It's the ultimate rush, because you know you're
going into the fight to begin with and then
you got a good song playing in the background
and that gets you real fired up.
War itself is heavy metal, yeah.
That is the first war that's kind of been
driven by poetry, this urban poetry of rap
and rock 'n' roll.Music Harley: Over two decades,
acclaimed Australian war artist George Gittoes
has seen plenty of conflict - from Nicaragua
to Somalia.
You kind of ask, why do I need to come here?
During an 18 month stint on the frontline
in Iraq, he has put down his pencils and paintbrushes
and picked up a video camera to portray America's
first digital media generation at war.
These are not like the soldiers who have come
back from any other war.When they first came,
they expected it to be like Rambo or like
a video game or like Black Hawk Down, but
when they actually got there, it didn't take
long before they found it was completely earthy,
gritty.
Saddam, what ya doin'?
We're a comin' for you.
The culture George Gittoes has captured on
videotape was also observed by others on the
frontline.Rolling Stone magazine contributor
Evan Wright was embedded with the Marines
1st Reconnaissance Battalion on the road to
Baghdad.His first book about their ultra violent
culture is called Generation Kill.
They were raised by television, Hollywood
movies, video games,Internet porn.
That stuff was available to them from a very
young age.
And that's sort of how they were acculturated
into society.
Both book and documentary offer unvarnished
insights into the complex meeting of youth
culture and the American military machine.
It's war fought by the first PlayStation generation.Here,
music matters and 'Soundtrack to War homes
in on its use in combat.
This is the one we listen to the most.
This is the one when we travel, when we're
killing the enemy.
Going through war, coming up here into Iraq,
coming into Baghdad - Drowning Pool Let the
Bodies Hit the Floor is definitely the song
we listen to.That's the motto for our tank
- Let the Bodies Hit the Floor - because it
was just, it was fitting for the job we were
doing.
George Gittoes has spent the last few weeks
in New York.
Some of his material is featured prominently
in Michael Moore's controversial film Fahrenheit
9/11.And Soundtrack to War is about to have
a month of screenings on American music channels,
including MTV.
I have worked in America since I was 18 and
I haven't seen the country as polarised as
it is now since the time of Vietnam War.
The impact that I hope the film has is that
America will actually appreciate and understand
the soldiers that it sent to Iraq, and there
isn't any understanding.
In fact, most people here seem to be oblivious
to what they're going through and I think
that will help them.
This is an M1 Abraham main battle tank.
And in our communications system, there is
a place where it's possible to hook up a CD
player, so if you want to check it out.From
right here, I control the music and it works
in all four helmets.
So when we're cruising down the road, I'm
listening to Tupac.
George Gittoes says that it's no accident
that for many soldiers, gangster rap has become
the soundtrack to the first conflict of the
21st Century.
A lot of these soldiers have come from street
battles.They've been involved, particularly
the rappers, in a very tough lifestyle and
they've made the best soldiers because they've
been doing it on the streets in America.
Like, like urban America is kind of a war
zone.
There is not a huge difference about writing
about south central Los Angeles and the gang
wars down there and writing about, you know,
Saddam City and Baghdad.
Evan Wright has closely covered inner city
American violence before the war in Iraq.His
book portrays a fighting force drawn largely
from broken homes, raised in a cynical, digital
age.
The majority of these guys were raised by
either single parent homes or in homes where
both parents worked, so, in effect, they didn't
really have a lot of parenting.
In Vietnam, the whole story is of a generation
of Americans that were innocent and they lost
that innocence in the jungles of South-East
Asia.
And in this case, these guys were raised on
violent video games, movies and a presidential
sex scandal involving president Clinton.
So these guys, I always tell people, were
sort of pre-jaded.
These soldiers, argues Evan Wright, are unlike
those who came before them.
One thing about them is they killed very well
in Iraq.
We keep it real in the battlefield...
Ultimately, both observers offer a portrait
of a complex street-smart and creative generation
of fighters who find the reality of war far
removed from the screen battles of their childhood.
Usually you see in the movie, bang, you're
dead.
You fall down.
Here, bang, you should be dead.
Your guts are hangin' out but you're still
walkin' around, still talkin'.Sittin' in a
swing set, swingin' like you're half crazy.
Like, they don't die!
