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Jarhead

FWIW

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

By Tom Neven, Special to the News
November 11, 2005

By now you've probably read the varying reviews of Jarhead, the new movie that purports to be about the Marine Corps and the first Persian Gulf War. Based on the memoir of the same name by Anthony Swofford, both the movie and book bear only a superficial resemblance to anything real.

First, the book. Third-generation enlistee Swofford joined the Marines to escape a dysfunctional family, but unfortunately he brought a lot of that dysfunction into the Corps. In the end, he dishonored the uniform he wore.

In his book he boasts of stealing equipment from his fellow Marines and selling it on the black market, forcing them to pay for the loss of government property. He is openly contemptuous of his comrades (at one point he calls them "mouth-breathers") and puts on intellectual airs because he reads Sartre and Camus and they don't. (And lest I be accused of anti-intellectualism, I was a philosophy major in college.)

Worse, Swofford has been caught telling tall tales in what purports to be a nonfiction memoir, most notably attempting to pass off a well-worn urban legend about a malicious "Dear John" video as if he witnessed it himself. This hoary fib has been discredited by that great debunker of the spurious, snopes.com, and it's only one of many fishy anecdotes in Swofford's book.

Jarhead the book is a silly political manifesto, too, asserting that the Gulf War was fought to protect "the profits of companies, many of which have direct ties to the White House." Most egregious, though, Swofford relates an incident in which he threatened a comrade with a loaded weapon, twisting the rifle barrel into the man's ear until he broke down in tears. Swofford deserves to be court-martialed for that.

Instead, reviewers who have never worn a military uniform swooned over the supposed realism of Swofford's storytelling. Author Bing West, a Marine Vietnam vet, saw through the fawning reviews: "Far from telling the story of The Universal Soldier, the grunt's unadorned truth, as reviewers have intimated, Jarhead is the overwritten memoir of someone who did not experience serious combat. He either told tall tales or committed criminal acts under oblivious leaders whom he does not name. Either way, this is not how combat soldiers behave. Jarhead is to nonfiction what Platoon was to the movies: an insult to the American infantryman."

Add movie director Sam Mendes to the formula and you get a particularly noxious mix. As he did with American Beauty, Mendes has taken a few specific truths and extrapolated them to the whole. I served in three different infantry units over seven years in the Marine Corps, and I never encountered a unit remotely as dysfunctional or undisciplined as the platoon portrayed in this film. Sure, many Marines curse a blue streak, and some are obsessed with sex. And Mendes (with the help of unofficial Marine advisers) gets little details right, such as the way Marines talk or carry their weapons. But the overall image is a deeply dishonest lie because it relies on a misfit like Swofford for its basic story. It's unfortunate, too, that many people have gotten their impression of Marines from Swofford's book or will now do so through this movie.

Mendes is already a bit defensive about his film. He told Entertainment Weekly, "Our intention, 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."

But Mendes is trying to have it both ways, as did Oliver Stone with Platoon. Many people throughout the world will come away with the unmistakable impression that all American fighting men are foul-mouthed, sex-crazed, homicidal maniacs and that their wives and girlfriends back home are unfaithful harlots just itching to hop into the nearest bed. After all, they have the "word" of an actual former Marine.

Swofford got away with a lot with his 2003 book. Now that the story is being more widely told, I hope he's held to account for his self-indulgent, nihilistic fairy tale. In the end, the truth will find you out.



Tom Neven served seven years as a Marine Corps infantryman. He is the author of the book Do Fish Know They're Wet? and lives in Colorado Springs.

Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
 
Saw the movie...Because a friend wanted to, and for no other reason.

It was entertaining but i have worked with marines and they bare little resemblance to the creatures in Jarhead the movie.

I imagine they (marines) probably don't like it very much...
 
I think it was a good movie... happy I went to see it.
Just hope that some ppl realize that its just a movie, and that some things may have been exagerated in order to keep ppl interested.

Never read the book, (just found out 2 min ago there is a book) so I'll definatly go out and read it!
 
I can't stand listening to people say "Hoo-ra" anymore, it's absolutely unnecessary...

Cheers
 
I'm waiting for one good movie on Gulf War.  I fought in the Gulf War in the 1st Cav and we saw plenty of action in the Wadi al-Batin and around the Rumalyah Oil fields.  So far the big Hollywood movies are Jarhead, Courage Under Fire and Three Kings (I think that's the one...with Clooney).  I just want one along the lines of Blackhawk Down without all the artistic catches and metaphorical symbolism or political messages.
 
BruceinAlberta said:
I just want one along the lines of Blackhawk Down without all the artistic catches and metaphorical symbolism or political messages.

I wouldn't hold my breath - its been 40 years and they haven't done that for Vietnam yet.
 
I couldn't tell if I was watching Jarhead or FMJ.

Overall, average movie. Wouldn't see it again though.


***SPOILER WARNING IF ANYONE STILL CARES AT THIS POINT***




The part where he freaked out and made buddy there recite the creed was too much like Pvt Pyle in FMJ. Way too much. The creed and junk I knew was USMC regular teaching so whatever, it's the same topic so it can't be a ripoff, but him freaking out and doing that was in my mind too much of a rip from FMJ.

That's really about all I have to say about this movie ... really now, what can be said
 
I'd suggest anyone wanting to read the book should go out and steal a copy, I am sure Swofford would understand...
 
Michael Dorosh said:
I'd suggest anyone wanting to read the book should go out and steal a copy, I am sure Swofford would understand...

He, he said he it was prefectly fine to steal other peoples stuff in the book, I'm sure he'd be happy people are following his example.




I saw the movie awhile ago, I thought it was pretty good; but they changed quite a bit of things from the book, even including some things that never happened(like the Deer Hunter scene, in the book Swofford just heard the rumor about that happening). Some names are changed, and locations, etc.

For people who don't know what the USMC is actualy like, the movie makes you believe that a lot of them are complete sh*t pumps, and mentally unstable, and sniper training is nothing more than going to the range an shooting the rifle.


As for the "FMJ" rip offs, well a lot of that stuff is drilled into them during their training, its not just some Hollywood BS.


 
Know its not Hollywood BS but that flip out part was just retarded
 
We saw Jarhaead on a weekend out from BMQ.  It was very timely.  I think us recruits were the only ones laughing at the "GAS GAS GAS" scene.

good fun.
not as fun as the strippers that came after but...
good fun.
 
Actually the party scene and the soundrack brought back many memories of doing gun camps in Germany. Lots of drunken debauchary and shennanigans going on.
Those were the days, going to the PX to buy "REAL COCA COLA" and having to put up with endless desert sheild/storm  paraphanalia. Going to BK and getting a free "America the Beautiful" Pin with my Whopper plus the free flag with my purchase there.
Bowling for Beer and watching the OC and BC get arrested for a fight we started.....those were the days

Jarhead is a great hollywood epic taken in the same light that the groaner that  about the canadain in Bosnia  that was on CBC a decade or so ago.
I want to read the book to see if its just as depressing as the movie.
 
Swofford's writing style is unbearable; he doesn't tell a story so much as set down on paper a series of editorial memories.

Check it out of your library, but don't buy it.
 
Who sings the Main theme song from jarhead? and What is it called?
 
RHFC said:
Who sings the Main theme song from jarhead? and What is it called?

You mean that hip hop bit? Jesus Walks by kenye West.
 
Sh0rtbUs said:
You mean that hip hop bit? Jesus Walks by kenye West.

Ah..Kanye West..."Bush doesn't like Black People"...classic
 
Sig_Des said:
Ah..Kanye West..."Bush doesn't like Black People"...classic

No, what was classic was Mike Myers expression when he said it.  ;D
 
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