http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/jarhead/tlarge.html


if that trailer doesn't get you pumped then I'm not sure what you're looking for in a movie. This will probably do for Gylenhaal what Ray did for Foxx. boy oh boy this might be incredible.

you mean an Oscar nod?

the movie is centered around him and with what I'm sensing this is going to make war look bad (just a hunch). with the liberals running Hollywood anyway, it probably wouldn't be far fetched of this movie to get recognized later on. this is all just bullshit speculation from one trailer that's all.

>with what I'm sensing this is going to make war look bad

ala 'farenheit 9/11' or 'war of the worlds'

but yeah it looks great.

saw the trailer yesterday

The trailer makes me think it will be kind of how I feel about Crash, a film that means well but is too over the top about their message. If I hear it's an actually well thought out movie then I'll probably see it, if it's a film that just hypes up emotions about the war and Bush then I'll probably wait till rental, I've already seen and done that enough.

It has this feeling of it being a bit too self important. Although with Broyles writing the screenplay and Mendes directing it has some promise and potential. The jury is still out on Gyllenhall for me. I'm sold on his sister, but not really sold on him. I question anyone who thinks dating Kirsten Dunst is a good idea.

no homo

ya'll know what I mean. we're expecting a north country but get a lifetime movie.

Anyway....it should be really dope. Foxx looks to have a supporting role and he seems to kill in it. I don't know....I'm checking it out regardless.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/jarhead/large.html

what's the date on this?

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that song was finally gone, and now they bring it back, AND jamie foxx is in it? I want it to suck just for that.

Winners take all by Aesop Rock. Perfect song 4 that trailer.

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the Marine Corps are a garbage because they are usually grossly inaccurate and overly dramatized like most movies are.

Having said that I will probably go see this the day it opens.

But this movie is based on a book "Jarhead : A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles" written by Anthony Swofford an ex-marine. How much more realistic can it get. That's if the movie stays true to the book.

The timing just seems fucked up. I have no desire to see this shit what-so-ever

Yeah, seeing as how 'Over There' already beat them to the punch

I think the J walks song playing in the background is some kinda hidden message. I haven't quite figured it out yet but Im sure of it. It may sound silly to some of you but just think on it for a minute or two. Folks getting sent to various countries to kill other people is ridiculous, when there is so much going on over here.Nah mean.

or the atrocities commited in desert storm, or how america is set up to route poor people right into the military, and is actually good exposure..........

then we need this movie now more than ever

however, I doubt it will be any of those things, I'm guessing the polotics, in the end, will be pretty weak

here's to hoping they prove me wrong

This article pretty much lays out what the movie is and isn't ("This is not an action movie... Critics expected a much more specific political commentary about what's going on in Iraq right now. I think they were shocked that it was so comedic, and that it was so specifically about Desert Storm." - Director Sam Mendes). Though I could have done without the paragraph on Jake Gyllenhaal being half-naked in one scene (no homo).

So, in the words of Professor Griff, "Consider yourselves... warned."

From Entertainment Weekly:

> Ready. Aim. Wait.

Sam Mendes on the creation of a different kind of war movie -- The director of ''Jarhead'' talks about the making of his take on Desert Storm by Steve Daly

For months, director Sam Mendes has been toiling at an editing facility in New York City. He's been shaping and reshaping the voice-over narration and fiddling with precise gradations of bleached-out imagery on the way to a final cut of Jarhead, an account of what one group of U.S. Marine Corps troops went through in the 1991 Gulf War. With only about a week to go before the movie's publicity junket, Mendes finally okayed a finished print. Now, near the close of a three-day barrage of interviews in Los Angeles, he sounds like he's got postpartum blues. It's one thing to whip your film into shape in comparative privacy. It's another to send your baby out into the hard world.

''I was sitting in a radio junket,'' he says, holding forth in his hotel suite. ''The first seven questions — I counted — were about how I thought the movie would open at the box office. It's pretty depressing. What am I supposed to say? You're the best ones to judge that. But also, who f---ing cares? I just spent 18 months of my life on this movie, and the big question you're asking is whether I'm worried that the war is going to affect the opening weekend of Jarhead? That's insane. When I think about the war, the last thing I'm worried about is my opening weekend.''

Which is not to say Mendes isn't worried about his opening weekend. An Oscar winner for his 1999 film debut American Beauty (which grossed $130 million and took Best Picture), the 40-year-old Cambridge-educated Brit initially made his name as a young, hotshot stage director. He's still a relative newbie as a filmmaker, and his excellent Hollywood adventure, which continued with 2002's reasonably successful Road to Perdition, could always go bye-bye. ''Black Hawk Down took $100 million,'' he points out a while later, in a moment of hopeful comparison. Directed by Ridley Scott, that 2001 film dramatized a botched 1993 mission by the U.S. military in Somalia (and its final domestic gross actually topped out at $109 million). ''But that was an action movie. This is not.''

Indeed, it's hard to classify Jarhead, and thus to sell it. Part coming-of-age story, part military-training horror show, part bawdy male-bonding romp, and part poetic meditation on the murderous impulses of men at war, the movie doesn't offer much in the way of conventional, audience-pleasing payoffs. It's about being worn down by fear in a combat zone where the war could start at any minute, but doesn't in fact commence for months after deployment. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a grunt who's molded into an expert sniper, then left with no chance to strut his stuff because the Gulf War is over in a flash. Peter Sarsgaard is his loyal, hard-nosed sniper-scout partner, but it's not a warm-fuzzy, buddy-buddy kind of relationship — no cute clips to push on that score — while Jamie Foxx, the Oscar-winning star of Ray, takes a peppery supporting turn as a tough-love sergeant.

As journalists take in the film for the first time, Mendes is suddenly realizing that misperception could be an issue. ''I can feel people talking about the movie they expected to see,'' he says. ''They expected a much more specific political commentary about what's going on in Iraq right now. I think they were shocked that it was so comedic, and that it was so specifically about Desert Storm.'' The director, in turn, has been taken aback to see prerelease articles writing off Jarhead's impact sight unseen. ''I've read pieces about why this movie's already in danger of becoming irrelevant,'' he reports, looking incredulous. ''That the problem is, real-life events are going to overtake it. Huh? It' s about Operation Desert Storm! How can events overtake it?''

Remember General Norman Schwarzkopf? He wrapped up the ground-assault phase of the Gulf War in only four days, from Feb. 24 to 27, 1991. The mission had been to stop Saddam Hussein's Iraqi troops from annexing oil-rich Kuwait, and it was accomplished blitzkrieg-style, in an overwhelming display of force. Schwarzkopf became a media star because of his so-called surgical-strike triumph. Madonna even vamped to a lyric about him that year at the Academy Awards while singing ''Sooner or Later,'' a song from Dick Tracy. ''Talk to me, General Schwarzkopf,'' she cooed. ''Tell me all about it.''

But one Gulf War veteran by the name of Anthony Swofford wasn't so thrilled with the whole stormin'-Norman ethos. For a good decade after his six-month mobilization as a Marine Corps sniper in the Gulf War, Swofford brooded over the way his service had amounted, in his eyes, to a sustained arousal with no release. He turned his recollections and his anger into a 2003 memoir titled Jarhead — slang for what a Marine's cranium looks like after a high-and-tight haircut. As wartime chronicles go, Jarhead had a singularly strange, almost perverse theme: how a man who longed to be a killer was robbed of a shot at the gold by a gyp of a war.

Hollywood initially balked at turning such a dark, quirky book into a movie. When the galleys first circulated in fall 2002, just after the first anniversary of 9/11, nobody bit. It seemed too bleak, episodic, and difficult to market, not least because it would certainly get an R rating. To a studio-based book buyer's way of thinking, it was also a potential political minefield, with a new war on the horizon.

By the time Scribner — home of Hemingway — actually published Jarhead, though, the U.S. invasion of Iraq was at hand. That brought Swofford considerable publicity as a go-to witness of previous desert warfare, and helped make his book a best-seller. Producing partners Douglas Wick (Gladiator) and Lucy Fisher (Win a Date With Tad Hamilton!), impressed by the book's reviews, put a development package together. Their base studio, Sony, said no. By the fall of 2003, they'd managed to land a deal with then-Universal production honcho Scott Stuber instead, with screenwriter William Broyles Jr. (Cast Away, Apollo 13) attached. In Fisher's opinion, Swofford's book ''finally told the story, from the soldier's perspective, of a war nobody had seen.'' Meaning, of course, the ground war nobody had seen, as opposed to the air-war assault that was in fact televised up the wazoo. ''With a few exceptions, there was just no imagery of it out in the world as it happened,'' Fisher says. (There have been a number of Gulf War movies and documentaries released since the cessation of combat, including an IMAX movie, Fires of Kuwait, which Mendes and company would ultimately study for visual inspiration.)

Broyles had been a logical match for Jarhead. After all, he's a Vietnam veteran and an ex-Marine himself, and felt at home with the subject. But why in the world did Wick and Fisher go after an aesthete like Mendes, who they insist was their only serious candidate as director? ''It is preposterous, really,'' Mendes concedes with a laugh. In late 2003, he found he was going nowhere with some other potential movies, including Sweeney Todd and The Kite Runner. Then Wick and Fisher sent him Swofford's book. He remembers being up late a couple of nights with his infant son, Joe. (Actress Kate Winslet, Mendes' wife of two years, is the lad's mother.) Through a fog of sleeplessness, he fell in love with Swofford's take on the fog of war. He says it was the book's cascade of ''unusual images and incredible details — very difficult to translate, but gloriously vivid'' that made him agree to sign on barely a week later.

The biggest adaptation hurdle was to make engaging movie characters of the soldiers, as well as of Swofford himself. Broyles and Mendes created and compounded story beats to up the empathy factor, most notably a Christmas party with pounding rap music by Public Enemy. ''It's based partly on my experiences and some other stories we heard,'' reports Broyles. ''Christmas was always the most poignant, lonely time.'' And as audiences will discover when they see Gyllenhaal prancing around in nothing but two Santa hats, one strategically placed, while Christmas for a soldier might be the pits, movie scenes about Christmas for a soldier can be totally hot.

Impressed with how buff Gyllenhaal had looked when he caught him in a 2002 London stage production of This Is Our Youth, Mendes put the young actor through a couple of inconclusive meetings in mid-2004. Gyllenhaal, who turns 25 this December, tried reading the film's narration — a crucial script component — out loud at Mendes' New York City apartment. ''It was really, really literary and hard to get your mouth around,'' the actor remembers. ''I couldn't connect. I thought I'd f---ed it up.'' As the summer of 2004 wore on, reports and rumors went around that Mendes was looking at just about every eligible under-30 actor in Hollywood — rumors that tormented Gyllenhaal while he was in Calgary filming Brokeback Mountain for Ang Lee. But by fall, as Mountain wound down, Gyllenhaal got the nod. He celebrated by pushing his body bulk to the limit — a startling mass of muscle he has since lost again.

''He went nuts,'' says Gyllenhaal's 34-year-old costar Sarsgaard, a close offscreen cohort because he happens to date Jake's sister, Maggie. ''I know actors say, I got in shape for a role. But he was working out twice a day sometimes, with a trainer who was like a Nazi.''
Sarsgaard wound up coming late to the Jarhead casting table himself. He didn't get hired till the week before rehearsals. ''I think Sam knew he needed a relationship ,'' says Sarsgaard. ''Jake and I already had one. So — grab that one!'' It bothered Sarsgaard that he'd have barely any time to reshape his body, as Gyllenhaal did. He was too busy juggling final filming on Flightplan with initial rehearsals for Jarhead. ''I figured there was no way I was gonna look like Jake,'' he says. ''Then I started talking to one of our technical advisers. He was a sniper and he was a smoker. He said, 'In the end the only thing that matters is this,' and he mimed pulling a trigger. Marines look all different ways. I just had to get myself in the headspace of it, of what it means to want to pull that trigger.''

Sam Mendes treated Jarhead as his own opportunity to get in shape. Intellectual shape, that is. He pored over every aspect of military culture and hired a small platoon of actual Marines as advisers. (There was no official Corps input.) Using L.A. soundstages and California and Mexico desert locations to create his own versions of Saudi Arabia and oil-fire-plagued Kuwait — heavily enhanced afterward with enough CGI to make Jarhead one of the major effects feats of the year — he strove for a visual tone poem, leaning on his cinematographer, Roger Deakins (A Beautiful Mind, The Village), to photograph it all with a handheld immediacy.

But Mendes remains well aware that he's far from a pioneer in picturing boot-camp and desert-outpost life as a sort of surreal fantasia. Stanley Kubrick, for one, got there long before him, turning actor R. Lee Ermey into the archetypal drill instructor from hell for 1987's Full Metal Jacket. And as if to remind Mendes just how well-trod a path he'd picked for himself, Ermey sent the director a little gift shortly before he started shooting Jarhead, seemingly as a genuine goodwill gesture. ''I got this package,'' Mendes says. ''It said, 'Compliments of R. Lee Ermey. Good luck.' And inside was an R. Lee Ermey doll. He has patented himself, bless him.''

Mendes maintains he wasn't intimidated by Kubrick's ghost. ''Nobody can compete with those Full Metal Jacket scenes,'' he says. ''All you can do is shoot it your own way.'' And in fact, in a shrewd offensive move, Jarhead deliberately stokes war-movie memories, referencing Jacket with an insane drill instructor (played by Scott MacDonald) spouting baroque obscenities at the start of the picture. The film also salutes the ''Ride of the Valkyries'' scene in Apocalypse Now, which the Marine grunts use in a creepily pornographic way to amp up their bloodlust — just as they do in Swofford's book. (Giant irony: Walter Murch, who coedited Apocalypse and shared an Oscar for its sound design, also edited Jarhead.)

Can Mendes' movie enter the short list of great war flicks, devoid as it is of standard war-movie pleasures? Will it even hack its way to contender status among this year's best dramatic flicks? After all, it's got no bold political slant to help splash it across op-ed pages and chat boards. The Sarsgaard character actually explicitly dismisses the whole idea of such partisanship by declaring, ''F--- politics.''

Mendes claims he's mainly out to remind people of the individuals behind America's military might, a vast machine that Foxx's sergeant calls, unironically, ''the righteous hammer of God.'' That includes the soldiers of today, the ones who happen to be in harm's way in Iraq right now. ''Our intention,'' he says, ''above and beyond any specific narrative about the Gulf War, was to give human shape to these numbers you read about every day. Everyone thinks somehow that Marines are all the same. Which is, of course, nonsense.''
________________________________________________________________________________________
defender of all things upn

currently on backorder for me and f--- (o-), cause us "morons" need it:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbnInquiry.asp?userid=F81az3zB07&isbn=0312144776&itm=1

now i'm gonna go outta my way to see it.

i need to watch American Beauty again (it's been since org. release), but, as some may remember, Road To Perdition is one my favorite movies to come out in the last decade or so. really

i'm not ready to put Mr. Mendes in the rarified air of the top shelf, but he's convinced me a lot more than most other 90s+ directors.

i will see Jarhead.

Is how a Mendes film will look without Conrad Hall.

and it does look very good

>and it does look very good

A few scenes here & there but overall I was unimpressed.

tell you about it tomorrow

It wasn't really about anything. Not a gory war film. Not a heartfelt story. Just some funny shit goin on in the desert.

how absurd it was to send those thousands of troops out there. Furthermore to show that a lot of them were pretty incompetent.

but isn't that what the Desert storm was anyways?....a very uneventful war... it's a different kind of war flick and i appreciate the fact that the director didn't try to make up shit to make it look more interesting than what the actual events were... i wouldn't b surprised if a lot of the real veterans of the 1st Gulf war, were able to relate to this movie...

metacritic.com gave it a 58/100.
insofar this says it's hot garbage.
what say you moviegoers?

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alright, i'll take that back, it had a point, they just didnt do a very good job of showing it...it wasnt a bad movie though, i'd say one has to see it for themeselves.

Was not pointless. The movie was about one persons experience during the Desert Storm conflict. What he personally experienced. it is in no way a typical war film. How is that pointless?
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see reply 42

No you just missed the point. The movie was'nt about making a statement, so therefore if that's what you were looknig to get out of the movie of course you would'nt like it. Once again it is based on one person experience during the war. The movie was'nt made to make some sort of profound statement genius.
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how can a war movie, especially when theres one going on right now, not be made to make a statement? you were probably just too busy laughing at the jokes...i never said i didnt like the movie, to me, they were just trying to please everyone, they didnt want to make it too pro-war and they didnt want to make it too anti-war, so they just threw in little things here and there that would make either side happy.

Ok, I was to busy laughing at the jokes, lol. It could'nt just be that was a persons experience in the war, they had to be trying to please everyone, lol.
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-30-

"if God is Black, that would explain why He hates niggas" - Big Moolie Ty

Jake G really impressed me.

But then again my brother thought it was aight, stating that he really didnt care all that much for the characters and thus their outburts and what not aint mean much to him on a personal level.

I can def understand why some will love or some will not really like it.

Not give too much away, I think the point of the film was just to show war's effect on the individual, and how much of a life changing experience it all is, even if you're not involved in heavy combat the whole time, and even if you're not out in the trenches for very long.

After that ending montage, it made me feel empty and all I could do was think about how many people are in Iraq right now going through the same shit for no good reason. It kinda makes me sick to think about it.

not a waste of money, but nothing great.

I felt like it skimmed the surface whenever it was trying to say anything.

Jake G was impressive. Jamie Foxx and Peter Saragajsglard were not.

>not a waste of money, but nothing great.
>
>I felt like it skimmed the surface whenever it was trying to
>say anything.

-30-

"if God is Black, that would explain why He hates niggas" - Big Moolie Ty

I think that's intentional, and I'm glad they went that extra step at the end and sort of made it fizzle out instead of ending it on the high of winning the war

it leaves the entire movie looking kinda "blah" though.

from the cat who directed "american beauty."

where i saw it, cats were hating on the ending. but i don't see how they coulda ended it any other way and remained true to the theme of the flick.

-30-

"if God is Black, that would explain why He hates niggas" - Big Moolie Ty

this one left more loose ends than it tied up. And I mean it was true to the tone of the movie (and presumably the book) but it just left me feeling somewhat unsatisfied. So maybe that makes it an effective piece of art, but as a consumer, I wasn't really feeling it. So I dunno, I don't regret seeing it, but I have a tough time recommending it to others.

you know what happened in the war in real life

-30-

"if God is Black, that would explain why He hates niggas" - Big Moolie Ty

and that's the first time i've been called the n word. i'm a white female

>and that's the first time i've been called the n word. i'm a
>white female

« niggamarole »

It was okay. I think the aim was to present a slice-of-life about this particular soldier, which was fine. The movie felt cold, though, rather bland. Funny, but bland. No real emotion to speak of, except for a couple of scenes: the one with the video tape, and the gun confrontation in the tent. That's about it. Wasn't much else to grasp onto. I understand the reasoning for not making some kind of war statement, but at least that would have been something to care about or latch onto emotionally. If anything, the movie is an exploration of pent-up machismo, which can lead to sexual paranoia.

Jamie Foxx and Lucas Black were the only two enjoyable performances to me. Lucas Black's character was the closest we got to someone having some kind of opinion about war, or at least trying to question what was going on. And I don't know who started the 'Jamie Foxx has done it again, give him another Oscar nomination' talk, but they should probably turn that volume down. He was good, but not "blow away awesome wow" good. Jake Gyllenhaal was a blank slate to me. He was either angry or paranoid for the duration of the movie. Nothing else registered. It felt like Peter Saarsgard was playing the same laid back dude he always seems to play (and please spare me the IMDB link to his filmography, kids, because I'm not reading it). But he did have the scene of the movie, though, near the end. That scene was also the closest we got to some kind of commentary or emotional stance on war, or at least the idea of war and what it means to actually fight a war.

This is a tough movie to really critique. It's supposed to be one man's account of the war going on not on the field but in his head. I just find it hard to believe that there was nothing going on emotionally up there.

This must have been a really tough adaptation. It would have been interesting to see what Charlie Kaufman could have done with the material.
________________________________________________________________________________________
defender of all things upn

<---- go spit, riggs...

n/m

Your reviews and opinions didn't convince me it was good, or that it sucked. Ultimately I'm going on wed.

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this movie i mean.
its abt frustration.

like thatruth i was also in the corps and the movie is basically abt what happens when you have a purpose in life, (in this guys case to kill the enemy) and for whatever reason you arent allowed to, despite the enemy being all over the fucking place

imagine being a horny virgin aching to bust his/her cherry, moving into a whorehouse for 6 monmths and not being able to actual so much as touch one of the girls

its frustration
its a movie much more abt "coming of age" rather than "war"

as such..i was kind of disappointed, i expected more blood

hwvr...wait til the books & movies start coming out abt this monstrosity of a "war" we're in now

boy howdy


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in the end, after they're told the war is over, the guys take extra delight in, ahem, *shooting all their guns in the air*... the sweet release, if you will...
___________________________________________________________________________________________
defender of all things upn

<---- go spit, riggs...

i found me asking myself at least 5 times "so what?".

my friend summed it best by saying "they basically told an uninteresting story which in turn made for an uninteresting film."

to me it was a typical Hollywood overly exaggerated and inaccurate portrayal of the Marine Corps and the military in general.

The opening scene is a blatent poorly done ripoff of Full Metal Jacket. Even though this is supposed to be based on a "true story" there are a lot things going on that aren't quite believable.

Like? Dont worry Ive seen the movie already

there are a lot things going on that aren't quite
>believable.
>
>

>Like? Dont worry Ive seen the movie already
>
>there are a lot things going on that aren't quite
>>believable.

For one, if a Marine was killed in a live-fire training exercise like that Staff Sergeant Sykes would have been Private Sykes and his career would have been over.

And when Swofford snapped and threatened to kill Fergus then later apolgized and that was the end of it? I don't think so.

The whole portrayal of Marines and psychotic, undisciplined, ignorant, sexual deviants was totally over exaggerated. Everyone's wife or girlfriend doesn't become a slut when they're deployed and when situations like that do happen guys are a lot more respectful. A lot of other things, like the wild parties in the desert, guys cooking hot dogs on cases of live ammo, football games in full MOPP gear in 112-degree heat, "field fucks" in front of reporters, are totally bogus.

Then there are tons of other minor technical discrepancies like the drill instructor at the beginning having a moustache, the way they moved tactically throught the desert(way too close together), at the Christmas party which would have been Christmas of 1990 they were playing Naughty by Nature's O.P.P. which didn't come out until later 1991, I could go on and on...

>>Like? Dont worry Ive seen the movie already
>>
>>there are a lot things going on that aren't quite
>>>believable.
>
>For one, if a Marine was killed in a live-fire training
>exercise like that Staff Sergeant Sykes would have been
>Private Sykes and his career would have been over.
Yeah, that did seem very glossed over.
>
>And when Swofford snapped and threatened to kill Fergus then
>later apolgized and that was the end of it? I don't think so.
Hmmm...you mean in the sense that Fergus would've come back after him, or that Swofford would've been getting psych exams?
>
>The whole portrayal of Marines and psychotic, undisciplined,
>ignorant, sexual deviants was totally over exaggerated.
>Everyone's wife or girlfriend doesn't become a slut when
>they're deployed and when situations like that do happen guys
>are a lot more respectful. A lot of other things, like the
>wild parties in the desert, guys cooking hot dogs on cases of
>live ammo, football games in full MOPP gear in 112-degree
>heat, "field fucks" in front of reporters, are totally bogus.
Yeah, the tent scenes seemed like they were reaching a bit to try to punch the movie up.
>

>to me it was a typical Hollywood overly exaggerated and
>inaccurate portrayal of the Marine Corps and the military in
>general.

That's funny, considering the source material was a book written by a former Marine, and from what I understand, adheres pretty close to the book. But you go 'head.


>The opening scene is a blatent poorly done ripoff of Full
>Metal Jacket. Even though this is supposed to be based on a
>"true story" there are a lot things going on that aren't quite
>believable.

Yeah, again, the movie's based on the book by a former Marine, who wrote about his thoughts and feelings about being in the corps, and about getting ready to fight a "war"... mostly inner-head stuff. You can't blame "Hollywood" for this one, as the source material was inherently tough to begin with. It's always hard to use movies to tell stories about a person's inner thoughts.
________________________________________________________________________________________
defender of all things upn

<---- go spit, riggs...

>That's funny, considering the source material was a book
>written by a former Marine, and from what I understand,
>adheres pretty close to the book. But you go 'head.


I'm a former Marine also. One thing you have to take into account was tha author of this book is somewone that got out after 4 years a private meaning he was a fuck-up or a "shitbird" as they were called, so his view or the Marine Corps and the military is going to be more jaded than most and should be taken with a grain of salt.

That's all fine and cool, but one of the things that was interesting about the movie was that it really didn't take a point of view about the Marine corps. It was neither pro nor con, which I thought ultimately hurt the movie. It was bloodless. The guy joined up pretty much because he didn't have much else to do.

I'd see your point had the movie been a complete thrashing of the Marine corps and all things military, but it wasn't at all. It really didn't take a stance on either side, which, again, I thought hurt it. It'd be different had Swofford said, at any point in time in the book or movie, that he hated being there, or he loved being there. I don't recall hearing either.

As I've pointed out, and a couple of others have pointed out, the movie isn't really about war, or the inner workings of the military, it's about pent-up male aggression, and the things that does to a dude's head.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
defender of all things upn

<---- go spit, riggs...

portrayal for some of the reasons listed in post #64 among other things.

each and every exact, intricate, exact detail of military operations. It's not a fact-based biopic, where every single military detail has to be right and exact in order for the story to work.

And I was going to point out OPP just to be a smart ass, since that kind of thing seems to bother a lot of people...
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defender of all things upn

<---- go spit, riggs...

with scenes that are obvious ripoffs from other movies and present it as "based on a true story" I have a problem with that.

>with scenes that are obvious ripoffs from other movies and
>present it as "based on a true story" I have a problem with
>that.

This is from the article I posted about a week ago.

>But Mendes remains well aware that he's far from a pioneer in picturing boot-camp and desert-outpost life as a sort of surreal fantasia. Stanley Kubrick, for one, got there long before him, turning actor R. Lee Ermey into the archetypal drill instructor from hell for 1987's Full Metal Jacket...

Mendes maintains he wasn't intimidated by Kubrick's ghost. ''Nobody can compete with those Full Metal Jacket scenes,'' he says. ''All you can do is shoot it your own way.'' And in fact, in a shrewd offensive move, Jarhead deliberately stokes war-movie memories, referencing Jacket with an insane drill instructor (played by Scott MacDonald) spouting baroque obscenities at the start of the picture. The film also salutes the ''Ride of the Valkyries'' scene in Apocalypse Now, which the Marine grunts use in a creepily pornographic way to amp up their bloodlust — just as they do in Swofford's book. (Giant irony: Walter Murch, who coedited Apocalypse and shared an Oscar for its sound design, also edited Jarhead).


From the L.A. Times:

>Experts' opinion on 'Jarhead'? Mixed

Marines like the film's depiction of the "first-to-fight" spirit but call it a relic of a pre-9/11 world.

By Tony Perry
Times Staff Writer

November 7, 2005

It is hard to imagine more attentive audiences for the opening weekend of "Jarhead" than the active-duty and retired Marines who flocked to the theater just outside Camp Pendleton, where the movie, adapted from ex-Marine Anthony Swofford's book about the Persian Gulf War, was showing on three screens.

In large measure, what the Marines saw conformed to their sense of themselves and the Corps: the tough training, the forever use of the F-word, the camaraderie, the "first-to-fight" spirit, even small details — the common belief that the Army gets better equipment and that your girlfriend back home is cheating on you with that infamous snake "Jody."

Jamie Foxx as the kick-butt staff sergeant and Chris Cooper as the charismatic battalion commander got high marks for realism. But in two fundamental ways, "Jarhead" was seen by many in attendance at the multiplex in downtown Oceanside, Calif., with first-hand experience of the war in Iraq, as a relic from a world that no longer exists.

The Gulf War took place in a world before Sept. 11, before young men enlisted in the Marine Corps not with the vague hope of combat but with the full promise of it.

And it was a world before the Marine Corps and other U.S. forces were mired in a war of attrition with a relentless and lethal insurgency that kills by stealth and remote control and where enemy fighters are often indistinguishable from civilians.

In "Jarhead," as in that earlier war it depicts, opposing forces mass at opposite ends of an open plain and then collide in great, albeit brief, fury. In such a contest, the U.S. enjoyed the enormous advantage of superior technology and firepower, with the result never truly in doubt.

Jake Gyllenhaal's Swofford is unsure of why he has been sent to Saudi Arabia to help oust Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait. Swofford had joined the Marines in the twilight between the end of the Cold War and the full explosion of the U.S. war on terrorism.

The world that gave rise to Swofford's ambivalence ended "when we watched those two towers come down," said retired Master Gunnery Sgt. Steven Schweitzer, 46, who served 27 years, including during the 2003 assault on Baghdad.

As film critics have noted, it helped that Swofford's book was published shortly before the assault on Baghdad, but that might not help the movie because of the differences between the Iraq war and the one Swofford fought in 1991.

"That was the last classic force-on-force war," said retired Gunnery Sgt. Robert Kane, 41, who served for 22 years, including stints in the Gulf War, Afghanistan and the assault to topple Hussein. The current conflict "has changed the entire nature of warfare."

As Marines from Camp Pendleton prepare for their fourth deployment to Iraq, the enemy that awaits them is not an opposing army but insurgents from multiple countries planting roadside explosives and using suicide bombers.

This war has also seen a change in perspective for many of those fighting in it. During the Gulf War, service personnel fought to liberate a country that some had never even heard of. For many in today's military, the terrorist attack on the U.S. made this fight more personal.

Swofford "doesn't seem to know the reason he's being sent to fight," said Pvt. Matthew Donnelly, 18, of Salem, Ore., who is being deployed to Iraq soon. "I know exactly why: to serve my country and protect my brothers in arms."

As the U.S. attempts to help a fledgling Iraqi government, Marines are engaged not solely in head-on combat but in what the Corps calls a "three-block war": fighting a gun battle on one block, providing humanitarian assistance on another and acting as peacekeepers on a third.

"It's a different war," said Donald F. Armento, 48, a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves with 23 years' experience. "We went after the symptoms . Now we're going after the causes."

The filmmakers had sought assistance from the Defense Department, but were turned down when Pentagon officials decided the script was not a "feasible interpretation of military life."

At one point, Swofford threatens to kill another Marine and, later, when Iraqis surrender, the Marines celebrate by dancing around a bonfire and firing their weapons in the air. Too often, "Jarhead" shows Swofford and his buddies acting "more like a college fraternity house than a disciplined Marine unit," said Paul Geitner, 60, who served 26 years before retiring in 1993 as a lieutenant colonel in the Reserves.

On the issue of camaraderie, of the bonds developed in a war zone, "Jarhead" got higher marks. "I'm closer to guys I spent a few months with in Iraq than guys I've known for 10 years or more," said Kane. John Dadian, 47, who served in the Corps from 1977 to 1981 and is now a political consultant in San Diego, agreed, noting that the scene in which Swofford and others gather for a funeral of a buddy they haven't seen in years captures the sense of kinship that persists despite time and distance.

Bill Miller, 73, who served for 20 years before retiring as a gunnery sergeant in 1967, said he was glad to see a Vietnam veteran shown in a positive way. As Swofford and others return home, a scruffy-looking veteran offers congratulations to his fellow Marines. "It's good to see that even if you're down-and-out, those ideals and values stay with you," Miller said.

Lance Cpl. Patrick Wilkinson, 20, of Wisconsin, said that even though the topography and military tactics were different from those he's seen in Iraq, "Jarhead" still captures the reality of each Marine calculating his chances of survival.

Wilkinson is considering reenlisting to get a guarantee of staying with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Regiment, rather than risk being transferred to a new battalion for his upcoming third tour to Iraq.

"We don't die in the three-four," he said. "We have the best ratio of bringing guys home alive."
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THERE WERE NO RED M & Ms IN 1982!!!!!!!!!

<---- go spit, riggs...

on in the movie is the fact that Swofford was deeply disturbed mentally before he ever joined the Marine Corps and attempted suicide more than once.

How about blatant biting instead???

This is my rifle, there are many like it but this one is mine...

Sadistic D.I.

Gomer Pyle>>>>>>>dude with glasses

I want you to meet my new best friend...

Come on

>How about blatant biting instead???
>
>This is my rifle, there are many like it but this one is
>mine...
>

uhh..

how could it be biting if that is an ACTUAL mantra of the marine corps...

that mantra is real, not made for movies

It'd be different had Swofford
>said, at any point in time in the book or movie, that he hated
>being there, or he loved being there.


When hes talking to duke (cat who is gonna get dischrged because of his criminal record) after the whole near sniping business, when they are waiting to be picked up, and Jake G says:

"ALl you wanna do is get in, and all I wanna do is get out."

Unless that pertained to something else I aint get, it does point to his mindset.

or making the Marines look bad, or portraying an accurate, true-to-life portrayal of how the Marines actually are, which is what ThaTruth has a problem with.
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THERE WERE NO RED M & Ms IN 1982!!!!!!!!!

<---- go spit, riggs...

I thought it was a good movie too. He was in Desert Shield then Desert Storm and said that depiction was appropriate to what marines went thru during that war. I thought it was a good all around movie that did a good job of not becoming overly political in its message.

one of the best films this year IMO. jake gyllenahal did a excellent job and jamie deserves another oscar nod for his performance. chris cooper did good too, i don't really like the fact though that during the trailers they seemed to promote chris cooper's a little more than jaimie when he is only in like one scene. but anyway it was an excellent film. i would pay to see it again.

his performances in ray (my least favorite), collateral, and now this. he is one of the top actors working right now

stylistically it was just very pleasing to watch.

the whole thing was based on being anticlimactict so the ending fit well.

the film purposely didn't do much, but was enjoyable nonetheless.

interesting, that's what just bout everyone says

Stylistically, the writing, the acting...just everything I thought was fantastic.

What I thought was interesting was it was the only real film about the Gulf War (yeah, 3 Kings was set during the Gulf War but thats it) and it was TOTALLY opposite of every other war film I'd seen. I mean...it was certainly a different war, a byproduct of the Vietnam war and this film was a byproduct of Vietnam films. I really enjoyed the self reflexiveness of it, and I definitely thought it was pertinent to what's going on right now. It was interesting also that it was slice-of-life like, but took place over like 6 months which is so opposite of slice of life films. All around, I enjoyed this one...and while I don't think it's for everyone, I'd reccomend it to anyone.

Walking out i heard one guy say "that was the worst film ive ever seen"...but then i heard another couple say "that was one of the best war films ive ever seen"...so i guess its not for everyone, some people will like the approach they took while others thought there would be more 'action'...i loved it...felt it was a good companion to all the action war films...the story you dont see in movies

what did you folks thinks about the scene during the ending when the marine vet climbs aboard their bus and starts getting all hyphy about being proud of the marines? i couldn't tell if the guys on the bus thought he was crazy, or they were proud that they were now part of this lifelong brotherhood. the scene could've played either way (and maybe that was the intention because the movie is soo middle of the road) because some of the time, they were looking at the guy like he was nuts but another part of it they seemed to admire him.

and i liked most of jarhead. it had a couple of very good images but when i think back about it, it makes for a lot of good images and a lot of good anecdotes but maybe not a fully formed film.

I felt that they were shocked or disturbed because they saw this ex marine who was obviously mentally ill and poor...like "this is what we have to look forward to?"...so they felt sorry for dude and felt that thats what their life could turn out to be due to what they had seen and experienced...i dont know

I was bored to tears. The only good thing about this movie were some of the visuals. The characters were hollow and without any redeeming qualities. I had no emotional attachment to them whatsoever.

A severely disappointing effort from I director that I formerly admired.

>A severely disappointing effort from I director that I
>formerly admired.

That's rather lame. Dude makes one movie you don't like and you suddenly don't admire him anymore? You should check out the thread of the worst films by director...

<---- my music so loud, im swangin', they hopin' that they gon' catch me ridin' dirty

Knew going into it that there wasnt gonna be a lot of action but if that's the case then I felt it should've done a better job w/ the interaction between the Marines.

When Jake snaps @ Fergus it feels really forced & unconvincing.

When Peter is crying @ the end cuz Cerrano takes away his kill I felt 4 him up until a point 2 where it seemed like he was overacting & whinning 2 much.

It was interesting just not very entertaining. You keep thinking these guys are gonna finally "get some" but they never really do.

Question (spoilers): So did Jake's girl leave him? And do we know what was the cause of Peter's death?

>Knew going into it that there wasnt gonna be a lot of action
>but if that's the case then I felt it should've done a better
>job w/ the interaction between the Marines.

I think it did a pretty good job of giving an overview of the various interactions between marines. But the main goal (I think) was to show the endless waiting itself, and the relationship of the marines with their 'job'.

>When Jake snaps @ Fergus it feels really forced &
>unconvincing.

I agree that their relation could've been fleshed out a little more, instead of Fergus fucking up on his watch and Swofford suddenly taking it all out on him. On the other hand, it probably is an illustration of how the tension in a war brings people closer to the edge.

>When Peter is crying @ the end cuz Cerrano takes away his kill
>I felt 4 him up until a point 2 where it seemed like he was
>overacting & whinning 2 much.

To me it was a good way of releasing all that built up pressure from the preceding scenes. In a way, it's reflective of the viewer's dissappointment about not "finally getting to see some real action".

>It was interesting just not very entertaining. You keep
>thinking these guys are gonna finally "get some" but they
>never really do.

As I said above, I think this movie really did a good job of portraying that built up tension, and at the same time, offering a mirror for the viewer. "Why do I want to see a war movie?" is a question that popped in my head after seeing Jarhead. I have to admit that it's mostly because of the 'cool' action sequences. This movie did a great job of showing me my bloodlust, if I can call it that.

>Question (spoilers): So did Jake's girl leave him? And do we
>know what was the cause of Peter's death?

I think she did, as you can see another dude right before she comes to the door herself. Also he walks away looking not too happy. It's just not verbalised.
They don't give an explanation for his death as far as I know, but one of the first thoughts I had was suicide, since he was really desperate about staying in the army, and got kicked out because of his criminal record.

I thought the movie was really good, although I have been known to pick no shit flicks as my friends say. I don't know, it was told from the perspective of the marine in the unit of snipers who did daily, pointless tasks and became damn near insane and upset when they couldn't kill someone. It's sad really but overall I thought the movie was great.

entertained me for 2 hours.

Lucas Black was my favorite character; while all the characters were stereotypical in a sense he managed to toe the line and give some depth to his

or at least I just thought all his scenes were good.

I had read this thread beforehand and I agree with ThaTruth that there were a lot of liberties taken with reality, but overall I got the point of the film

The characters were good, I was interested in the story, but nothing really jumped out and I wasn't very moved by it.

When Saarsgaard ended up dead, I was more like, "Oh so that's how he ended up" than feeling upset about it.

I liked it more than I thought I would. I thought in general it was done well and it was obvious that some things that ocurred in the movie probably didn't realistically occur. I'd like to watch it with a marine who was in the Gulf War just to get their perspective on it.

I watched the movie with a marine friend who served in Iraq. My friend echoed many of the comments thatruth made in post #64.