Jarhead, the movie

[newslady]

Anyone been to see this at the theater? If so, your thoughts? Did anyone read the book prior to the movie's release?

[newslady]

My favorite line of dialogue from the movie:

Tony Swofford as the The Doors' Break On Through plays on a helicopter flying overhead:

"That's Vietnam music... Can't we get our own music?"

[Heartland]

LOL!! What a funny line.

I haven't seen it yet, but I want to.

[mewsicmama]

I read the book and couldn't put it down. My husband and son went and saw the movie - their reaction at the end was the same as min after reading the book. I think our reaction is exactly what the writer was going for. BTW - on the back cover of the book it has a picture of the author -- not bad, not bad at all........

[newslady]

Shari,

I bid and won an auction last night for Swofford's book. I look forward to reading it to see how closely the screenplay stayed true to the book.

Sandy,

It was a damned good movie. Great acting from Jake Gyllenhall, his co-star whose name I can't think of, and Jamie Foxx as their unit staff sargeant.

[mewsicmama]

Kim - let me know what you think. Thanks!

[Toy Ranch]

I thought it was an awful movie. The acting was good. It was just an uninteresting story about unremarkable people having unremarkable things happen to them at a very remarkable time when other people probably had much more interesting stories to tell....

***SPOILER IN WHITE TEXT BELOW***

It didn't have to be a "shoot 'em up" or anything, psychological stories are fine, but I didn't even find it to be a very good one of those. The movie had 2 big moments.... one when Swofford pointed his rifle at his friend and threatened to kill him... and then he broke down and cried after. And when they didn't get to take a shot on the enemy commander, and his spotter broke down and cried.

Big fucking deal... that probably happened a lot.

[newslady]

Toy,

It wasn't Stanley Kubrik's Full Metal Jacket by any means but again I believe that was Swofford's (and director Sam Mendes) point.

****SPOILER IN WHITE text****

For many Gulf War veterans, they were hyped up by the military to get over to Kuwait and Iraq to the "suck," trained killing machines to kick the asses of Saddam's Royal Armed Forces - which didn't happen. Amassing more than 300,000 troops for a conflict that officially lasted, a week if that long?

I think Swofford's POV was his time, and that of many of his military comrades, was severely wasted on an effort that was more about protecting U.S. interests in Kuwait's oil fields, than liberating and restoring freedom to the tiny municipality.

And as history has shown us, the Gulf War served as the precursor to the current pointless (IMO) effort.

Gotta love lines like, "Are we ever going to kill anybody before we go home?" though.

[Toy Ranch]

Perhaps I just knew too much about that war to begin with then... because the movie revealed nothing new to me about the war, and nothing profound or noteworthy about the human condition.