“Jarhead” review, part 2
by V.E. on October 28th, 2009
filed under recap/review
Wherein the actual review begins…
Anyway, the movie is based on a book of the same name, which I have not read, and it’s not on my “Must Read” list, either. I read The Things They Carried in high school and that was plenty enough for me, thanks. Then again, I should probably read more honesty about the U.S. military if I think I’m even going to think about enlisting.
First lines (in a voice-over): A story. A man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war. And afterward he turns the rifle in at the armory, and he believes he’s finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands—love a woman, build a house, change his son’s diaper—his hands remember the rifle.
Jarhead follows Anthony “Swoff” Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhaal), a STA Lance Corporal Marine in Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991. Swoff’s father fought in Vietnam, and his grandfather fought in World War II. He enlists in the Marines upon his graduation from high school. (At one point, his drill instructor asks, “What the fuck are you even doing here?” and he responds angrily, “Sir, I got lost on the way to college, sir!”) After basic training, he’s spotted by Staff Sergeant Sykes (played by Jamie Foxx), who trains him as a scout sniper and pairs him up with Troy, another scout sniper in his platoon.
Swoff and his platoon get shipped off to Iraq for Operation Desert Shield, where the battalion commander tells them, “…now our current mission is to protect the oil fields of our good friends in the kingdom of Saud until further notice, and gentlemen, I’m talkin’ a lot of oil, a lot of oil, so you will hydrate, you will train, you will adjust to this desert, and you’ll hydrate some more, and you will be ready, you will maintain a constant state of suspicious alertness, and one day soon, Saddam Hussein is gonna regret pullin’ this sorry shit!”
So, they wait and hydrate and drill and hydrate and drill and wait. And hydrate. They even play a game of football in full protective gear in the 112 degree heat. They continue to wait, etc., until the whole thing gets upgraded to Operation Desert Storm, whereupon they go and live in burning oil fields and deal with the charred remains of Iraqis fleeing from the war. Swoff gets demoted from Lance Corporal to Private and is otherwise punished after having another soldier keep watch for him on Christmas (Eve?) and a tent full of flares goes up in flames accidentally. All the soldiers lament about their unfaithful wives and girlfriends back home, and eventually, even Swoff’s girlfriend leaves him for a guy who’s “such a good listener” back home. There’s an entire scene about one of the men whose wife sends him what seems to be the movie The Deer Hunter but is actually a homemade video of the man’s wife getting fucked by their next door neighbor.
Swoff nearly falls apart at least once, and by the time he and Troy finally get their one combat mission, he’s seen more than he ever wanted to, without even shooting his gun. They’re assigned to shooting two higher-up Iraqi officers in an abandoned air tower, and Swoff is this|close to pulling the trigger when they’re stopped by a man higher up the chain of command than they are. The entire air air tower and strip is bombed basically to hell and Swoff and Troy never have the chance to use their skills. They’re left behind and when they finally reach the camp, they discover that Operation Desert Storm is over and they’re all going home soon. (Yay! But “I didn’t even get to shoot my gun” of course.) No pink mist for anyone in the platoon.
Oh well. Swoff and his guys all go home. He tries to reconcile with his girlfriend, but is unsuccessful. The other men are shown in a montage. One sits at a bar, with a girl in his lap, asking for more shots; one works at a grocery store restocking shelves; one is seen in professional attire presenting to a board of directors. The kid who accidentally ruined Christmas for Swoff that one year comes by with his hair down past his shoulders and informs Swoff that Troy is dead; we see him in the casket just before the end of the movie.
At the end, in a voice over, Swoff says, “A story. A man fires a rifle for many years. And he goes to war. And afterward he comes home, and he sees that whatever else he may do with his life—build a house, love a woman, change his son’s diaper—he will always remain a jarhead. And all the jarheads killing and dying… they will always be me. We are still in the desert. ”
Right. So, it was a good movie. It wasn’t OMG|AWESOME good, but it was decent. I did watch it twice, after all (once in theatres with Bennett, et al., and once just now). There is a lot of cursing, so if you have young (and/or sensitive) ears around, just turn it off. I reviewed it basically so I could tell the story of the first time I saw it, which is here. It didn’t make me cry or anything, like some movies have done, or make me want to go down to the recruiting office and join the Marines on the spot.
Swoff’s love/hate relationship with the Marine Corps is something, at least, about which I know he’s being honest. I’d like to find some more honest portrayals of time in the military, especially basic training, which this movie barely covered at all. I don’t pity any of the characters, but I’m impressed that the author (the guy who wrote the memoir upon which the movie was based) was so willing to make himself into almost a bad guy. If the movie is anything like the book, he didn’t sugarcoat it—and that’s a good thing.
One positive thing, though. Jake Gyllenhaal looks good holding a gun. Really good. Just have to say that so I can drool a tiny bit and then go back to regular life.
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