RA FRIDAY - RICHARD AND THE SAS : ULTIMATE FORCE vs STRIKE BACK

(IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS SERIES YET, I MUST WARN YOU : SPOILERS!)

I wanted to make a comparison between the two series in which Richard plays an SAS soldier / officer. And , since I didn’t mind Strike Back at all, I was ready to re- watch ITV   Ultimate Force (2003). Good God! I had completely removed the silliness of the entire thing! I was just shocked and angry in the end. Furious ! And only when I was,  I remembered it was not the first time! Did British television really broadcast that stuff? Unbelievable and unacceptable!

SAS soldiers overeager to shoot on any possible occasion, ready to lie and to find a capegoat to conceil their mistakes , the regiment before anything or anyone else , catastrophic family relationship but … yeah … they are tough guys , no frailty must be shown. Plenty of aggressiveness and high-handedness, uncaring attitude towards the application of the law, personal revenge. MAD DOGS, indeed (it is the title of one of the episodes). I know this show was meant for lads but such uneducative, immoral, distorted messages should not be sent to any audience, least of all to our youth. I know most of the people who take up a military career must be something like that, but please, don’t glorify them on a TV show!

I don’t like Henno (Ross Kemp) at all! Did his wife leave him? Well done! Doesn’t he say he married her only for her teets? Unbearable! Then? He shouts all the time giving order here and there even when he is not on duty. He ‘s ready to … no more precisely , he lies to the tribunal judges in the first episodes but he can’t bear any betrayal to him or to his friends. In that case he decides what justice is and do justice himself. Just a puffed –up, megalomaniac , crazy but lucid bloke. Blonde MI5 female agent, you are warned. Ex –wife, you just did the right thing!

I don’t like Pete, Laura’s husband. He’s in troubles, shocked and traumatized, removed from ops . He nearly kills his wife in his sleep, he’s paranoic, crazy, violent. I found it difficult to sympathize with him and with his silly wife. Henno helps him, of course. Even his wife – apart from a brief affair with kind- blue-eyed- Ian-Richard– is there always patient to him, everybody’s there for him. I found him unbearable, instead. He is even reactivated after a while though still mentally unstable. He refuses to undergo therapy: he is a man, after all, an SAS soldier, not a maid! I think he is just an irresponsible. He and his friends who cover the truth. They don’t help him at all, in fact.

I didn’t like any of the plots in  the 6 episodes. After watching 8 series of Spooks and the new Sky 1 Strike Back,  I may be a little spoilt or too demanding. But this series was utterly … crap! Chris Ryan collaborated to the scripts in the first two series but then he left. He was certainly scandalized by the unrealistic twists the story was taking. Most of the cast too left in series 3, maybe the scripts were becoming even more absurd.

 Ian Macalwain is not an easily likeable character and he's nothing like Richard, but as a thoroughful talented actor,  he did is best in that situation too. Macalwain is the new arrival in the Red Troop, he has to substitute the previous captain all the guys there used to like very much. Not an easy task.

He doesn’t want to be liked, actually.He wants to be respected and obeyed,  since he’s been appointed the new responsible of the troop. All the men, instead, start working against him, ignoring his orders, especially Henno.

No one better than Richard can find the right words to describe what he had in mind while acting in UF:

“Macalwain is not a bad guy, but he is a bit edgy. I don't think I am anything like him, which is why it is interesting to play him. He's eloquent with a sharp tongue and can humiliate people in an argument, which was really enoyable to play. He comes in as a captain and throws his weight around.

Macalwain begins to grow close to Laura, the wife of one of his men, Pete Twamley. Although ultimately it is she who seduces him by coming to his hotel room, he is soon so deeply involved with her that he is prepared to give up his career to take her away from her violent husband. Horrified, she pulls back, not wanting to leave Pete. But Macalawain is unable to accept this, believing that eventually she will come away with him.

By this time, Henno has found out that Macalwain has slept with Twamley's wife - the ultimate betrayal in his eyes. In the final episode, he takes matters into his own hands during a mission to rescue Colonel Dempsey, the regiment's commanding officer”. (from www.richardarmitageonline.com)

Henno takes matters into his hands ?!? Would you say that a cool blood murder ,with final mocking hiding of the corpse in a freezer and  knowing smiling looks from all the members- officers- included,  is TO TAKE MATTERS INTO ONE’S HAND? Who do they kill? Ian of couse. And why? Because he left Pete’s wife seduce him!

As I told you at the beginning of this post I was just astonished and furious. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The series closes that way. At the beginning of series 3 none of them takes their comeuppance. Nothing happens!

What is the main  difference between Ultimate Force and Strike Back? A great one, indeed. On a shallow note, Richard has greatly improved his look recently. But, seriously, everything sounds more realistic and more human in Sky 1 new series. John Porter is a killing –machine but in order not to suffer for what he does, he kind of suspends reality, dissociate himself from his own actions while killing and, especially, never seems overeager or excited to do it. It just seems an unavoidable cruel necessity to him. He’s got feelings, regrets, nightmares for what he does. He’s got frailties and flaws. The characters responsible for killings and massacres in SB suffer from great or little sense of guilt, but they recognize their mistakes: John Porter, , Gerald Baxter, Collinson himself in the end. The attempt to give a soul to a war killing machine like John Porter was a successful one. It made him someone bearing a torment, someone who needs to atone, someone you can even forgive for his crimes. You’ve got the idea that war is sufference and death, not a game. That’s what counts more to me.

Awfully done, ITV. Well done, Sky one!

P.S. 1

It seems Strike Back will take part to Rome Fiction Festival next July. Let’s see if Italian Press will notice its talented protagonist. Fingers crossed for any news coming out!

P.S. 2

Have you seen SB DVD extras? There’s a long interesting interviews with the crew and Richard says lots of thoughtful things about his experience. I just love listening to him talking about his work and his characters.

Many thanks to my friend Karen for her snappies from Ultimate Force, to www.richardarmitageonline.com for the precious info about Richard's work and to www.richardarmitagenet.com for their incredible screencap gallery.