Netflix released its four-part documentary series about the US Marine Corps on Tuesday.
In keeping with the service's 250th anniversary, “Marines” follows the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit — one of only seven Marine Expeditionary Units and the only permanently forward-deployed Marine Expeditionary Unit — “as they conduct high-risk combat exercises in the Pacific,” the streaming service's summary says.
“The first time I did it, I was nervous,” director Chelsea Yarnell said in a recent interview with Military Times. “I thought, 'I don't know much about the Marines. Am I the right person to tell this story?'
“I found out almost immediately after filming [being an outsider] was almost like my superpower because the Marine Corps is very dense. It's a very isolated world. My staff and I really wanted the series to be for lay people and not necessarily just people who have served.”
While the documentary puts viewers through their paces on a number of acronyms, Yarnell is correct in her assessment that the series will be accessible to general audiences.
At the heart of the documentary is the idea of meaning: How do these men and women find meaning if not in war?
It was a question that many Marines in the series grappled with.
When asked how often Marines used the word “kill” throughout the series, Sebastian Junger, who serves as an executive producer on the documentary, told Military Times: “From a civilian perspective, all that talk can be a little offensive and unpleasant, but so is the idea of a bayonet on the end of a rifle. That's what war is about.”
“There is also a kind of culture of bravery, swagger and displayed toughness that I think is psychologically necessary in combat,” he continued. “There is also a deep insecurity among … young people who have been taught to kill, who have never been near a battlefield and are extremely self-conscious about it, and who talk about themselves in a lot of arrogance and exaggerated terms in order to give the impression to us and, more importantly, to themselves, that they are up to the task.”
According to Junger, joining the military almost means fulfilling a biological need.
“War immediately transports us to our evolutionary past,” he said. “We've lived in adverse circumstances for thousands of years. Modern society no longer really provides those circumstances for us to do our evolutionary thing – what we're genetically programmed to do. The military does that, whether it's on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier or on patrol in Kandahar Province.”
For some in the series, the Marine Corps provides that purpose in the form of stability for themselves and their families. For others, it was a continuation of a long family tradition of service.
“I think what struck me about the people who questioned this purpose was that they had joined the Marines hoping that their military service would be a panacea, but that really wasn't the case,” Yarnell said. “Or maybe it was just a matter of diving deeper into the question in a way that they weren’t expecting.”
During the filming of the documentary, the 31st MEU had to deal with unprecedented internal and external changes as the landscape of modern warfare has changed.
In 2023, reconnaissance sniper platoons, whose history dates back to World War I, were scrapped in favor of reconnaissance platoons.
Separating the sniper role from infantry battalions is one aspect of the Corps' Force Design 2030 plan, Military Times previously reported. This aims to “eliminate the preponderance of weapon-specific military occupational specialties in infantry battalions and produce highly qualified Marines capable of using a range of weapons and equipment,” said Navy spokesman Captain Ryan Bruce.
Netflix filmmakers were on site to watch this transition in real time.
“It was deeply emotional for her and in a way that shocked me,” Yarnell said. “I didn't expect it to be something that would be so soul-destroying. For her, it's not just a job. It's her identity.”
The documentary suggests that such sweeping changes were made to keep pace with emerging adversaries in the Pacific – namely China.
Filmed primarily over a three-month period in 2024, the filmmakers were integrated into the country's “911 Force” with the support of General Eric M. Smith, commandant of the Marine Corps.
According to a Navy news release, Smith directed Navy leaders to provide “full, unfettered and unhindered access” to the machine gunners, fighter pilots and unit commanders aboard the USS America and USS Green Bay.
The four 45-minute episodes explore an aspect of operations rarely seen by outsiders – from the claustrophobic heat and smell that permeates the bowels of a ship – with sailors, of course, blaming the Marines for the stench – to crucial ship-lockdown missions.
“We were constantly aware and surprised at how much access we were given as we were filming in locations that had never been documented before,” Yarnell told Military Times. “I think I really felt the pressure to make sure the series reflected the reality of an overseas deployment just because no one had been given that opportunity in the past.
“We saw it as our job as storytellers to tell our stories in the spaces we had access to because they were so generous.”
Claire Barrett is Strategic Operations Editor at Sightline Media and a World War II researcher with an unparalleled affinity for Sir Winston Churchill and Michigan football.