Jarhead
Set during the Gulf War, the episodic tale follows Anthony Swofford (a.k.a. "Swoff"), a third-generation enlistee, from his sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, where he's sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound ruck sack on his back, while moving through Middle East deserts with no cover from the intolerable heat. As well, he advances with no protection from the Iraqi soldiers--and there's always a potential enemy sighting, just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves on humor and camaraderie as they tread the 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.
Wow, the trailer for this movie looked promising. I was looking forward to a good movie about the Gulf War. I got a mediocre movie about the Gulf War. Alot of people go see war movies to see what war is like without having to actually go there. I think some, like Saving Private Ryan and to some extent Platoon, give an accurate representation of what that war was like. From what I read from Marines that served in the Gulf War and what friends who served have told me, the Gulf War and Marines in general are nothing like those portrayed in this movie. From the complete lack of discipline to the disregard for superior officers, the soldiers in this movie behave more like you'd expect mercenaries or pirates to behave like than highly-trained Marines. This lack of realism from a movie that supposedly shows real events really overshadowed the rest of the movie for me.
This movie barely squeezed by with a R-rating. Some might think it deserves a NC-17 rating. There is as much violence as Saving Private Ryan as well as plenty of sexual references and even a graphic sex scene. This movie takes the F word to a new level.
I enjoyed some of this movie including his boot camp experience and part of Desert Storm, but the lack of realism really kills this movie as realism is what a 'based on a true story' should be trying to acheive.
3.2 out of 5
Wow, the trailer for this movie looked promising. I was looking forward to a good movie about the Gulf War. I got a mediocre movie about the Gulf War. Alot of people go see war movies to see what war is like without having to actually go there. I think some, like Saving Private Ryan and to some extent Platoon, give an accurate representation of what that war was like. From what I read from Marines that served in the Gulf War and what friends who served have told me, the Gulf War and Marines in general are nothing like those portrayed in this movie. From the complete lack of discipline to the disregard for superior officers, the soldiers in this movie behave more like you'd expect mercenaries or pirates to behave like than highly-trained Marines. This lack of realism from a movie that supposedly shows real events really overshadowed the rest of the movie for me.
This movie barely squeezed by with a R-rating. Some might think it deserves a NC-17 rating. There is as much violence as Saving Private Ryan as well as plenty of sexual references and even a graphic sex scene. This movie takes the F word to a new level.
I enjoyed some of this movie including his boot camp experience and part of Desert Storm, but the lack of realism really kills this movie as realism is what a 'based on a true story' should be trying to acheive.
3.2 out of 5
posted by Andrew at 10:37 AM
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