I'm worried about this "Jarhead" movie

[cobaindrain]

Now I don't know too much about it, but it seems a little too gung ho for my liking, crossing the line from an accurate depiction of war to almost a recruiting film for the military.

Seems like with enlistment dropping, this would be the perfect time for a propaganda movie to glorify the military and war.

[Dark]

1. It's about Iraq 1. And don't judge it before you see it.

It could be very anti-war. We'll have to wait and see.

[BurtWorm]

2. I'm not an expert, but I thought Jarhead gave a realistic picture

of being a Marine--which isn't all that pretty a picture from what I understand. It's not exactly a recruitment poster written to Bushist spec.

Correct me if I'm wrong, anyone who's read it.

[FreedomAngel82]

That sounds fine with me

I think it's important to show the reality of being in the military wehether the Marines or National Guard. Joining the military is serious and shouldn't be taken lightly. Any movie that shows the reality of being involved with the military is okay with me. And besides it's also an action film from what I've seen of the previews. It looks pretty good with Jamie Foxx.

[greenman3610]

22. great book

you keep going
"holy god this guy can WRITE.."
not to mention some passages that
are pee your pants funny..

[Javaman]

48. My take on the book...

It was a very good read. I got the impression that it was a realistic view of what actually went on. No bullshit.
It had a decidedly anti-war bent to it. In fact, I believe,(I read it when it first came out), if memory serves me correct, that the author made it plain that he wanted out of the marines in the worst way possible.
It is funny at times, dark humored at best, but mostly a hard scary look at how screwed up the military is at the soldier level.

my two cents

[ThumperDumper]

3. Yeah, I'm worried too...

Propaganda was my first thought too, but then it DOES take a lot of time to make a movie, and it IS Hollywood...

I don't know. Beware, I guess.

I'll be one of the first to cry foul.

Ebert and Roper review it next Saturday.

-JJ

.

[NorCalDem]

4. Just remember that it's all a movie, and none of it is real :) n/t

[Traveling_Home]

10. Also PLEASE...

Remember
----JFK is a movie
----Malcom X is a movie
----The Patriot is a movie
----Good Night and Good Luck is a movie
----All The Presidents Men is a movie
----Star Wars is a movie

and so is Jarhead

Read and Study History - see movies for entertainment

[walldude]

44. Fahrenheit 9/11 was also a movie..... n/t

[NYCGirl]

46. There is a difference between scripted films and DOCUMENTARY. NT

[garybeck]

52. yeah, but if your 17 year old kid is going to see it...

and that is the case at the moment. he just left to go see it with his friends.

[Lautremont]

5. I believe there are few or no actual combat scenes in it,

and so it probably won't be too gung-ho, at least not in the treaditional way. (More the "first-half-of-Full-Metal-Jacket way.) But I have a feeling that, while nothing to worry about, it'll seem irritatingly uncritical of bush-sponsored desert adventures, be they 1990-91 or 2003-4-5-etc.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Bout Iraq 1

and if it is close to the book, have you ever seen Full Metal Jacket?

[Captain Hilts]

7. Hey cobaindrain, hear the rumors Fitzgerald is a Mets fan?!? nt

[flowomo]

8. early reviews are very mixed:

"In all respects, Jarhead is straight from the horse’s mouth. See it."
-- Andrew Sarris, NEW YORK OBSERVER

"Sam Mendes' third feature has numerous arresting moments but never achieves a confident, consistent or sufficiently audacious tone."
-- Todd McCarthy, VARIETY

"The filmmakers clearly wanted to avoid the politics surrounding the first Gulf War even as they pay tribute to the Marines, the jarheads, who went to Saudi Arabia to fight. But the result is a movie rife with ambivalence."
-- Kirk Honeycutt, HOLLYWOOD REPORTER

"The movie is oppressively heavy even when mischievously lighthearted."
-- J. Hoberman, VILLAGE VOICE

"Jarhead has an oddly amorphous and inconclusive feeling to it."
-- David Denby, NEW YORKER

3.5/4 "Jarhead is compelling in the way it presents a new facet of a genre that some would argue was mined out long ago."
-- James Berardinelli, REELVIEWS

A- "“Jarhead” is the most unconventional anti-war film ever made..."
-- Cole Smithey, COLESMITHEY.COM

1.5/4 "Given how strongly the film insists on striking its testosterone pose, Mendes might say he's too cool for political thought."
-- Ed Gonzalez, SLANT MAGAZINE

8.4/10 "Jarhead might be Sam Mendes’ first honest film."
-- Devin Faraci, CHUD


B+ "This self-reflexive, almost surreal account of the 1991 Gulf War is Mendes' most ambitious and problematic work to date, likely to divide critics and viewers."
-- Emanuel Levy, EMANUELLEVY.COM

A- "Spurns a war movie's expected bloody confrontations for a dry, hot exploration into the ability of the human spirit to survive, scarred but whole."
-- David Foucher, EDGE BOSTON

2/4 "A voice-over'd, meticulously- bleached and postured still-life."
-- Walter Chaw, FILM FREAK CENTRAL

http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/jarhead/

[Dogmudgeon]

9. If it's at all like the book, it's anti-war

The "Jarhead" who wrote the book, and on whom the movie is based, is one of the growing number of military and vets who oppose the "recreational war" philosophy of the Bush junta(s).

Check out Amazon or B&N. The book was a best seller last year.

--p!

[redwitch]

40. I heard the author interviewed when book came out.

He said the first job of veterans who come home from war is to tell the truth about war. Didn't sound gungho recruiter type to me, sounded honest and a bit disgusted.

[priller]

11. It's based on the book by Anthony Swofford

It's not really anti-war or pro-war. It's just a very unflinching account of his experiences as a sniper during the Desert Storm.

There's a very good article about it in this month's Harper's.

[LiviaOlivia]

12. Here's a review

I like this site. The movie sounds like a dud.

http://hollywood-elsewhere.com/archives/2005/10/nothing_there.php

[Just Me]

13. You're worried about "glorification" of military and war?

I have NO recollection of ANY movie that "glorified" war.

Do you?

[cobaindrain]

14. yes

"we were soldiers" with mel gibson, came out a couple of years ago.

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. No, we were soldiers did not glorify war

it was prety much against it and described events that most Muricans are fully unaware of it.

maybe I watched a different movie but seeing the wifes have to do the notification using taxi drivers did not strike me as pro war, one iota... by the way, based on real life

[ET Awful]

24. Actually, it was the wives doing the notification to avoid

having the taxi drivers do it. After a telegram was mistakenly delivered to her, the Colonel's wife took it upon herself and told the driver to bring them all to her from now on.

That said, you're right, it didn't glorify war.

The bottom line of the movie wasn't pro-war. Nor was the bottom line of the book.

It came down to, as the authors said, they didn't fight for their country, or for freedom, or for any of the other myriad of reasons used to justify it. They fought for their friends that were fighting next to them.

[PassingFair]

35. Um, Charge of the Light Brigade, Brave Heart, and on and on and on...

and ANYTHING with John Wayne.

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. There's no fighting

That's one of the hooks that make it a weird war movie. But there's plenty of gore, when the Marines come upon a mini Caravn of Death scene in the desert. This is hardly a recruiting poster for the military.

[Skarbrowe]

I'm going to see it just to stare at Jake Gyllenhaal. Maybe.

For some reason, he fascinates me. I'm old enough to be his mother and then some. But hey, you never lose your desire for beautiful things.

I say maybe because I have absolutely no interest in watching a movie about Marines or the first Gulf War. Only Jake can get me to the theater.

[progressive_realist]

17. The author is pro-military but anti-Bush.

Anthony Swofford is a good writer, and supportive of the troops in a genuine way -- he empathizes, because he has had the same experiences. But he is not a faux patriot. In fact, he has come out strongly in interviews and magazine articles as being against Iraq War II and roundly criticizes the * administration for taking us to war on false pretexts.

I'm not sure that the movie will be 100% faithful to his vision, but from the previews it looks like a dark comedy as much as anything. I'd guess it's more "Full Metal Jacket" than "Top Gun".

No, the real military propaganda film coming soon is "Annapolis" (out in January). Ick.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Hey I am pro troops but anti bush

and anti GUlf War II

[slybacon9]

19. The song in the preview is Kanye West's "Jesus Walks" and we

all know Kanye doesn't care about Bush people...

[WatchWhatISay]

20. From the reviews that I read

the movie goes out of its way to be apolitical. Usually this was pointed out as a criticism.

A good bit of it is about the boredom and angst of being a soldier and waiting for something to happen.

One of the things brough out is soldiers fear that their wives/girlfriends would cheat one them back home. In the movie, one soldiers wife sends him a video of the movie Apocolypse Now with a surprise scene spliced in of her having sex with a neighbor to get back at the soldier for something. She knew that he would watch it with his buddies when the surprsie part came along.

Maybe that will make some potential soldiers think twice about signing up?

[SeveneightyWhoa]

21. Riiiight.

I don't know how you got that impression. And if these are the things you "worry" about, you're either paranoid, or have waaay too much time on your hands.

[SoCalDem]

23. Want to see military life in war? See "The Deer Hunter"

I saw it when it first came out, and it hit so close to home.. I have never been able to watch it since:(

[w8liftinglady]

26. Me,either-it was powerful and disturbing

[ET Awful]

25. It's not exactly propaganda.

Read the reviews of the book on Amazon and you'll see what I mean. The book is treated by freepers about the same way a new Franken or Michael Moore book would be.

The author is called a liar, a liberal, accused of never having served in the military, etc.

[LynneSin]

27. this is NOT a recruiting movie - read about it before post this stuff

Jake Gylenhall and Jamie Foxx have both been vocal against the war (Jake is a part of the 'Not in our Name' project)

Kanye West famous quote on national live tv: George Bush doesn't like black people.

You think these folks would get involved in a movie to encourage people to join the military?

[RevolutionStartsNow]

28. The director is Sam Mendes

This is not a Marine recruitment movie. But it's not an anti-war movie, either. It's about the characters.

I like Mendes (and, uh, naked Jake Gyllenhaal), so I will see it, but I'm not expecting a political movie.

[tamtam]

29. By all means if your worried read the book

If the movie is anything like the book then it's neither pro-war or anti-war. The book tells the story of what this young marine did and went through during the first Iraq war. If you got freeper pissing all over themselves over the book then you know there is some truth, heart and substance to the story. I was doing a google search just to see what the military community thought of the movie and for the most part most of the comments are negatives. Of course, this comes from those who call hollywood the liberal left and all that good stuff. The reason so many freeper and pro-war idiots come out against this movie is because they know it speaks the truth. In all honesty, the book is riveting and if your worried about the movie read the book.


San Diego lost three young men from Camp Pendleton today. I hope this movie follows the book because if it does it will open the eyes of America.

Long long day had to edit.

[Orangepeel]

30. I don't believe it is pro-war. But, so what if it was?

artists have a right to make stupid movies that glorify terrible things.

If I were worried about it, I wouldn't go see it or let my kids see it.

[ourbluenation]

31. The guy that made this made American Beauty... I think it will be a

not very favorable view of war. Have no fear....Plus Sam Mendes - it's all good.

[Quixote1818]

53. Yes, once I heard it was the maker of American Beauty I lost any fear

If anything it will be fair.

[devilgrrl]

32. Here's a review from Salon.com

"Jarhead"

Sam Mendes' specious adaptation of Anthony Swofford's Gulf War memoir is both antiwar and anti-soldier.

By Stephanie Zacharek

Nov. 4, 2005 | Early in Sam Mendes' adaptation of Anthony Swofford's memoir of the 1991 Gulf War, "Jarhead," a monstrous boot-camp drill instructor smashes the head of a young Marine recruit -- the protagonist and narrator of the story, played by Jake Gyllenhaal -- into a chalkboard for no good reason. Mendes presents this as a typical instance of Marine brutality, just one insignificant miniature in the mass-meathead M.O. of the U.S. military. He lays it on us and then quickly moves on to some other instance of degradation and humiliation, as if he fancied himself Lars von Trier remaking "Gomer Pyle."

What's odd about the scene is that in Swofford's book, the instructor uses Swofford's head to break the chalkboard (in the movie, it remains intact), so that his skull hits the cinder-block wall behind it. Later, a command lieutenant witnesses another instance of the drill instructor's explosiveness and tells the recruits that if any of them have been physically assaulted by the instructor, they should report it. (Swofford and others did.)

<snip>

But as hard as the actors work, "Jarhead" feels false right down to its seductive visuals. There are places where cinematographer Roger Deakins' work strives to give us the human touch so foreign to Mendes: Early in the movie, when we meet the young, newly shaven recruits, they have the look of child cancer-ward patients, perhaps a little sickly but definitely spirited -- a subtle way of contrasting their youth with the horrifying experiences they're preparing to face. Deakins is a great cinematographer, and you may find yourself marveling at the way he captures the shimmery, cold brightness of the desert -- until you realize how blatantly the look of "Jarhead" is borrowed from David O. Russell's far superior "Three Kings" (shot by Newton Thomas Sigel).

It's impossible to make a movie set during the first Gulf War without delivering at least an implicit political statement about the current one. Late in "Jarhead," Gyllenhaal's Swofford reflects on his own experience -- fighting a war that, unlike this current one, lasted only four days -- and intones, "We're still in the desert." Mendes means to suggest, I think, that the flawed, reckless Marines we've gotten to know in his movie are exactly the people we've sent out to fight our current war: They may be brave kids, doing their duty, but they're really not very smart, and it's our government's fault for sending them out that way.

More: http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/review/2005/11/04/jarhead/

[YouthInAsia]

33. I dont think the depiction of REAL WAR in saving private ryan

did the military any favors. It probably sent ppl running in the other direction. If this film is 1/2 as realistic as SPR then you have nothing to worry about. IMHO

[cynatnite]

34. Here's the blurb on yahoo movies:

"Jarhead" (the self-imposed moniker of the Marines) follows Anthony 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.

*******

I don't think the movie is like that. It doesn't have the action one would normally expect. I heard it compared to the movie 'Platoon' by some who got to see a preview.

[951-Riverside]

36. You might be onto something....

I caught this while looking at reviews for this movie on IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/board/flat/28398102">...Recruiter or Freeper?


Edit: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0418763/board/flat/28526601">...Freeper or Shit & Flies for brains?

[951-Riverside]

37. *kick*

:kick:

[MissB]

38. Then don't watch it.

Especially since you don't know too much about it.

[mattclearing]

39. It's a Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition) movie.

Needless to say, I doubt it's going to be as clear cut as all that.

[rocktivity]

41. It's hard to get enthusiastic about ANY movie

in which the actor who won an Oscar most recently is placed at the bottom of a bill of unknowns.

:headbang:
rocknation

[DS1]

42. *yawn* yet ANOTHER DU-Patented "I don't know squat about this" but

I'm going to form an opinion anyway thread.

[paparush]

43. NPR Reviewed it the Morning...

Great cast, based on a great book, but the movie flops.

They made a point of saying that the polished appearence of the movie is heavily undermined by the gritty reality of Iraq that we see on TV every day now...

[Bridget Burke]

45. It is based on a book, you know.

I haven't read it, but Amazon has a bunch of reviews:

www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/0743244915/ref=cm_cr_dp_2_1/104-9900454-4422361?%5Fencoding=UTF8&customer-reviews.sort%5Fby=-SubmissionDate&n=283155

They seem to indicate that it is hardly propaganda glorifying the military.

[BIG Sean]

47. War movies are anti war...

Hi,

I know...that sounds like I've been dropped on my head a few times. Well, I know that after watching a war movie, the LAST place I want to be is in the middle of that mess.

War sucks.

[951-Riverside]

49. I agree Saving Private Ryan & Black Hawk Down was gruesome.

[jzodda]

50. Many "war" movies are actually anti-war

Especially any of the more recent war movies, which I define as non-World War 2 movies. This movie reminds me more of the great 3 kings movie about the first gulf war.

So if you are looking for true propaganda? You will not find it in this movie. Got to watch a movie like "navy seals" for the type of propaganda you are looking for

later

[Shakespeare]

51. I'm worried about aliens stealing my brain. n/t

[nemo137]

54. Chicago Trib today seemed sad that it was insufficiently pro-war.

The review seemed disappointed that there was no shooting, or battle scenes, and that it showed disillusionment with the reasons for war in general.