The Kintyre Forum

I just saw 'Jar Head' today. It was ....rough, explicit. It should have been rated something worse than 'R'. Wouldn't recommend it.

It is a movie about the Marines in the Gulf War of 1991.

Not an uplifting film. Very dark.

This is the new movie from Sam Mendes who directed Road to Perdition among others. I thought it was going to be an anti-war movie. Is it really that brutal, Dorian?

Malky

Hi Malky,

I guess I have never been around military men in their 'natural' state. The ones I have known must have cleaned themselves up (mentally)- makes you wonder what really is going on in their heads.

The acting was great if these portrayals are realistic. The every-day-life picture of the marine was a shocker to me. You watched each man change, being prepared for war to become killers. Some went totally off the deep-end and never returned to sanity.

The total mental confusion of the poor guys makes you wonder how they survive any war. And yes, it was definitely an anti-war movie. I don't think I really object, it was just brutal if the depictions are real. And if they are real, then we should know about it.

The first military men I encountered was when I was overseas at 14 during the tail-end of the Vietnam War. I boarded a US sub and an aircraft carrier another time for Thanksgiving dinner. Those guys were on their best behavior, I'm sure. They made me feel like a princess, giving me momentos, following me around, wanting to write- All of us high schoolers were invited onboard.

Anyway, it was an eye-opener. I still think there should be warnings for those that might take youngsters to see the film.

PS- There was dead silence from everyone leaving the theater. It was a Saturday matinée.

Thanks for that Dorian.

I suppose when you think about it the best way for a movie to be anti-war is to show war and its effects very realistically.

Malky

The opening scenes of "Saving Private Ryan" are a good example of this, I thought. A truly harrowing visualisation of the D-Day Landings. The rest of the film was a bit of an anti-climax after that.

Cheers
Gary

Gary, the realistic D-Day Landing scenes were graphic in 'Private Ryan', but that dealt with the war as a whole.

It just seemed more disturbing to watch the transformation of individual men from regular guys with hopes and dreams to war machines (hence the name 'Jar Heads'- The military empties their minds and restructures them into killing machines) How do they come back from that?

A lot of violence, graphic sexual content, and sadism in some cases- the ones that lost it completely were probably fragile mentally in the first place, but wouldn't have broken in a normal situations or become animals. The weaker became desensitized to the point of viewing the ememy as subhuman. Sad-

Sorry- guess that film affected me more than I realized!

See you

Just watched the DVD of this tonight.

Brilliantly shot, the photography is awesome. The shots as the oil fields burn are especially good.
It a kind of Full Metal Jacket meets Apocalypse Now meets Three Kings thing. Gyllenhaal was very good and I was particularly impressed with Peter Sarsgaard.

All in all, it was worth a watch but I felt a little disappointed really. It's not a bad film but it backed itself into a corner by being so blatantly anti-war.

Malky

I think Jarhead is the best non-war war movie for a long time! It's thankfully not the norm - not "gung-ho" "shoot everything that moves" like Black Hawk Down (crap) - really crap like "Three Kings". Saving Private Ryan though very good is a totally different film and not a good comparison.

If you find Jarhead disturbing then be thankful National Service was abolished. Up there with Full Metal Jacket.

Meant to say - is it anti-war? He's in a foreign country doing his job - taking orders - but why is he there?

Jonathan wrote:Meant to say - is it anti-war? He's in a foreign country doing his job - taking orders - but why is he there?

Oh, as a story it was excellent. And all that training and never to get to fire his rifle in anger

Mendes came out and said it was anti-war so maybe I watched it with some preconceptions because of that. I guess that's the problem with publicising a movie. I'll watch it again soon - I always watch movies more than once - and see how I feel then.

Malky

Malky wrote:

Jonathan wrote:Meant to say - is it anti-war? He's in a foreign country doing his job - taking orders - but why is he there?

Oh, as a story it was excellent. And all that training and never to get to fire his rifle in anger

Mendes came out and said it was anti-war so maybe I watched it with some preconceptions because of that. I guess that's the problem with publicising a movie. I'll watch it again soon - I always watch movies more than once - and see how I feel then.

Malky

ahhhh