The first part of HBO’s “Generation Kill” documentary series brutally introduces the viewers into a world of violence and chaos, and surprises them with funny moments when they don’t expect it.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand anything about what’s going on and who the characters are. It’s supposed to be so.

David Simon, one of the story writers, said he wanted to give viewers, as well as readers, “a great deal of credit that if they want to enter a world, they will be willing to tolerate a certain amount of confusion as long as some core values and some core elements of the story are propelled forward.”

The seven-part series is an adaptation of Evan Wright's best-selling book about the Marine Corps’ 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, with whom the journalist spent time as it traveled from Kuwait to Iraq in 2003.

David Simon and Ed Burns (“The Wire”) have written the film’s story, presenting the book’s atmosphere very thoroughly and reflecting Wright’s neutral point of view. A lot of room is left for the soldiers’ comments, opinions and feelings, with Wright not trying to influence the readers’ mind in any way.

The series do not present the facts from the perspective of those in command of the American forces, but from the point of view of a quite small group of men who were fighting on the front lines.

The documentary certainly feels real to someone who was not there, but also to the soldiers involved in the Iraq war. Eric Kocher, one of the soldiers who appear in Wright’s book, said that, when “Generation Kill” was screened for several hundred Marines at Camp Pendleton, their reaction was enthusiastic, as they all recognized familiar dialogue patterns and they all agreed the film’s atmosphere managed to render perfectly their own war reality.

“That audience totally got exactly what David and Ed and I were all doing on this project,” Wright said. “They laughed at all the right jokes and they understood the gravity of scenes.”

One of the most “gratifying” moments Wright said he experienced was when he saw “these guys laughing and nodding their heads with recognition.”

In short, “Generation Kill” comprises various features, managing to be funny, frightening, violent, confusing, surprising and touching at the same time. And that’s enough to make people willing to watch it, and help HBO gain an important audience.