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Avg. Rating: 3
Can A Movie About Boredom Really Be Good?
A few weeks prior to watching "Jarhead" in its entirety, I saw some clips of it on television and thought that perhaps it would be the "Rambo" of our generation. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed.
Basically (Spoiler Alert), the plot of Jarhead follows a Marine Unit (focusing on one solider played by Jake Gyllenhaal) that is called into active duty during Operation Desert Storm. However, "action" is the furthest thing from the minds of the Marines, as they (in the words of their commanding officer) do nothing but "train, hydrate, train, hydrate some more, and maintain a constant state of suspicious alertness". Even when the unit does get the opportunity to carry out a designated mission, they are quickly and easily booted aside by the ever-popular air attacks. As the Gulf War ends, the entire unit has not fired a single shot in aggression throughout the entire campaign.
This film did one major thing right, but also seemed to generalize about a number of things that I did not appreciate:
What works is the focus on Gyllenhaal's character and the mind-set the he embodies through the entire process. He is pretty much lost when he enters the Marines, but then goes (in stages) from being utterly confused, to angry for enlisting, to ready to fight, to confused once again about his role in the entire process. Though uncomfortable at times (as we prefer to think of our returning soldiers as no less than out and out heroes), it was interesting to see a sampling of the emotions that likely beset our young men and women serving abroad.
The main reason the film turned me off a bit, though, is the generalization it made about the U.S. military. Sure, I understand that the ground troops may not have been as effective in a war fought out in the desert, but I cannot bring myself to believe that all military life (while not bombing the crap out of something from above) is boring and pointless. The Marines are still an elite combat unit that serves their country to the utmost, and I don't believe for a second that they find their task to be as boring or inane as director Sam Mendes portrays it. It almost seems as if Mendes (although not overly preachy about it, which was good) was using the example of the Gulf War to cast a pall over the entire current military structure/usefulness.
Thus, while Jarhead is a decent film that touches on some uncomfortable social/personal issues surrounding enlistment in the U.S. military, it ultimately fails to live up to my "next Rambo" tag due to a few over-generalizations that could very easily be used to unfairly steer audiences into an anti-military frame of mind.
Ignore The Bad Reviews
This is a GREAT movie. Dont hesitate getting it if you havent got it yet and Amazons price of $12 BRAND NEW is a steal.
BUY IT.
It looks good on Blu Ray, and is an all around great movie.
one confused fellow
This movie is not Mash, Catch 22 or All Quiet on the Western Front.
They say every generation has a war: here a marine and his fellows in Desert Storm feel cheated
for not getting to kill any Iraqi soldiers.
The current generation might complain about getting too much
killing of Iraqis?
The idea that you want your soldiers desiring to fight
is probably important, but I found the scenes where
the marines were thirsty for blood kind of hard.
Somewhere between WWI and now, we have lost
something important?
I think we need the draft back,
because these marines don't seem to represent America
and how that country feels about killing.
Jarhead (Full Screen)
Jarhead the self-imposed moniker of the Marines follows "Swoff," a third-generation enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound ruck on his back through Middle East deserts with no cover from intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand against an enemy they can't see for a cause they don't fully fathom. Sergeant Sykes is a Marine lifer who heads up Swofford's scout/sniper platoon, while Troy is Swoff's friend and mentor, a die-hard member of STA, their elite Marine Unit. Thhis movie has striking cinematography. Scenes in the desert, especially with the oil fires, are great. The shots are done perfectly and originally throughout while the score and soundtrack takes it to a powerful emotional level. "JARHEAD" is a viscerally unforgiving, psychologically heartbreaking movie.
Jog My Memory
If you are expecting a smash 'em up, blow 'em up movie then you will be let down. Why do we have the mindset anyway that all war movies have to have non-stop action. No, this not a great movie nor is it a classic. However, it is a decent movie with some excellent acting and decent storyline to hold your attention.
If memory serves me right, much of Desert Shield deployment was just what we have here in the storyline......mundane. That's not to say there was no action during the first round with Saddam it just wasn't overly exciting. And, to dress it up to be something that it was not does not do honor to the brave men and women who served during that deployment.
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