Junger's War: "Fear" and "Killing"

While perusing through Junger's site recently, I found that the combination of information on the book, information on the movie, and connection between interested peoples/fans to the actual people in the documentary research made for a multi-layered and workable piece of multimedia. However, after my perusing and reading to the end of Book Two: "Killing", I still find myself very uninterested in this particular subject.

Yet, I must still evaluate them as a unit to assess how they tell the story of these men fighting a war in a far away, and very dangerous, part of the world. Each element does a particular job to express the harsh realities of a place so few people truly understand, let alone have heard of. I am one who had no idea that there could be such a distinction when referring to specific places where US soldiers were being deployed to during the war. I had no idea that there actually could be a place with such a terrible story to tell. Junger does a great job of capturing all the elements of that place by really showing the unaware what the realities of the situation are.

For example, the book itself goes through terminologies, names of places, and ranks and names of many soldiers that Junger came in contact with. We are able to see that though the unit as a whole is important to defeat the enemy, it is the many individual parts that make up what the whole really is. Each weapon, bunker, mission, soldier, officer, location, and attack come together to show us that war itself is not more than the sum of its parts.

The movie then acts as more of a visual stimulator. The book does a good job of making us aware of the impact war can have on people and places, but the movie really shows us the realities of a situation that seems so far away. And then the site itself, connecting real readers with the real-life characters from the documentary, takes those realities and shoves them straight up your nose. Together, with each step, we are more and more thrust into the reality that a war fought over seas is anything but far away.

Overall, I find that this way of telling one story in multiple medias really brings its impact to the heart of those that experience it. I may still be bored while reading jargon and names I don't understand or recognize, but I am able to appreciate the effort it took to bring those pieces to a light that will have a greater impact on the people it was created for, as well as about.