« More About The "Secret" Amnesty Bill | Main | 3 Senator's Have Emergency Landing in Afghanistan ~ Kerry Wants Purple Heart »
February 22, 2008
Pat Dollard's Young Americans To Air This Spring
This spring, Pat Dollard's Young Americans will air on cable television, the result of years of work. But there's a good reason for the time it has taken: Pat Dollard is a man obsessed with reality, his reality of the war he experienced while embedded with the 3rd battalion 7th Marines in Ramadi.
In an article written for Vanity Fair, Pat Dollard is excoriated as a pro-war cheerleader. Surprisingly, The New York Times also gave an unflattering portrayal of Dollard.
Despite the criticism from places both expected and not, Dollard's Young Americans will be a make or break endeavor.
At a studio in Santa Monica, Pat and his editorial assistant Donnie "dB" Bracamontes put the final touches on the third episode in the Young American series. Critics who complain Hollywood has not accurately portrayed Iraq will need to be careful for what they wish.
Dollard trumps the pretenders by giving such an engaging view of Iraq, I found myself watching the 30-minute episode half-way out of my seat. The episode showed the Marine response to a major bombing at the Ramadi glass factory. What follows is not just a CNNesque report on raw violence, but a pulsating pictorial of the effects of terror.
The first five minutes were exhilarating and frightening. I found myself nodding my head and anticipating what was going to happen, because I had been there before.
Dollard himself makes no pretense of objectivity, his website sells "Jihad Killer" shirts and during Young Americans the audience will hear Dollard's voice give on-the-spot editorials.
"You see, you liberals, this is what you're supporting!"
There really is no substitute for being there, but it takes an entirely different personality to choose a place because it's dangerous.
In 2005 and 2006, Ramadi was reputed to be the most dangerous place on the planet
"I went to Ramadi because I knew it was going to be the next Fallujah," Pat said, referring to the 2004 Battle of Fallujah, when Marines cordoned off the city and swept through to weed out entrenched terrorists dreaming of jihad.
By the time I saw Fallujah in 2007, I met some of those Marines who helped to clear out the town nicknamed "The City of Mosques." But even those riflemen had an eerie reverence for the violence in Ramadi.
The battles of Fallujah were extremely violent, but Ramadi was supposed to be the capital city of the al Qaida-proclaimed Islamic Republic of Iraq. Unlike Fallujah, Ramadi was the city that had kept the Marines under siege, and not the other way around.
Young American editor dB Bracamontes won a Clio Award for editing, and has worked on the trailers for major releases: Transformers, Batman Begins, I Am Legend and the list goes on. In a city where people make a lot of money pretending to be someone else Bracamontes is the real deal working behind the scenes to make so many others stand out. Although dB is accustomed to demanding directors, Dollard is obsessed.
"I knew I had to go over [to Iraq], because Hollywood would never make this film."
It's one thing to believe in a cause ? Dollard says he was not at all surprised by 9/11 ? it is entirely another to risk bodily harm in order to prove a point. So far, Dollard is right, Hollywood has not attempted to make an accurate film on Iraq, and Dollard has paid a high price to prove this point.
On a night patrol, Patrick Dollard and his Marine escorts were hit by an IED. Lt. Almar Fitzgerald and Cpl. Matthew Conley were killed in the violent assault. Dollard still has physical problems from that night, but speaks less of his own injuries and more of the Marines who lost their lives.
This is the mood permeating Young Americans, a blend of dread, suspense and violence mixed in with sorrow, reflection and humor. In other words, this is precisely what being in Iraq is like.
"This isn't Dog the Bounty Hunter, this is the real thing," Dollard said when we talked about the rush of going on night house raids in places where the participants had no intention of making speeches for the cameras.
Over half a year and 600 hours of footage in the formerly most dangerous place on earth has had a spill-over effect into how Dollard perceives the world today.
"The best of spiritual America, the spirit of America is in Iraq," is how he describes it. Being spared when so many around him died has had a profound effect on this documentarian. "I'm a God man myself."
A part of this literal cultural warrior still is in Ramadi. "I feel contempt for the average civilian," Dollard says. "I can't stand that I live in a culture, especially in Hollywood, where measure of man is self-indulgence."
Young Americans debuts this spring on Showtime.
.
Wild Thing's comment........
I am looking forward to seeing Young American's. Thank you Pat for the support you have given our troops, for your blog, and for this movie, and also for your kindness. Wishing you all the best you deserve it! What Pat has done is awesome and I am sure the finished product will be the best ever.
Posted by Wild Thing at February 22, 2008 02:48 AM
Comments
Isn't it sad that a show like this has to be on cable?
It should be shown on regular tv because not everyone has Showtime or even cable.
Posted by: Lynn at February 22, 2008 05:28 AM
Damn, I don't have Showtime.
I love Dollard's expressions of contempt for celebrities and the mindset of Hollywood. He is saying what troops and their supporters have said for forty years.
Posted by: TomR at February 22, 2008 09:19 AM
I am amazed it is in fact on Showtime. I expect that Mr. Dollard will be required to portray a soldier heroically who, it will turn out later, comes out as gay....but hey, that would be okay if that's what it takes to get this show on.
Frankly, if all the gays were like J. Edgar Hoover, they would be all right!
Posted by: Nick Byram at February 22, 2008 12:34 PM
Lynn, yessss I wish it would be shown on regular channels. Not everyone has Showtime and the other movie channels.
We have to have cable here or we wouldn't even get regular TV.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 22, 2008 11:54 PM
Tom, he sure is and he is good at it. He has taken on the ones in Hollywood that can't be bothered supporting the troops and those that have slandered and attacked them like they do.
I am thrilled he finally was able to get it to be aired, it is just sad that it is on Showtime and a lot of people don't have it.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 23, 2008 12:00 AM
Nick Byram, I am just so grateful that it will be shown. It did surprise me that Showtime said yes, but every so often the ones like that do show some really good things.
Posted by: Wild Thing at February 23, 2008 12:02 AM
