sielwolf's Journal: "Get Some", the Review

Your Saturday night
perfume
Soured into
Faint Pumpkin
Potpourri
That my car
wears
in the morning

With that out of the way, with all we talked about earlier this week, how did Jarhead measure up as a war movie? I'm going to run at this bulleted list style because that's just the sort of guy I am. There are probably going to be spoilers in here so caveat emptor.

• These days it isn't easy to make a war movie, considering how deep the genre is. It's been around forever, done by basically every civilization that's ever existed. In a sort of pomo twist, Jarhead, tips its hat to many of these, overt and implicit: the marines watch Apocalypse Now! and get the credits before The Deer Hunter. Which is odd: I just can't see soldiers sitting down and being mad excited about real headspace movies that kind of take "the war" for granted.
• Of course one of this movie's themes is the sort of extinction of the elite: the best warriors in the best military in the world (being scout snipers in the Marines, you could argue they're the best of the best of the best) and how in our Netcentric Operations world (power to the edge warfighting through information synthesis and having aircraft stop this diddling with our dicks shit and drop some bombs right on people's heads). In this world, the winding tension of basic, of sniper school, and in the endless patrols through the desert is never released.
• Because of that, the movie works best when the snipers are in the desert, battling the anxious boredom before the fighting. This is what separated the Gulf War from all wars previous and is the one statement this movie can make and stand out in the pack of war movies.
• That Jarhead the movie (I assume the book is richer across the breadth of topics) comes off like an executive summary is probably what holds it back most. So where it works the best, during Desert Shield, are short and sort of episodic while never getting the depth that would really take this movie to the other level.
• The marines flipping out, fucking around, playing football in NBC suits, getting cruel twists from home (the above mentioned Deer Hunter video. Those that see the movie will know what I'm talking about), drinking crazy homebrew during Christmas Eve (shades of The Great Escape), the camel patrol, fighting scorpions. All of this really work and the movie glides at this point.
• But its hard to have a boot camp series after Full Metal Jacket and not have it feel second rate. The solution would be to give the scenes more time. But this then cuts down on the ability to talk about the Gulf War. The movie makes the mistake of shoving both parts in and leaving you unsatisfied. It's like two ounces of porterhouse and a part of a lobster tail. Each just good enough to taunt you with what you could've had if you had only done one or the other.
• Camaraderie, again is what will make and break a war movie and though Jarhead has some wonderfully powerful scenes (after the flares snafu, before the final airstrike, under the burning oil wells which is a fantastic piece of cinema: haunting and marks itself on your soul a little bit) you are left wondering where these characters were in the previous scenes.
• By the end we know Swofford, but Troy (his spotter and best friend) or any of the others only really show up when it is necessary for the plot. It gets a bit expository like "This is the time when _______ did _________". It's too convenient. I want humanity, not interchangeable parts. The irony of a war movie is that the uniform and the training is supposed to make the warriors identical. A great war movie brings each one impossibly close. The core frustration of this movie is how little we have about these men. Mendes seems to arbitrarily choose one to make The Point of which ever scene we're in.
• I was thinking of putting Jamie Foxx in that list, but he's an NCO and with Swoff and the rest as the core of the story, he is as he should be: a sort of omnipresent father figure. I would've loved to have more of him, and he damn sure sold the role. I don't know if it will get him a Supporting Oscar though. Let me just say again that I really like Jamie Foxx. He's really fucking talented.
• I also really fucking like Chris Cooper. He shows up, again, and steals each and every scene. I'm also glad the President of the United States (for people who watch 24 anyway) was there. Some great casting.
• I think two passages at the end really should've been the focus of the movie: the scene where the Vietnam veteran Marine jumps on the bus and the closing passage about "Still out there in the desert".
• How that each war is different/the same and that it never leaves the men could've really gotten the bulk of the treatment. The movie never gets to that point until after the first third.
• The movie would've been better served starting in Saudi Arabia and then filling in the gaps through recollection and fine character detail. I think an opening credits sequence from over a Marine's shoulder on one of their patrols through the endless flatness of the desert, no sound except for the clink of gear as the credits silently pop up would've set the table beautifully. You could feel the boredom, the heat, the insipidness of patrolling desert. One long unbroken shot (giving shades of Lawrence of Arabia). The mis-en-scene would've said it all.
• I liked the closing montage, but we were left without any real idea of Troy, which is a shame. I guess that's a summary of the entire film: Mendes has so much material to work with that he was unable to pick and choose and instead gives us samplings across the spectrum (none of which by themselves are a satisfying mean). Jarhead is a good movie, but you can see a great movie peeking out through its edges. For a boy like me that's even more frustrating than a bad movie. A bad movie you can forget, freeing that memory for something else. But a borderline great movie sticks with you, taunting you to examine it for what might have been. Call it the Godfather III effect.

the important question ;-)

[Em Emalb]

Would I like it?

Having been there, done that?

(not in the same capacity, but you know...)

Re:the important question ;-)

[sielwolf]

The movie is winning and eager to please like a family mutt. Sure, the times it disappoints you stick out, but overall it is a really personable film. Great scenes, great characters, nothing really sticking out to earn your lasting anger. It satisfies more on personality. Worth the admission.