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This shot of Colbert – often repeated throughout the episodes – is one face close-up among many as the series’ already noted “dual attunement - subjective states of the protagonists (face close-ups) and the warscape (tracking and telescopic frames) - proceeds. At the outset of the series, while the Marines are encamped, prior to hitting the road the close-ups of the faces alternate between the very young, vulnerable, and worried looking types and the grizzled veteran/officers, who appear to be alternatively driven and confused by the upcoming mission - seemingly an image commentary on a line in Wright’s book version, which characterized the mission as, “the incompetent, leading the unwilling, to do the unnecessary.”41 And while the book version articulates the different perspectives on the mission by documenting the centrifugal effects of the different voices, which show that there is no single “verbal-ideological center,”42 the HBO version recreates that plural perspective with close-ups that register the different ways that Marines respond to atrocities, both accidental and intentional.
One frequent face close-up, that of the Evan Wright character (Lee Tergesen) helps to orient the viewer’s interpretation of several moments in various episodes, especially those in which atrocities have occurred. At those moments, the Wright character serves as what Gilles Deleuze calls an “attendant,” a “constant or point of reference.” The “figure” as attendant (which Deleuze observes in the more narrative-oriented paintings of Francis Bacon) can be construed as a “spectator,” but not in the ordinary sense. Deleuze’s attendant provides the basis for determining the facticity of the scene – in his words, “the relation of the Figure to its isolating place,” or “what takes place.”43 What is taking place? Many of the moments when the camera zooms in on Wright’s face involve atrocities, in reaction to which he appears troubled (e.g., Figure 11).
Figure 11: Wright (on the right) Reacting
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