. The chaos, brutality, and unrelenting tension in this movie is second to none. You're a trooper for getting through this one Cassie, and I dare say, more connected to those whom you have thanked for your defense.
I hate to tell you this, but this movie is incredibly insulting to OIF vets. It is incredibly inaccurate. I mean painfully so. It is genuinely rage-inducing.
@@ThunderTaco206 I've heard that before. It's easy to see why too. Still I think the movie does a good job of portraying the emotions some may go through when a team member is a loose cannon.
@@spasjt A dude who does stuff like this gets killed very quickly or ends up in serious trouble almost immediately because he gets someone else killed. No one would tolerate his BS for even a single trip outside the wire.
@@ThunderTaco206 No doubt he would and that's where the film falls short, it splits with the reality of real life military discipline and instead shows what happens when military discipline is lacking but tries to maintain the real life situations parameters.
@@spasjt That's not it either. None of what happens is remotely plausible. At all. EOD does jot operate like that. They roll with an escort of typically three to four infantry or cav scout vehicles at all times. They also always have their own gunner up in the turret. That sniper scene was so ridiculous it is laughable, and his little solo jaunt off-base is absolutely out of the realm of possibility. The end where they go clear the buildings looking for the bad guy is bs too. EOD does not do that at all, and NO ONE would do that with only three people. They'd get schwacked. I spent 14 months in Baghdad as a combat medic in an infantry platoon. I've been in combat in the war this movie depicts, during the time it portrays, and I've been part of an EOD escort more than once. Literally the ONLY scene that carries even a whiff of reality is the supermarket at the end where he's overwhelmed by too many cereal choices. There is nothing in this film's depiction of EOD or the war in Iraq that is reflective of reality in any way shape or form, and what is so infuriating is that so many people who don't know any better think that it is.
This movie is tough for me to connect with because it's so foreign to my experience...in the same war. It's not a bad movie (and Renner is good in his role), but it's just so far from reality in so many ways. The characters just don't ring true (with my experience). 'Generation Kill' however...that's pretty damn accurate. So many of those guys (and their conversations/situations) were exactly like what my time in Iraq was like.
FYI, Renners, James is actually one rank above Wilsons Sanborn. But James pulled what could be interpreted as a procedure violation and thats why Sanborn clocked him. James took it because if he reports Sanborn, he has to face the possibility of Sanborn revealing his deed to Senior Leadership. Also, there are people who absolutely thrive while being deployed, and thats not necessarily a bad thing. Back here, they feel useless and cant hold down a job (mainly PTSD), but over there, they could crush the ones here in comparison to their jobs vs civilian equivalent job. So yes. Someone finishing a 365 rotation and then a few months later, going back for more is actually realistic
A movie that I think you should follow this with is "The Kingdom" staring Jamie Fox, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman. Great movie. ... Another is "Taking Chance" staring Kevin Bacon. But I think you may have seen that one last year? ... maybe? It's such a great movie.
If' you haven't reacted to "Megan Leavey"give it a shot, it's a movie about a girl and her dog. She is a United States Marine, Rex her dog is also a Marine trained to stiff out bombs (IED) during the hight of the Iraq War. They work as a team to locate Improvised Explosive Devices, so another team like those in this movie can disarm or destroy the explosive boobie traps Rex and Megan find. "Megan Leavey" is based on a true story.
Staff Sergeant William James: [Speaking to his son] You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your mommy, your daddy, your nature pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yeah. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things that you love might not seem so special anymore, you know? Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal, but the older you get, the fewer things you really love, and by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.
My war movie recommendations include A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day, Platoon, Rescue Dawn, Courage Under Fire, A Midnight Clear, Gallipoli, Das Boot, and Apocalypse Now.
Platoon is a hard watch, maybe not quite as bad as Full Metal Jacket but close. Gallipoli is a good one, and very underrated. Also it's much more of a human story with the war as a backdrop. A Midnight Clear is another good human story. A Bridge Too Far is great. Cassie liked Band of Brothers so I think she would enjoy that one, too. And it has a stellar cast. And I have to put in a vote for Born On The 4th Of July, in my opinion Tom Cruise's best performance out of all of his films.
"It feels like something bad is going to happen all the time." That is what PTSD is. Even when you come back home you can't shut that feeling off.
Fuck bro you just nailed it
High five brother. Snaps, car horns, loud children, barking dogs. Yep
Well the woman who directed this partnered with ex-husband James Cameron on Aliens. I guess this trope repeats itself in many movies, and she milked awards from it. Nice if she considered the story of Ripley to be equal to servicemen in this horrific real world we serve in.
Shell shock
i love ho this movie just ignore the fact that USA started the war pretending to search for nuclear weapons that dont exist, at the same time discribes the enemies, the iraqis as terrifying minions who might shoot u in the back if you arent watching. and this movie got the oscar.
meanwhile, other popular movie of the same year, Avatar, the protagonist said something ironic, Jake Sully: This is how it's done. When people are sittin' on shit that you want, you make 'em your enemy. Then you're justified in taking it.
Definitely watch Wind River. Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen are great in it.
That's a great recommendation. Wind River is a fabulous film.
I agree 100%... great recommendation!
My favourite Jeremy Renner movie. By far.
mmm elizabeth olsen
Love that movie just because how rough and cold it is and how it just breaks your heart. It was hard for me to watch but so very worth it.
Interesting point about the director, Kathryn Bigelow. She has made three movies now that are BASICALLY about people who are addicted to an extreme adrenaline rush. Point Break (about bank robbers who are also into extreme sports), Strange Days (about a futuristic technology that people become addicted to that allows you to experience the violent and/or sexual experiences of other people) and this film, about a soldier addicted to the adrenaline rush of war and makes rash decisions just so he can feel that rush. She definitely likes dealing with these themes.
Also, The Hurt Locker is one of the only films I've seen that depicts how the shockwave from a blast is what usually kills, not the fireball.
Strange Days is an underrated movie. Wish it was available on Blu-ray or even streaming. I had a DVD copy 20 years ago, but lost it at some point. It's OOP now I believe (in the US), perhaps it's some music rights issue, or conflicting studio problem why you can't seem to find it anymore.
Don't forget about Zero Dark Thirty.
What usually kills is fragmentation, but the blast can do the job if there’s enough of it.
Kathryn Bigelow made history with this film,by being the first woman to win best director at the Oscars. Very well deserved. All her movies are amazing.
No, fragmentation kills you. Hence, the use of fragmentation type devices and materials.
I have a friend whom i went to high school with in 2001-2005 and after high school he joined the army. He worked as an EOD technician, same as this movie. He unfortunately was KIA in 2012 while trying to dismantle a bomb. So this movie kind of hits home a ton with me.
RIP Spc Kyle McClain!
Another fantastic Jeremy Renner film is Wind River. Tragic Native American story, amazing cinematography, good soundtrack, and the cast is top notch.
Jeremy Renner's performance in this film is nothing short of outstanding in this.
should of won the oscar tbh
@@DannyCosmos *should've
eh idk about all that. seems kind of average. the movie is definitely average
@@JoshuaDay0550 thats just like your opinion man. i disagree. movie is great to me
@@JoshuaDay0550 I found the the movie difficult to watch because it was so inaccurate.
You should totally do a reaction to “End of Watch” with Jake Gyllenhaal and Micheal Pena. 10/10 movie and one of my favorites. Does a great job of illustrating what police officers are actually like.
Facts, I hope she does
Ooo ooh it'll wreck her! Such a good movie
Yes that one hurts so much but it’s because of how much they work for it at the end
So a few things:
these guys are EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal) they specialize in blowing up and disposing of IEDs and undetonated munitions.
The guys in the desert in the Sniper scene are PMCs (Private Military Contractors) they're basically mercenaries fighting in a war zone that aren't military personnel of either side. Their use in designated war zones is controversial.
Despite being unrealistic to real military protocol and tactics, one of the best things is how this movie captures the tension, paranoia and uncertainty of fighting a war against insurgents and guerilla fighters, especially when those insurgents are hiding amongst civilians.
I was never a fan of war movies either until I watched "Patton". My husband pestered me to watch it for 2 years before I finally gave in. After just one viewing it became my all time favorite movie. George C Scott's portrayal of General Patton is nothing short of legendary. I'd love to see your reaction to this masterpiece.
Couldn’t agree more! “Patton,” and George C. Scott are phenomenal. Although I’m curious if you have even watched “Patton 2!” I didn’t even know it existed until a few years ago, and haven’t watched it, as it seemed like a ludicrous concept, even if it still stars Mr. Scott! 🙂☺️
Totally agree! Scott's performance is fantastic And beyond his acting, the whole movie, the sets, locations, production, everything, is excellent... On the flip side though, now I simply can't see George C. Scott in a movie without picturing him as 'General Jack Turgidson', his character in 'Dr. Strangelove'... His portrayal as a gung-ho General in that film is one of the funniest, and best, I've ever seen; he totally steals the show, and that movie is 100% in my Top 5 favorite movies of all time mostly due to his performance! "...But...but... he'll see the Big Board..!"
@@masamune2984 Patton 2?!? No way!! Never heard of it in my life!
Amazing movie
Bless you, Cassie, for finding the silver lining in this by thanking those brave warriors who give the rest of us this precious blanket of freedom and security by their many sacrifices. I am not a veteran, but I have read a great many of their reactions to this movie, and they are very nearly universally opposed to it on grounds of its extreme degree of inaccuracy, and the particular ways it is inaccurate. Things like, EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) would never go outside the wire without an infantry escort (too valuable), would never conduct a 3-person house raid (that's Special Ops), would never pull on a wire to expose IEDs (improvised explosive devices), would never put on the suit and deactivate the device, but would rather detonate it with robotics. As stressful a job as it is, as are most jobs in a war zone, EOD were not a bunch of adrenaline junkies who couldn't make it back in the world. Hollywood loves this movie as a gritty portrayal of the realities of war and the toll it takes on a person's humanity and sanity. Most veterans think Hollywood should stick to subject matter they know and respect, neither of which describes Hollywood's attitude toward modern war in general, or this one in particular.
That scene where he is staring at ALL the cereal explains why we choose to go back, its just so much easier. I mean, when we deploy, we all have our jobs to do while you are there.
It is scary not knowning who you can trust and who you can't, that thought of "the guys in here are mapping our camp"; but if you do not see any children on the streets, something is going to happen; we went out to, didn't see any kids, two days later we where fighting in Najaf.
All of your choices are made for you. What to eat, when to work, when to sleep. When it's time to work, you know the person to your left or right has your back no matter what your personal differences are. It is something I miss, even 20 years later.
I think for Renner’s character it’s more the insignificance. He goes from doing a job that is dangerous, crucial and in the end saves lives, to a world where his wife’s most important decision is picking the right cereal, cleaning gutters and other trivial tasks. That’s why he’s got that big smile on his face at the end. He’s doing what he loves. He doing what matters.
@@PortaPooper Thank you. I was never at the army or etc. But this saying, serving the country in totally sellflessness. And when you come back that soldier cant undertand civilians worries about trivial things.
Can you confirm my thoughts.
But i see it like that. You join the army with 18 years. At that age i had to learn how to handle my life as an adult. Incurences, finacials, old-age-security, buying a flat, a car, searching for job and neogations for my higher loan, hiering contractors etc.- And then hitting social problems with friends, and many other things that can go wrong. It is not simply easy to become adult. But wheny you are in the millitary for 10 years, you dont learn these things. you have expirienced so much in your time at the army that you think nothing in life can worrie you again. And when you become civilian, your friends at your age have evolved, became independent and you struggeling to understand how taxes work.
Ofcourse everybody is differnt and can handle their life differntly.
And no one can tell me its more than just a job. yes with ca. 0,2% fatality ( only in afgahnistan) rate one of the most dangarouse jobs, but other jobs are not so fare of and you and its not only for the a short time like serving in afghanistan.
But i give them that. There is a lesser chance to become a hero when you deliver amazon packeges even it has fatality rate of 0,025%
@@McPh1741 That does play a part but the filmmakers have also said the cereal aisle is definitely a juxtaposition of how complex the simple life can seem versus how focused a combat life can feel. So, it's a combination of things.
So many choices but none of them "matter" versus much fewer choices but every one of them matters.
That was the only scene in the movie i could relate to
I always forget about Ralph Fiennes' cameo in this. He's so versatile and fantastic.
Hated that he died.
And you might say his fate was very Avada Kedavra like
"I feel like something bad can happen at any moment."
Yup. And it's hard to explain how it affects you.
I've never successfully communicated how hard living like that fucks you up.
For me, I eventually just stopped caring. I'm the opposite of twitchy. I always think something bad is about to happen, I'm always ready to grab a knife out when I hear any sound in my house, but my heartrate never gets above 60. About 10 years back I was in a car accident that annihilated half my car and half the car of the girl who hit me. I was perfectly calm kicking the door out of my car, perfectly calm pulling her out of hers, and perfectly calm sitting on the road waiting for cops. There's just nothing there anymore. I don't *want* to die, but I also don't really care if I do. I think I'll be relieved, more than anything.
Some people are made for situations like that and some people go insane from the pressure. I did a very dangerous job for 15 years. Everything I did could lead to death or serious injury. At some point I just accepted my situation and put that worry out of my mind. If you don't, you end up paralyzed by fear and eventually give yourself PTSD b/c you constantly put yourself in a state of anxiety and fear.
@@17thknight That's actually a symptom of PTSD. You may want to get some help.
@@17thknight Please consider you may need some help with that. Maybe you don't but it never hurts to sit down with a professional or even just a peer group and talk it through.
When you were in the field, I imagine you did basic equipment checks even when you were sure the equipment was fine. Your brain is also a valuable piece of equipment. No harm in checking.
I really appreciate you talking about not taking our freedoms for granted. As a veteran, thats the best thing you can say to us, and it goes so much further than the cliche "thank you for your service."
As a WW2 you must be in your 90s or 100s right now. Crazy, and you still watch TH-cam which is great at your age
As a veteran I have always loved Flanders Field. Luckily I was never in combat.
My father was in Vietnam for 2 and a half years. He is now resting with his
friends in Arlington.
Here is a poem he showed me years ago.
If you are able, save for them a place inside you,
And save one backward glance when you are leaving,
for the places they can no longer go.
Be not ashamed to say you loved them,
though you may, or may not have always.
Take what they have left, and what they have
taught you with their dying, and keep it as your own.
And in that time that men decide, and feel safe
to call the war insane, take one moment,
to embrace those gentle heroes you left behind.
Major Michael Davis O'Donnell
Dak To, Vietnam.
January 1970
Thank you for your service and for your fathers service. I salute you both.
aye, speaks of why we sign up and to serve.
Wonderful.
Sorry for your loss good sir.
My pops made it out ok.
@@bugvswindshield: My father survived Vietnam as well. I should have made that more clear. His one wish that he ever mentioned was his desire to be interred at Arlington. I am so glad we were able to get that accomplished for him.
@@geeebuttersnap2433 - why?
Mostly somebody from US would say it, and some of the vets don't like that "saying" - especially how they are treated after all that "service" is done (when they got serious PTSD, injuries, or have lost some of the limbs - and it is very difficult to get any long term support for it). And most know that all we are fighting for is some political/corporate interest anyway. And I'm saying that as a vet myself.
This move takes a LOT of liberties with over dramatizing how soldiers act (going rogue, sneaking off base, a 3 man team trying to clear a building with a base full of back up right behind them). However, what it did really well was show how incredibly tense and anxiety ridden operating in Iraq was, having to watch all directions at once, any random person on the street could be a threat in hiding, at any moment an IED could detonate, etc.
This movie doesn't take liberties with over-dramatizing how we act. It outright fictionalizes our war to the point that it is unrecognizable beyond the setting, the gear and uniforms (which they often fuck up), and the weapons. I know what combat in Iraq looked like, and it ain't anything like this. This is some comic book shit. If it was a cartoon and they didn't market it as being the real Iraq war experience I wouldn't hate it so much. But it isn't, and they did. Too many people think that this movie is what OIF was really like because of this dumpster fire of a movie, and twelve years after being forced to sit through it with my ex-girlfriend and her dipshit friends I still hate it just as much.
@@ThunderTaco206 hahahahahahahaha WOW look at me louie much buddy boy. Maybe you should have ended up like Guy Pearce's character so the world wouldnt have to bother with you
Thank you for your uploads. Watching these is often like getting to watch with a friend. It's comforting in these lonely times.
Among the things I love about you and your channel/videos:
1) For someone with such limited experience (until now) with movies, your reactions and observations are unexpectedly perceptive and insightful. You'll make an observation comment and then, in the next line or 30 minutes later, you'll be shown to be "correct".
2) Your ability to recognize the value of movies that you don't "like", or that make you uncomfortable, like this one.
3) Your willingness to overcome your preconceptions (e.g., "old" movies are unrelatable) and recognize their redeeming qualities.
Here, here! I agree with all three of your observations.
I have noticed that there are a number of other reactors are who are unexposed/opposed to/against "old" movies; wither they are from the 40's or the 90's. Side note: I don't yet consider myself old so can we agree that 90's and 2000's movies aren't either?
Cassie has watched seminal war dramas like "Band of Brothers" and "Saving Private Ryan" at the beginning of her channel. She continues to expose herself to some really heavy material. Coming from her "chick flick-only" background, I admire her courage pushing herself outside her comfort zone. Side note 2: Speaking of courage, we have yet to have her watch "Courage Under Fire" but it's on my list along with "The Pacific" miniseries that followed "Band of Brothers"
I agree. It's why I've really enjoyed her reactions.
Not really... She completely missed doctor strange multiverse big time and just called it weird.
@@CYB3R2K In general, I agree with the OP, but yeah, I was pretty disappointed in her Dr. Strange reaction.
It's fine, people don't have to agree on everything, but she seemed uncharacteristically obtuse during that one.
@@CYB3R2K haha as if a marvel film needs to be understood or appreciated…. They are silly kids films
Personal story about this. I was watching this with my best friend in college and then was telling me his dad was Navy EOD for a time and while they were watching it, his dad got so frustrated with its portrayal that he stopped the movie and walked out. He also told me a lot of the stories his dad told him while he was serving, honestly a humbling experience.
Loved this reaction, for more war movie recommendations, "Flags of Our Fathers," along with "Letters from Iwo Jima." Both were directed by Clint Eastwood and are about the Battle of Iwo Jima in World War II.
That's how it is basically with all films that depict a trade. Never watch Grey's Anatomy with a doctor/nurse, never watch anything about video game creation with a video game dev, never watch anything about IT with a techie, etc.
They will never get it fully right.
Cassie, the most sweet and beautiful, I just wanted to thank you for remembering us, the veterans. Canada has been like Britain, a great friend with us American veterans and we truly appreciate your support. Thank you! They are E.O.D. Cassie, Explosive Ordinance Disposal. Somebody has make the bombs not be able to kill our soldiers as they police the area. Plus keep the indigenous people who are innocent safe as well.
I was in Falujah in 2004 and was outside the wire almost every day. We worked with EOD all the time, this wasn't what it was like.
This movie is pure fiction. Not a realistic thing in it.
@@IanCaine4728 I mean, the supermarket scene at the end wasn't bad. The rest of it is a fucking abomination. My ex-girlfriend and a couple of her friends sprung this shit on me when it came out on DVD a couple years after I got back from Iraq. Did not turn out well.
Yup. Movies gotta movie. 🙄Sometimes it's for the better when things are dramatized. But in other situations... not so much.
I just watched this the other week and I love your channel as although you haven’t seen so many great movies over the years in a way seeing your reactions remind me the feelings of how it was seeing these movies for the first time as you don’t get that feeling twice
This movie was praised by critics for its realism, and promptly lambasted by vets for getting nearly every detail and procedure wrong. As a combat engineer who has worked with a lot of EOD (Explosive Ordinance Desposal, that's the unit in this movie), I can tell you that the characters are constantly putting themselves in needless danger or just making their own problems worse.
The opening scene would have had that area surrounded and closed off in a wide radius, with soldiers threatening to cut people in half with machine guns if they even tried to approach the area while EOD was working. That car-bomb, for instance, was in an isolated enough spot that it should have been blown up from a safe distance and not messed with. We never kick or pull explosive components, much less as a first resort because you never know what kind of triggers it may have been rigged with. The main character isn't just a suicidal idiot, he actively endangered the lives of everyone around him.
Everything about that sniper scene in the desert was absurd from them being picked off at that range by scopeless AK's to the jamming 50 cal rifle, and using spit to clean the blood off it while everyone else is standing around doing nothing. All of it feels like it was written by a child.
As far as war films go, this one is pretty low on the ladder. Still worth seeing your reaction though.
Thank you. Thank you. Seriously, thank you. Every single time I see someone reacting to this movie I start getting angry before I even click. So I just pause it the second after I click and start hate-reading the comments. I was a combat medic in an infantry platoon and we had an EOD team living at our COP for a few months. This movie makes me so f***ing angry. I'm a pretty chill dude most of the time. I really am. But this movie...
The enemy sniper had a dragunov which isn't impossible to hit targets at that range. Not sure what the guy with the AK was doing.
@@mattyice2099those guys couldn't hit a structure at 400m with AKs let alone hit 3 guys consecutively at distance. The movie is complete fantasy, not just that one scene.
3 EOD guys driving around alone in a single HMMWV, EOD setting up and manning a sniper position (with 3 guys), EOD hunting guys through an unsecured, non-permissive environment (again 3 EOD guys). It's very ridiculous, there's not really any redeemable factors to this movie as far as it's attempt at realism...
@Wile_E._Wolf LOL yeah exactly none of it would happen. The tali with the SVD, if skilled enough and had match grade 54r, could hit those guys. But not that fast and probably not that accurately where they are dead instantly hahaha
@@ThunderTaco206It's a movie. You think movies about schools or hospitals or whatever are realistic? Plot over realism. If you want realism, watch a documentary.
I'm combat engineer with EOD 1. Sadly I never got the opportunity for EOD 2. They only chose 4 guys from our platoon for the training.
They do some extremely risky shit in this movie. You should not touch anything you don't have to. Just identify and blow it up.
Also the suit keeps you safe to some point but you'll probably get your hands blown off. If it's a bigger explosion then you die but your body stays mostly intact so you can go home to your family in one piece.
I have a friend that was EOD in Iraq in this timeframe. He said that they stayed in the Humvee 90% of the time and used the EOD Drone to do most of the work. He said they were royally pissed off when they did have to go out in person.
30:40 This expression just perfectly shows her feelings on the character choices and the circumstances in the movie.
When Desert Storm was well under way I had the opportunity to go to Iraq as a contractor to drive trucks.
I went and was there a year and 2 months.
There was a company that supplied cargo transport vehicles and drivers and if we stayed over a year all the money we made while there was tax free.
I drove tankers that delivered water and fuel to the bases and outlying posts.
Tankers were targeted more than other vehicles because of the possibility we were transporting fuel at the time.
We always had a military escort no matter where we went.
IEDs were the main threat to us.
The type of devices they are disarming in this movie.
When we weren't driving we were required to stay in the base areas for safety.
It is an experience I will never forget.
The stress knowing that at any moment my life could be over was extremely hard to handle sometimes.
I could not imagine what it would be like for the combat soldiers that were there.
I did one tour and that was enough for me.
While I would never want to do that again I am glad I did do it.
I learned a lot about myself from that experience.
The experience made me appreciate our military personnel more than I already did before going there.
I don't know if it's the same for all branches, but I knew it as Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD).
It’s EOD in all branches, we even all go to the same school.
Thanks for your reaction. I've done 3 tours as an EOD. It takes its toll...
That was good when even you knew at the scene where he pulled several artillery shells out of the ground by wires, that you don't just pull on wires that you find buried in the ground. I've seen military vets react to this film, and they said among the many unrealistic scenes in it, that one was one of the worst. Even Cassie knows not to just tug on wires sticking out of the ground in a war zone!
Also he was pulling up some 400 lbs or so, those things ain't light.
I have a friend who was EOD and he hates this movie with a passion with how much it constantly gets wrong, not just the bomb stuff but also the uniform errors.
@@worsel555
Yes. It's wrong, but, NOT inaccurate. The EOD team leader was based on a real EOD tech, who came out and said it was based on him, and EOD guys like myself dealt with guys like him in the field. So yes, the way it's SUPPOSED to be done and "wrong" in the film because of that, isn't WRONG, because idiot's in the field do that shit, and The Hurt Locker made a movie about one of those moron's.
It's about as realistic as Armageddon is to NASA. Other than Iraq and bombs existing, total BS.
@@worsel555 When i was deploying to Iraq,I remember the army had a $ 60,000 signing bonus for EOD,a lot of us guys were REALLY considering it. LOL.
@Paul J. Phelan - partly true, as this is just a movie.
But also... the scene when he was doing his shopping is pretty much spot on. A lot of vets cannot find themselves in a normal reality, they are craving in a way to go back there - as this is the only reality they know (war, or being on deployment). And it is very difficult for them to ajust to a "normal" (cilivian) life. A lot also doesn't know anything beyond military life.
If you have a classic PTSD, any other psychologial issues that they have later on, injuries, or more serious health issues - yeah... all of that doesn't look great, and I think at some point the move was trying to show that problem, beyond any obvious "mistakes" (as I recall the budget for that movie was not that great either, so this also limited the realism of some of the issues).
Young lady you must have parents that are so proud of you!
On a more light-hearted note, when my dad was a civilian contractor for the military, he saw soldiers in the EOD bomb suit several times. One event that stood out was when the soldiers had a competition (whether they were EOD or not). They'd put on the suit and see who could run 100 meters the fastest. Since the suit weighs 80 pounds or more and the base he was at was in a desert in the US, the competition quickly turned into only how far the suit wearer could run before tapping out.
Thank you so much. You and your reactions put a smile on my face when my wife and I had to go though her cancer. Thank tou she is all done and cance free. So thank you again for making use both smile.
Much love
What movie best encapsulates my military experience... definitely Jarhead. The story of Anthony Swofford, a Marine that served during the first Gulf War. A great story about what it's like being a Marine. I really enjoyed the book too.
Generation Kill is a must watch.
@@jackson857 Very much so.
Jeremy Renner's first Oscar nominated performance, and then he was nominated for "The Town", the following year. This movie is a classic, and received multiple Oscars, and they were well deserved.
You should watch the 1946 movie, "The Best Years of our Lives", a movie about military men returning home after war. It won multiple academy awards. Everything you like in movies, even romance.
Was that the one where one guy lost his hands?
One had been a bombardier?
@maxwesty yeah, it is. Great film though. Been a few years since I saw it last.
Agreed. It has two great love stories on top of being about veterans dealing with PTSD, addiction, and disability. Perfect movie for Cassie.
Just finished rewatching it on TH-cam. Glad I did.
Hey: I served 3 years in infantry reserve. I never deployed in foreign missions or any combat zones, but from my training I know that it typically goes like this:
1x platton (20-60 people) of infantrymen- carrying variety of wpns including rifles, granade launchers, M72s and Carl Gs (bazookas, if you will), light machine guns and GPMGs (general purpose machines guns- I was trained to use a carry the tripod system allowing this weapon to fire up 5kms affecting a wide area). Sometimes also backed up by artillery and/or mortar section.
3x Field medics- typically carrying rifles, but most field medics I trained with were also trained on the machine guns.
1-2 radio/signals. Carrying the huge fucking radio like a G.
1-2 sections (8-12 people) of combat engineers. Typically carry explosive charges, and other specialized equipment for the mission. On top of carrying a rifle. These guys are normally the ones that ACTUALLY go and deal with defusing/finding landmines. Though as an infantryman I was narrowly trained on how to scan for explosive wire, because well, ain't no way the few combat engineers are gonna personally escort every infantryman into every building.
There can be other people that go on the mission, depending on the actual objective. But a typical exercise (training event) would form teams of about 100-150 people from different units and bearing different responsibilities to work together a defeat a simulated enemy. One I didn't include- Armoured/Cavalry units. Because even teams of infantry have their own vehicles and troop transport system, but if you are doing anything LAV or Tank or Mounted GPMG, it typically involves them.
You're wrong about a couple things, but right about a couple. An active duty infantry platoon only has one medic.
Source: Am former infantry combat medic and Iraq vet
Combat engineers are NOT typically allowed to BIP anything larger than a couple pounds, so most IEDs are going to require EOD intervention. Unfortunately EOD usually takes hours to get there, even in a place like Baghdad where they are relatively close no matter where they are based out of. There are a finite number of EOD teams in each AO, and they take calls in order they receive them. They also have to have an escort of at least three vehicles. If they end up contacted, or if they're on site long enough, they'll have to go back to the FOB and refit before going to the next call. Takes FOREVER.
That said, you are absolutely correct that EOD doesn't ever go out by themselves. And engineers sure as shit aren't going into a building ahead of infantry. In fact, most infantry companies don't have engineers attached anyway. During the GWOT everything got restructured in active duty because of the need for dedicated route clearance packages to defeat IEDs ahead of large convoys. That is almost entirely what combat engineers did for most of OIF and OEF.
One of these days please watch The Best Years of Our Lives. 1946 Best Picture Oscar plus 6 more Oscars. It is one of the best depictions of veterans returning home and emphasizes the importance of family in helping them readjust.
100%
My cousin, who was in the Marines for 20 years, goes out and disarms unexploded ordinance all over the world. Now he works for a company that does it. A lot of mines and cluster bombs.
Now after seeing you watching this movie I'd like to recommend 'Jarhead' to you. It's starring Jake Gyllenhaal (I know you like him) and Jamie Foxx and was directed by Sam Mendes (that's the one who also directed '1917'). It is based on a book of the same name written by an ex-Marine-sniper named Anthony Swafford, and in it he describes his very personal experiences during the 1991 Gulf War.
one of the most underrated 'war movies' , good choice
@@StayFractalesque Yes, I think so too, especially the way he portrays this very special kind of madness that one obviously must have to function as a marine and the scenes with the burning oil wells were so spooky and impressive. Almost like the real thing.
Jarhead is special because it doesn't romanticize war, it shows the reality of a lot of soldiers who served in the middle east
@@Utonian21 However, this applies to every reasonably good war movie, otherwise it would have to be called propaganda. It's rather the narrative style, which is subjective but also exemplary for the reality for so many soldiers, seems to me what makes this film special. If I remember correctly, only 'All Quiet on the Western Front' works in a similar way.
Hurry Up!….and wait
I was an EWO in Iraq. They would have Vehicle Receiver Jammer CVRJ systems to jam most cell phone or RCIED. It was to 100% and there are other ways to detonate such as Victim operated.
Just watched a few videos of yours. Your off the cuff comments are actually insightful. You may not articulate the issues with a film like a professional critic but you manage to hit the target.
This was an intense movie, I remember seeing it in theaters when it came out. My friends and I were at a lose for words for about 10 mins after. All we could say was how amazing the film was. It is no surprise that it won Best Picture that year.
This movie was so dumb and incredibly inaccurate it is a wonder it won the Oscar but the fact that Libtards run Hollywood and reward other Libtards it wasn’t too surprising. Try watching The Longest Day or A Bridge Too Far for accuracy.
My Oldest Son is a Veteran, and as his Father he will always be my 'little boy' in My Heart. He is truly a Man who's done So much, keep our country free🇺🇸👊🙏
12:48 This is the EOD unit. They have one of the longest AITs (college for your military job) of any MOS in the military.
Another crazy suspense filled movie is “The Kingdom” (2007) with Jamie Foxx
Cassie, it's another non-Patreon film suggestion. Haha.
I know you watched several versions of "A Christmas Carol" last year, but the absolute best version of the holiday classic is *"SCROOGE"* (1970) with Albert Finney and Alec Guinness.
It is a musical version and SPECTACULAR!
You won't regret it.
*"Thank you very much!...*
Specialist is an Army rank they created because their promotion system is a bottleneck and there were too many soldiers stuck at Private First Class, so they made "Specialist" which is the same paygrade as Corporal, but wedged between PFC and Corporal.
Thought that a Corporal was a nco leadership role like squad leader and will attend BLC for promotion. Specialist rank is non nco type role and most Specialist do not attend BLC.
That is incorrect. Specialist used to go all the way up to E-9. Periodically when I was in from 2007-2011 you'd still hear the term Spec4 because of this. As in Spec4, Spec7, etc. The specialist ranks were created to allow soldiers with a great deal of aptitude in their MOS but without a lot of leadership potential to still move up in rank. They were scrapped in the 80s, but Specialist was kept as the default E4 paygrade in lieu of corporal. Corporal was later reinstated as a junior NCO rank, but while I knew several corporals, none of them were promoted directly from PFC. All of them were made corporals laterally from SPC. CPL is widely regarded as the worst rank in the Army. Same pay as a Specialist, same responsibility as a SGT, and if there is a shitty detail that requires a NCO, you're going to get it. CPL is also fairly rare in the enlisted ranks. Most who make SGT are promoted directly from SPC.
Great reaction again, Cassie! If you’re interested in more war/military films, there’s a lot to recommend, but right now I’d suggest you check out PLATOON (1986), PORK CHOP HILL (1959), BATTLE CIRCUS (1953), TWELVE O’CLOCK HIGH (1949), THE GUNS OF NAVARONE (1961), and PATTON (1970).
I always got the feeling James WANTED to die. He put himself in a low % survival situation multiple times and even gave his teammates the option to do it while giving them a excuse "the detonators always fail.' The ending when he looked out of place at the store and then immediately reenlisting made me solidify my opinion that he was trying to die. His first bomb defuse he even bumps into the guy that was suppose to detonate it and looked like made fun of him but waving the charge in the guys face, like he was egging him on like 'haha you lost this time.'
It isn't about wanting to die, it's literally doing everything to feel alive. The simplest time in life is when you're just trying to survive. Day in, day out. The real world is so gray that there's no vibrancy to it, no color.
Nah to me he's playing a game of chicken with death. He's used to feeling death on his shoulder so he wants to see just how close he can get.
Oddly enough there are many examples of this in real life.
Not about wanting to die. It's about not knowing how to return to a mundane, inconsequential existence.
I also think its more about him not feeling alive without this. Which equals death for him, so why care about the risk, he would die either way, spritually or actually.
@@headful4470 This is right. At least for people like him. He might not even know it.
The Cindrella Man. Just watch it. It is the best of Rocky. But with family as well. You cannot miss.
The Hurt Locker, also known as what Hawkeye and Falcon's previous military backgrounds were before they became Avengers. 🙂
With the Wasp in the background
You’ve seen many of the war classics: this movie, Saving Private Ryan, Full Metal Jacket, Hacksaw Ridge, Black Hawk Down, We Were Soldiers, Fury, Dunkirk, and 1917. Here are five more for you to watch: Platoon, Apocalypse Now, Born On the Fourth of July, The Deer Hunter, and American Sniper. I believe all of these movies were nominated for awards. Some won. All of them are intense and good, in different ways. They’ll add to your knowledge base.
The scene where Renner's character is home, reunited with his family and he's in the grocery store looking at hundreds of different cereals and unable to even comprehend which one to choose ...because no matter which choice he makes there are no consequences. The fact that he had forgotten how to even comprehend a choice without consequences I think is the true thunder of this film. It shows what war does to those who have served. It makes the rest of Thier lives all about war, and they never truly forget those days or years that they spent fighting that war. It is now just as much a part of them as their own blood and that to me is the true horror of it. It can't be surgically removed. No shrink can make them forget. They are trained how to fight, how to shoot, how to disarm huge bombs, how to kill with knives and even their bare hands, all without thinking. They practice it and then perform it untill they can do it in their sleep...but when it comes time to go home, if they even make it out alive, there is no way to untrain them. They can still do it in Thier sleep.
That cereal aisle was too much for him to understand. By that time, war was all he understood and that is the reason he goes back to it, and probably will until it kills him.
Harrowing, horrifying and very, very real for many of these warriors. God bless them and keep them, Americans, Canadians, all of them. Please God let them be able to come home and find some semblance of peace.
Great reaction, Cassie.
30:45 LMAO "Attention headache"......that's a new one
Heh.
As a retired sapper myself I can honestly say (aside from the brain injury, fractured neck, compressed spine, limp left arm, and permanent nerve damage to my left leg) that fiddling about with explosives, IEDs, mines, and recovered ordinance with the EOD wallahs on a couple of tours were fun times.
Great film, though sadly not quite how the work gets done.
Civilians “this movie is so good and realistic” veterans “that movie is so terrible and unrealistic 😂 “
Wasn't in the military myself but my friends dad fought in Vietnam and swore up and down that the explosive disposal guys were always crazy. He told me that when they'd set up Forward Bases they'd basically put up chain link around the bases because RPGs have an impact detonator in the nose of the explosive and chain link could basically catch them. Only problem was they'd get lodged in the fencing and it was up to the EOD guys to go safely remove them. My buddy's dad swears to this day that he witnessed one in boxers and a tanktop with no kit except a helmet walking up and down the fence line banging them with a hammer to unlodge them.
Have you reacted to any of the "Naked Gun/Police squad" movies? Leslie Nielsen is great in these, they're slapstick comedy, a nice break from these intense action, war movies.
14:25 William James (Renner) is either a Staff Sergeant (E-6) (per IMDb) or Sergeant First Class (E-7) (per wikipedia). Sanborn (Anthony Mackie) is a Sergeant (E-5). Eldridge (Brian Geraghty) is a Specialist (E-4). Either way, James outranks both of them.
EDIT: 16:45 they're British private contractors (mercenaries). During the early stages in the Iraq invasion, the US-led Coalition developed a set of 'Playing Cards' to help Coalition troops identify certain members of Saddam Hussein's government (with Saddam himself as the Ace of Spades). Those guys had 2 of them in their custody. When the shooting started, the leader (Ralph Fiennes), having already known that the bounty on their heads was the same whether they were dead or alive, killed them to keep them from escaping.
This movie is great, despite the inaccuracies and over dramatization. What I think this movie does best with is the dark humor. In certain branches of the military, in certain career fields, there are a lot of depressing and scary things. Dark humor is one of the coping mechanisms that some people use to get through it. These moments are not understood by most people and forms special bonds with the people you experience them with. That's about the simplest way I can explain it, but I think the movie does a great job visualizing it because the characters work so well with each other despite them constantly fighting each other. In fact their fighting is one of their coping mechanisms to form such great synergy.
Cassie, his job is called EOD or Explosive Ordnance Disposal.
Thank you for being the type of person i served to protect.
i am a ranger i was with the 75th. I worked with a few bomb guys in both sandboxes. After Iraq and Afghanistan i did a few years of contracting in different parts of the world. Its a funny thing how they can teach you how to love something so much, but they cant teach you how to turn it off when its time.
Love your channel. I would love to see you react to Restrepo and it's sequel Korengal. 2 great documentaries by Sebastian Junger about the war in Afghanistan.
100% this. Amazing docos covering the real-life version of what's happening in Hurt Locker.
I forgot that so many MCU actors were in this movie before that series really took off, Renner of course, but also Anthony Mackie, Evangeline Lilly, and Guy Pierce
so back when this movie came out, i watched it with my Dad who was a Combat engineer in Vietnam, which of course, these are considered as Combat Engineers in the new Army. so i was watching this and my dad would be telling me so much about mine clearing and clearing enemy clearings and such and what not after we watched this together. ive only seen it once and yeah truly a good movie. :P good reaction :)
If you like Jeremy Renner there is a great bank robber movie with him and Ben Affleck called The Town.
There's nothing more terrifying than being in those situations. But there is nothing that feels better than surviving them, both in the instant, and collectively. It is sort of addictive. And not in a good way where you seek the high. No. It is different. You become aclimated to life or death situations to the point that your chemistry and wiring, your very personality and logic are geared towards emotionally surviving these situations. It is the brains way to cope with the impossible. The reason people start seeking high risk behavior isn't for the high, as much as it is to feel ANYTHING. To feel alive at all, or to feel a purpose or reason. That scene, shopping in the supermarket, playing with your kid at home. You can enjoy those things, but they don't feel real. You feel disconnected, a ghost. It's NOT a good feeling. And it can take years before your body again will aclimate to normal life. And in most cases it WILL. IF you can avoid the pitfals of drug use, prescribed or not, or alcoholism, or being abusive, or some other risk seeking behavior, whether it is war, or crime, or crime fighting, whatever. The only cure for young men who experience these things, is time. And avoiding the temptation to feed the adrenaline to feel alive. This happens to cops, soldiers, firefighters in extreme conditions. It is not everybody's story. But a lot of combat units that saw heavy risk, and virtually all bomb disposal units, over a period of time, you do aclimate to the danger, which desensitizes you to almost everything else in some cases. It makes it hard to function in relationships when you go home. It's good to have friends and counselors, even family, who can relate and understand. This also happens to criminals who are in gangs who are at risk of kill or be killed on a daily basis. They too become desensitized, and can never go home, because they are already AT home. All they can do is go to jail, which is just another form of hell, or try to escape the life.which is an impossiblity for many of them. This is a really good movie because it shows what it is like to be at risk of death all the time, to the point where it is normalized. And what happens to people when they are in that state. The two soldiers talking about wasting their team leader, because if the high risk of him getting them killed. The team leader not being able to stay home and adjust to a less risky existence. The likelyhood very strong that if he keeps going back and doing the same thing, he will eventually die. But in the meantime, at least he will FEEL like he is alive. Not a ghost. Databyter
So the main characters portray EOD.. Explosive Ordinance Disposal, essentially the guys that neutralize explosives. In the conflicts they focus on recovering/disarming/destroying IEDs or Booby Traps. You would expect that destroying would be quicker and safer but ultimately recovering and disarming is more beneficial. Each IED is a crime scene from which you can learn new tactics and techniques the enemy is using to defeat the militaries' countermeasures. It is the same reason why the locals always record, they want to capture the tactics being used to neutralize their explosives (going so far as to set fake charges just to see tactics).. It is a continuous game of adaptation that occurs. Any explosion going off is investigated and cataloged for the think tanks... each sector in the larger area of operation has a particular style of booby/IED being used. Its how trends are spotted and information passed down to various units. Activating the IEDs/explosives themselves have various methods..it could be activated by a phone, a direct wire that operates from a button, or even locally when the victim operates/completes the circuit that is set up at the site..... think of the circuits as activating a blasting cap (the small silver piece he cuts early on) the little boom that kicks of the bigger explosive.... each of these activation methods has a counter.... Its a very intricate game where simple low budget adjustments made by the bad guys require flexibility and adaptation by troops on the ground...
BIP, or blow in place, is the preferred method. If you cannot BIP, due to proximity to structures, people, etc, then you render safe and move to a place you can dispose.
The team is referred to as EOD (Explosive Ordinance Disposal). Day to day operations EOD guys deal with dud weapons such as bombs, grenades, artillery shells, and when deployed IED (improvised explosive devices much of what is depicted in the movie. They also deal with domestic stuff such as the US president visits and in Europe alot of EOD units deal with unexploded bombs from WW2. No joke the British Army EOD is called all year round for bombs they've found scewed throughout the contry.
The guys they run into are contractors, civilians ex military. Iraq and Afghanistan highlighted the use of hired civilian contractors to minimize military casualties. If a contractor dies its no issue, if they got wounded they didn't get benefits because theyre not military. Lastly as cvilian contractors they are not bound by the military code of justice and so are free to commit other duties the military would be in hot water for. "Blackwater" was just one of several in Iraq and now operates under a different name doing the same work.
Love you and your sister’s reactions. A good sister movie is “Thelma & Louise”, which is Brad Pitt’s first movie 🎥 🍿🎞🎬📽
He had several other movies first. I remember one with Ricky Schroder from silver spoons. They were High school mile runners.
Have you never seen, Passchendaele (2008) its based on a Canadian Soldier/Soldiers in WW1 and its a love story too. Not sure if its Canadian made but it was shot in Canada. If you haven't seen it should maybe watch it with your sister
Well, looks like Hawkeye and Falcon served together in Iraq before they joined the Avengers.
...and The Wasp.
Dang, you beat me to it in the comments dude! Good one!
How could a great actor like Guy Pierce only appear for a few minutes
Thanks for sharing your channel is amazing. Please consider Wind River. It’s an amazing movie and part of a trilogy sort of. Thanks again
I didn't know it was part of a trilogy, what are the othe two related movies called?
Sicario and Hell or High Water
@@CarbonPixel78 it's not actually a movie trilogy , more like written by same writer with similar theme
🙋♂️ I'm a iraq war us army veteran and I liked Scott Eastwood THE OUTPOST, like this too and many others! Truth is and obviously, any movie will lack some realism and accuracy from the real thing because, obviously, you cannot show the real exact thing! That would be going to combat and record it and showing it on theaters, plus the obvious confidential things not for civilian eyes and ears! But you do a great job on this videos! Love them👍
That's a shitty excuse, bro. No one is asking them film the real thing to be "totally accurate". Much of this movie is inaccurate and turns what could have been a look into the lives of an EOD tech into a hollow Hollywood blockbuster. It's the same problem with Hacksaw Ridge; that movie is a disgrace to Desmond Doss' legacy and all of us combat medics.
@@LockeNarshe already waiting on a comment like yours! Bravo 👏 you make the first AH on the stone throwing list!
I was deployed twice and I enjoyed this film. It might not be the most accurate, but not many modern ones are nowadays. At the end of the day, its a hollywood movie designed to entertain us. The only reason it gets crapped on by vets is because it won best picture and people think they can do better
You sure you're a veteran? That's a weird take to have for someone whose supposedly been downrange to think that's the only reason someone deployed might take issue with the film?
Two-time CSAR IAVA here. A lot of guys crap on the movie because it got a reputation for being a "realistic" approach to how we handle modern conflicts in the Middle East, which is wholly untrue. As a functioning piece of entertainment, it does its job. Even the dark humor matches pretty well with how we tend to cope. However, in the end it takes some pretty heavy liberties to get the drama across and paints EOD techs like some kind of modern-day John Wayne that refuses to follow in-place procedures and romanticizes some glaring inaccuracies (like the dramatic shot where he pulls on an entire unidentified daisy chained set of IEDs even when he sees that the connections go in all directions). No one would work with a guy that reckless. Everyone's trying to make it home, not put up with some wanna-be cowboy's personal issues.
Deployed twice? Like Kurdistan? Lol this movie is hate for more than just winning best picture lol
@@hellfire0352 Probably one of those who brags about their time in when, in reality, they were just pushing papers.
Lol jesus this is what I mean. It’s a damn film, stop reading too much into it. It’s clear that the protag is unhinged, no one is suggesting that every EOD tech is like this 😂
Yes I’m a veteran and we made fun of people like you
@@Rzo139 Close, flight engineer for C130s. Rescue squadron both tours. Stop projecting, dorks
Regarding the opening scene, Plan A in bomb defusal is to set up a smaller bomb next to it, which is then blown to wreck all the wiring. Increasingly, this smaller bomb is set against an angled tank of water, with the explosion effectively turning it into a cutting force (like with a power washer). This is so much safer (and easier) than trying to dismantle the thing by hand.
This film. Oh, this film. For a film that tried to position itself as “the Iraq war movie” it is, amongst servicemen and veterans, widely considered a joke. From the cringe worthy disregard for comms to the “world’s strongest man moment” (when he lifts those 155 shells), just about every part of this movie is canon fodder. What’s more annoying is that it’s actually not too bad of a movie.
In the end of the day, it's a decently good movie.
But dammit, a lot of shit in it annoys the fuck out of all combat veterans, and rightfully so too, lmao.
Glad you enjoyed it, Thanks for sharing your thoughts.The Searcher’s with John Wayne,long but a great movie.
I'm a combat vet and EOD (explosive ordinance disposal) guys have one of the hardest jobs in the military. Having to hunt down and trying to disarm IEDs (improvised explosive devices), in the midst of a potential combat zones, takes a lot of resolve under pressure (especially when a lot of those devices are planted in civilian areas). Motion, radio frequencies, cell phones and hidden triggers can potentially detonate the device right under the soldier. These guys save so many lives, all at the risk of their own. This movie is a definite gem that highlights their sacrifice and shows the impact of such a terrifying job.
This movie has a lot of the same problems for EOD that a lot of us combat medics have with Hacksaw Ridge. They're so blatantly inaccurate and played up for drama that it's incredibly frustrating for someone who actually performs those jobs. Yes, movies should be entertaining and plenty of other films make the same mistakes, but this is generally the go-to movie that non-military personnel point to as an indicator of what EOD life is like (like combat medics in Hacksaw Ridge) when it's just romanticizing and misinforming people.
I won't say it's an awful movie, per se, only that I'm not surprised so many veterans were against the movie's portrayal. It's hard to give credit to the movie for highlighting the struggles these guys go through without also being disappointed in the manner they went about it. It feels more like an hollow (if patriotic) gesture than a real attempt to look into the lives of someone in the role.
Nobody's going to work with this kind of cowboy--that turns off his comms, disobeys protocol, pulls up an entirely buried daisy-chain (not feasible or practical) and endangers his guys just for his own personal issues. It's a fucking disgrace to show him as "badass" and brave in a movie that tries to depict itself as the de-facto "Iraq War" movie.
@@LockeNarshe I’ll say it if you won’t, brother. This movie is trash
Ralph Fiennes is who you're talking about in Grand Budapest Hotel. Also it's pronounced "Rafe"
Congrats on watching this one. This movie makes those who've never been deployed, like myself truly appreciate the psyche of what the military goes through. I've never been but my brothers and others I have met have. The chaos, brutality, and unrelenting tension in this movie is second to none. You're a trooper for getting through this one Cassie, and I dare say, more connected to those whom you have thanked for your defense.
I hate to tell you this, but this movie is incredibly insulting to OIF vets. It is incredibly inaccurate. I mean painfully so. It is genuinely rage-inducing.
@@ThunderTaco206 I've heard that before. It's easy to see why too. Still I think the movie does a good job of portraying the emotions some may go through when a team member is a loose cannon.
@@spasjt A dude who does stuff like this gets killed very quickly or ends up in serious trouble almost immediately because he gets someone else killed. No one would tolerate his BS for even a single trip outside the wire.
@@ThunderTaco206 No doubt he would and that's where the film falls short, it splits with the reality of real life military discipline and instead shows what happens when military discipline is lacking but tries to maintain the real life situations parameters.
@@spasjt That's not it either. None of what happens is remotely plausible. At all. EOD does jot operate like that. They roll with an escort of typically three to four infantry or cav scout vehicles at all times. They also always have their own gunner up in the turret. That sniper scene was so ridiculous it is laughable, and his little solo jaunt off-base is absolutely out of the realm of possibility. The end where they go clear the buildings looking for the bad guy is bs too. EOD does not do that at all, and NO ONE would do that with only three people. They'd get schwacked. I spent 14 months in Baghdad as a combat medic in an infantry platoon. I've been in combat in the war this movie depicts, during the time it portrays, and I've been part of an EOD escort more than once. Literally the ONLY scene that carries even a whiff of reality is the supermarket at the end where he's overwhelmed by too many cereal choices. There is nothing in this film's depiction of EOD or the war in Iraq that is reflective of reality in any way shape or form, and what is so infuriating is that so many people who don't know any better think that it is.
The Croatian film No Man’s Land is excellent. Not experienced to comment on its overall level of accuracy, but it’s definitely a great film.
The guy Jeremy Renner replaced was the actor who played Exley in LA Confidential.
These guys are EOD (Explosive Ordnance Disposal), colloquially known as the bomb squad.
This movie is tough for me to connect with because it's so foreign to my experience...in the same war. It's not a bad movie (and Renner is good in his role), but it's just so far from reality in so many ways. The characters just don't ring true (with my experience).
'Generation Kill' however...that's pretty damn accurate. So many of those guys (and their conversations/situations) were exactly like what my time in Iraq was like.
agreed. Hurt Locker is what Hollywood thinks was going on. Generation War is more what was going on (at least early on).
FYI, Renners, James is actually one rank above Wilsons Sanborn. But James pulled what could be interpreted as a procedure violation and thats why Sanborn clocked him. James took it because if he reports Sanborn, he has to face the possibility of Sanborn revealing his deed to Senior Leadership.
Also, there are people who absolutely thrive while being deployed, and thats not necessarily a bad thing. Back here, they feel useless and cant hold down a job (mainly PTSD), but over there, they could crush the ones here in comparison to their jobs vs civilian equivalent job. So yes. Someone finishing a 365 rotation and then a few months later, going back for more is actually realistic
A movie that I think you should follow this with is "The Kingdom" staring Jamie Fox, Jennifer Garner, and Jason Bateman. Great movie. ... Another is "Taking Chance" staring Kevin Bacon. But I think you may have seen that one last year? ... maybe? It's such a great movie.
If' you haven't reacted to "Megan Leavey"give it a shot, it's a movie about a girl and her dog. She is a United States Marine, Rex her dog is also a Marine trained to stiff out bombs (IED) during the hight of the Iraq War. They work as a team to locate Improvised Explosive Devices, so another team like those in this movie can disarm or destroy the explosive boobie traps Rex and Megan find. "Megan Leavey" is based on a true story.
"Born on the 4th of July" is a great movie, too. Tom Cruise was fantastic in it.
"I don't know what he's doing, he's checking the oil."😆
Renner is such a great actor. Fun fact, before he started acting he was a hair stylist!
@maxwesty really? I must’ve miss heard.
@maxwesty ah, gotcha. Thank you for correcting me. I hate when I get things like that wrong. lol
@maxwesty he really is. He’s great in Tag if you haven’t seen it.
Staff Sergeant William James: [Speaking to his son] You love playing with that. You love playing with all your stuffed animals. You love your mommy, your daddy, your nature pajamas. You love everything, don't ya? Yeah. But you know what, buddy? As you get older... some of the things that you love might not seem so special anymore, you know? Like your Jack-in-a-Box. Maybe you'll realize it's just a piece of tin and a stuffed animal, but the older you get, the fewer things you really love, and by the time you get to my age, maybe it's only one or two things. With me, I think it's one.
You got it back! Nicely done! Thank you
Cassie didn't realize that Guy Pierce and Jim Caviezel who both were in The Count of Monte Cristo got blown up in this movie.
My war movie recommendations include A Bridge Too Far, The Longest Day, Platoon, Rescue Dawn, Courage Under Fire, A Midnight Clear, Gallipoli, Das Boot, and Apocalypse Now.
I think she'd enjoy Courage Under Fire.
Platoon is a hard watch, maybe not quite as bad as Full Metal Jacket but close. Gallipoli is a good one, and very underrated. Also it's much more of a human story with the war as a backdrop. A Midnight Clear is another good human story. A Bridge Too Far is great. Cassie liked Band of Brothers so I think she would enjoy that one, too. And it has a stellar cast. And I have to put in a vote for Born On The 4th Of July, in my opinion Tom Cruise's best performance out of all of his films.
Not a bad list. Let me know if you need more suggestions.
Not a bad list. Let me know if you need more suggestions.
Thank you kid its been fun watching your taste evolve. Think you and your sister would love The African Queen (color 1951). Have a good one.
Can't wait until she does Generation Kill. It is a far better piece about the iraq war than hurt locker was.
Act of Valor & American Sniper are also good ones you should watch
A lot of Jeremy Renner's early roles were either villains, loose cannons, or Jeffry Dahmer.