Review of Battle: Los Angeles (2011) by Gary H — 14 Dec 2012

I read the overwhelmingly bad reviews for this movie - the cliched old grizzled Sergeant, the usual cliched members of the squad - the "new guy", the latino, etc. And once again I am totally amazed by the total disconnect between the general population and the less-than-one percent of that population who serve (or have served) in the military.

Of course, in some of those bad reviews, there is the underlying general dislike of "war" movies that the eternal pacifists espouse - the old "war never solved anything" crowd. I beg to differ - at least one of the world wars in the 20th century permanently solved the problem of a fascist ideology conquering the entire planet.

Then there is the "grizzled Sergeant" stereotype - the battle-hardened NCO who pulls his squad together and leads them into battle. What the "nay-Sayers" of this depiction of the military don't realize is, is that those "grizzled Sergeant" stereotypes exist, and that they in fact are the primary leaders of young, inexperienced troops, and that's what makes the US military so effective; it's not the 18-year-old "newbie", or the brand-new 2nd LT who gets a unit through an engagement with the enemy, it's the professional NCO corps with years of experience.

As for the "cardboard character" squad of differing backgrounds and ethnicities, again the "chair-borne rangers" have it wrong - every military unit is a microcosm of the society from whence it comes. So, yes, even most squad-sized infantry units have the black guy, and the Asian guy, and the Latino guy, and the virgin, and the guy about to be a father. I served in a 12 man "section" (small platoon) in a company in a tank battalion, and there were more "minorities" (black, Latino) than anything else. That's the make up of our military; to suggest that those "cardboard characters" don't make up every unit is stupidity.

That's why this disconnect between the military and the population worries me. Had even one of the negative critics spent even one week serving in the military, they would have known that some of their biggest complaints about this movie are totally asinine.

Now (at last) my review: I liked the movie.