Jarhead

[Crispy]

Is this a fun war movie to eat popcorn to?

Huge-chinned drill instructor, with a long list of withering put-downs and abuse for the recruits? Check.
Ethnically-diverse set of recruits, each with some easily identifiable character traits (the quiet one, the family man, the party animal, the bully)? Check.
Humorous 'training' and 'induction' scenes before getting on to the actual fighting? Check.
Wide angle shots with 1000s of extras, thundering military hardware and a pounding rock sountrack? Check.
"I love the Corps!" Check.
War is mad. So much so that some characters might stare into the distance and not hear what people are saying, or even have crazy dreams. Check.
Beautiful shots of explosions, fires and desolation. Smoke, bodies, burned out trucks. Check.
"Hoo-Aaah!" Check.
Characters go home, can't forget the war, you're always a soldier. Check.

All pretty much by the numbers then. The only things that seperate it really, are the fantastic cinematography (mr Roger Deakins, take another bow) and the fact that nobody ever actually gets to fight.

It is big, but it's not clever. Worth going for the funny bits and the pretty bits.

 

[Greebozz]

Whoops, yeah, sorry, I stopped reading there....you're so right.

Thats in interesting reading method you use, because I wrote that at the end of my post, so you must have started reading from the end of my post and then stopped working your self up the text.


I admit that it is totally stupid to pass comment on the film, without seeing it, I nearly did not dare return to this tread, It is a relief that I have not been blown out of the water totally as I expected.

 

[Stigmata]

It was alright. Some good central performances, although all the white actors looked the same to me with those haircuts- perhaps that's the idea. The photography was up to Mendes' usual standard and it all seemed very 'real'.

 

[TeeJay]

Thats in interesting reading method you use, because I wrote that at the end of my post, so you must have started reading from the end of my post and then stopped working your self up the text.

 

[electrogirl]

I saw this last night. I really enjoyed it, lagged in the middle a bit, but overall it was very entertaining, and rather beautiful in parts. It's a very funny film too.

I think it was confused about what it wanted to be. At times, it bordered on having a "message", but it never quite got there. In the end it was just a rather shallow, yet enjoyable look on the U.S Marines.

I realise it has been criticised for not trying to "say" anything, but I think that is part of it's charm. It doesn't try and tell you what to think, this is what happens in war, it's up to you how to feel about it.

I thought it was interesting to dispel some of the romanticism that surrounds troops.

I liked it.

 

[Cloud]

As a connaisseur of war films this one comes across as being pretty boring. You only have to read a short review of the film and you might as well have seen it. Too much bootcamp and no action but that is partly the message of the film, the infantry is pretty much useless in a high tech war and they never get to fire their weapons.

If you want to see something decent about the Gulf or Iraq then go watch the documentry 'Gunner Palace'.

 

[Blagsta]

I went on Monday night. We all agreed that it couldn't decide what it was about. A "war is hell" movie, a gung-ho action movie or what. Maybe one of the themes was that if you're out in the desert and can't go home then you have to go along with it for an easy life, but that wasn't fully developed. The bit where he went on about marines having instructions for everything apart from losing your mind was also dropped. What was the point? Enjoyable, but ultimately a bit shallow and unsatisfying.

 

[darren redparty]

went this PM. Enjoyed it, was reminded repetively of apocalypse now, ( was this intentional, vis. the part when the helicopter flew over playing the Doors and one charactor commented thats vietnam music! can't we have our own music!). Mendes has made a good film here.

 

[mk12]

Yeah - they watched apocalypse now in it too. And the very early training sequence was similar.

 

[electrogirl]

Yeah - they watched apocalypse now in it too. And the very early training sequence was similar.

Yeah I thought it was clever showing them cheering and shouting when watching Apocolypse Now, completely missing the anti-war statement.

The more I think about it, the more I think I this is actually a really good film. (Jake Gyllenhaal naked may have had something to do with this.. )

 

[RaggaKing]

I knew there wasn't much action in it which is definitely a good thing, because otherwise I'd have been expecting some, given the trend in recent war related films. It has almost become a given that there will be fighting, or at least violence (Three Kings, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line - going back further to Platoon, Apocalypse Now etc.)

It really is a well made film though and Mendes has done a terrific job of capturing the heart of Anthony's bestseller. The cast all give stellar performances, Jake and Jamie, and also Jake's sniper watch, who was the bad guy in Flight Plan. Three decent and solid actors, surrounded by a strong supporting cast. The soundtrack is also good, but then I always like Gulf War Marine music

The machoism is great, I don't think many girls will enjoy it, they're probably better off washing their hair or something, because this is one for the boys

 

[electrogirl]

The machoism is great, I don't think many girls will enjoy it, they're probably better off washing their hair or something, because this is one for the boys

Harhar.

 

[Kameron]

The machoism is great, I don't think many girls will enjoy it, they're probably better off washing their hair or something, because this is one for the boys

Really ... cause you know I think that I know a lot of girls who will really like this film. It is a film about interpretation, double meanings, the nature of war and the men we require to fight it, a reflection of our fears both with regard to the army and war in general and the first Iraq conflict in particular and a sense of what it is does to the people who go through it and how many men cooped up together thousands of miles from home survive. The bangs, lock &load and "oorah. Sergeant" is less important the transition that you see these men go through in the process of going to war and coming home.

Whatever else he may do with his life-build a house, love a woman, change his son's diaper-he will always be a jarhead. And all the jarheads killing and dying, they will always be me. We are still in the desert.

This is what the film is about, it gets repeated a few times in the movie in case you don't get it the first time.