What do people think of this? Personally, I thought it was excellent. Jarhead is told strictly from a grunts eye view of what it like to be a modern day soldier, i.e. bloody boring. There's very little actual combat (but what their is is superbly portrayed), but shows to great effect how it feels to be trained to be a killing machine, then to be sent off to war and be told you're here to make the world a better place, only to find yourself sat on your ass for months on end whilst bureaucracy (sp?) and other minutiae of war delay your own involvement. So the soldiers spend their time practising drills, fooling around, worrying whether their wives and girlfrienRAB are playing around, and generally going crazy looking for something, anything, to kill. This last point is particularly well illustrated when Jake Gyllenhals 'Swoff' and his buddy are sent out on a mission.
As I said, there's very little combat action. This may be the reason why it (supposedly) bombed Stateside. Maybe in the current climate they have the idea that their soldiers are actively playing a part in the conflict and don't like to see them portrayed as simply being there to make up the numbers and not really having any involvement at all, which is basically how our protagonist sees it, however I think this lack of action makes for a more refreshing type of war film. It's the first one AFAIK to say look, being a soldier isn't all about kills, trophys and well earned r n' r. Sometimes you're just sat on your ass, miles from any sniff of action, trying to keep your skills sharp, waiting until your superiors decide if they can use you. It's been said that Mendes should get off the fence and decide whether he's anti or pro conflict, but I think that's missing the point somewhat. The whole thing is from the soldiers p.o.v. A soldier is never asked whether he agrees with the war he's being asked to participate in; his only job is to follow orders regardless of whether he agrees with them. When one soldier does question the ethics, he's told to shut the f**k up and toe the party line. If Mendes had tried to inject any strong pro or anti message, it wouldn't have been believeable.
Excellent performances all round, especially from Gyllenhal and Peter Sargaard as his Marine buddy.
As I said, there's very little combat action. This may be the reason why it (supposedly) bombed Stateside. Maybe in the current climate they have the idea that their soldiers are actively playing a part in the conflict and don't like to see them portrayed as simply being there to make up the numbers and not really having any involvement at all, which is basically how our protagonist sees it, however I think this lack of action makes for a more refreshing type of war film. It's the first one AFAIK to say look, being a soldier isn't all about kills, trophys and well earned r n' r. Sometimes you're just sat on your ass, miles from any sniff of action, trying to keep your skills sharp, waiting until your superiors decide if they can use you. It's been said that Mendes should get off the fence and decide whether he's anti or pro conflict, but I think that's missing the point somewhat. The whole thing is from the soldiers p.o.v. A soldier is never asked whether he agrees with the war he's being asked to participate in; his only job is to follow orders regardless of whether he agrees with them. When one soldier does question the ethics, he's told to shut the f**k up and toe the party line. If Mendes had tried to inject any strong pro or anti message, it wouldn't have been believeable.
Excellent performances all round, especially from Gyllenhal and Peter Sargaard as his Marine buddy.
