Royal Marines hire film-makers to help attract more men

Article here. Excerpt:

HOLLYWOOD film-makers have been recruited by the Royal Marines to attract more young men to the elite fighting corps. Two successful big-screen ­talents have produced a series of advertisements to sell the excitement and adventure of wearing the Marines’ Green Beret. Shane Hurlbut, the director of photography on last year’s ­Terminator Salvation, has teamed up with Nanny McPhee director Susanna White to shoot the four 30-second commercials which are being screened on ­television and in cinemas.
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A senior source said: “We have seen a lot of young men, both Marines and officers, quit in the past couple of years and the pressure to maintain manpower within the units has increased. In addition, we went through a phase this year when every week we were looking for men to replace injured soldiers with 40 Commando in Helmand.

“These men are known as Battle Casualty Replacements and are vital to any operation.

“Next year we will see the entire Brigade deploy and that will mean more Battle Casualty Replacements. I don’t think the public is aware of the cost of the war on young men’s mental state and the injuries sustained. If you are a young corporal in Helmand who is leading fighting patrols day in, day out, in which he and his men face the lottery of stepping on a roadside bomb, the pressure, after six months, is immense.

“We had young Marines going on patrol with tourniquets strapped to their legs ready for use in case they got zapped. When they get home, if they have not been injured, many feel that they do not want to go back as the chance of escaping injury in a second or third tour is unlikely as the odds fall, so they leave.”