Marines weigh in on depiction in 'Jarhead'

[thedrifter]

Published - November, 7, 2005
Marines weigh in on depiction in 'Jarhead'
Opinions of Gulf War film fall on both sides of the line in the sand
Nicole Lozare
@PensacolaNewsJournal.com

New to the Marines, Pvt. David Castleberry wanted to watch a movie about his new brotherhood.

"I think it's going to be motivating," said the 19-year-old, who is studying aviation electronics at Pensacola Naval Air Station. "My buddy saw it and said that 90 percent of the people in the theater didn't get it and that maybe I would."

The movie? "Jarhead," adapted from Anthony Swofford's best-selling memoir of the same title. The film is about Swofford's time in the Marine Corps during Operation Desert Storm in early 1991.

The 115-minute movie isn't so much about politics or the climax of war. Instead, it is about the emotional turmoil, the stress and even the boredom of war.

The film, directed by Sam Mendes of "American Beauty," will spark controversy, Internet pundits proclaimed long before the movie was released Friday.

An example: "Are we ever going to get to kill anyone?" is a question posed by a Marine toward the end of the film.

At a Sunday afternoon show at Rave Motion Pictures, viewers gave the movie mixed reviews.

A group of Marines, who declined to be interviewed, complained loudly outside the theater that "Jarhead" made them look bad. After the film, Castleberry said that he believes it is an accurate depiction of Marines fighting a war.

"That's the spitting image of what I thought the Marine Corps was when I got in it," said the Oregon native. "I don't think a civilian could understand what that movie was really talking about. That movie was trying to explain the way we think, how we have problems as Marines and how we adapt and overcome situations."

The movie also shows the reality of being a Marine, Castleberry said. Killing is what Marines are trained to do, he said.

David Kauffman, who comes from a military family, said the film was more about the "interpersonal relationship and the frustrations of bureaucracy."

"I think there is realism in the movie," said the 30-year-old paramedic from Pensacola. "The irony is that we are out there again."

Barry Calvit, who served as a Navy physician during the Persian Gulf War, thought the movie was fair to Marines.

"It didn't just stereotype them," said the 43-year-old, who is now out of the service. "I've known characters just like these guys. It really portrayed a lot of frustrations."

Desert Storm, as the movie showed, involved a lot of waiting, Calvit said. "Sitting there, waiting and waiting and then just like that," Calvit snapped his fingers, "the Gulf War was over.

"Some (veterans) will say that's exactly what it was like, and others will say it portrayed them badly," he said.

"I think it was as close as Hollywood can get to accuracy."

Ellie

[thedrifter]

Brilliance in the desert

By David Frank - The Daily Iowan

War films bleed political messages by their very nature. And you'd think a movie involving Marines dispatched to war in the Persian Gulf area by a guy named Bush, released during these times when another dude named Bush has American soldiers battling in another Iraqi conflict, would bazooka-blast a political statement at its audience. Yet, Jarhead, a mesmerizing flick set during the first Gulf War, tries it damnedest to swerve away from political statements.

Pro-war? Antiwar? Jarhead doesn't even tangle itself up in the broadest of political trappings. Toppling war-genre conventions drives the film, and evading any perception of political preaching is its ultimate subversion.

That's not saying politics remain absent from the film. One soldier questions the reasoning behind Gulf War: Screw liberating Kuwait, it's about protecting the fat cats' oil, yet a fellow Marine quickly points out the "who cares" factor - they have their orders, and nothing else matters. Politics are an afterthought, and in the words of Forrest Gump, that's all the filmmakers have to say about that.

Jarhead, based on a best-selling memoir by Anthony Swofford (a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, portrayed in the movie by Jake "Donnie Darko" Gyllenhaal), pinwheels around the day-to-day life of the "Marine Experience." We follow Swofford from basic training through sniper schooling and finally out to the desert, where he waits and waits and waits some more for combat to begin.

But here's the movie's other grand subversion of the war-film genre: There are no combat scenes. Yeah, as shown in its trailer, Jarhead does contain a few explosions that burst sand dunes into clouds of puffy grit, but scenes of actual bullet trading remain nonexistent. Jarhead funnels its attention on the soldier's hopeless/near-insane mentality derived from the obsessive training and endless waiting to utilize the lessons of training for an air-bomb-heavy conflict that seemingly doesn't need foot soldiers to secure victory (a rather stark contrast to the current situation in Iraq).

Director Sam Mendes (who with Jarhead completes a trifecta of cinematic brilliance that includes American Beauty and Road to Perdition) thrillingly captures this nerve-simmering atmosphere of constant alertness with dark hilarity, poignancy, and visual magnificence. From the sun-fried landscapes to characters puking sandy fountains to flaming oil wells painting the desert black, the film unspools in a haunting verve of visual beauty. We have never seen a war film like this.

Yet, the visual bravado never eclipses the characters or performances. Gyllenhaal flares with intensity. Jamie Foxx, who risked having his Oscar recalled for his performance in last summer's Stealth, delivers a potent turn as Gyllenhaal's stoic superior officer. Then there's Peter Sarsgaard (an actor who I praise so much that it could be considered verbal fellatio), who plays Gyllenhaal's best bud. It's Sarsgaard's explosive work during the film's climax - which hinges on Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard sniping an Iraqi officer and therefore providing at least a smidgen of purpose to their time in the desert - that supplies Jarhead's emotional summation.

The Academy Awards have snubbed Sarsgaard for his superb performances of the last two years, and if he isn't nominated for Jarhead, I will literally crap a mortar shell. For my colon's sake, please give this man an Oscar!

And frankly, that sentiment goes for this whole, bold film.

Ellie

[thedrifter]

For Marines, 'Jarhead' is the past
It captures Corps spirit in a time before terrorism
By TONY PERRY
Los Angeles Times
Posted: Nov. 7, 2005

It is hard to imagine more attentive audiences for the opening weekend of "Jarhead" than the active-duty and retired Marines who flocked to the theater just outside Camp Pendleton, Calif., where the movie, adapted from ex-Marine Anthony Swofford's book about the Persian Gulf War, was showing on three screens.

In large measure, what the Marines saw conformed to their sense of themselves and the Corps: the tough training, the forever use of the F-word, the camaraderie, the "first-to-fight" spirit, even small details - the common belief that the Army gets better equipment and that your girlfriend back home is cheating on you with that infamous snake "Jody."

Jamie Foxx as the kick-butt staff sergeant and Chris Cooper as the charismatic battalion commander received high marks for realism. But in two fundamental ways, many in attendance with firsthand experience of the war in Iraq saw "Jarhead" as a relic from a world that no longer exists.

The Gulf War took place in a world before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, before service members enlisted in the Marine Corps not with the vague hope of combat but with the promise of it. And it was a world before the Marine Corps and other U.S. forces were mired in a war of attrition with a relentless insurgency that kills by stealth and remote control and where enemy fighters are often indistinguishable from civilians.

The world that gave rise to Swofford's (Jake Gyllenhaal) ambivalence ended "when we watched those two towers come down," said retired Master Gunnery Sgt. Steven Schweitzer, 46, who served 27 years, including during the 2003 assault on Baghdad.

As Marines from Camp Pendleton prepare for their fourth deployment to Iraq, the enemy that awaits them is not an opposing army but insurgents planting roadside explosives and using suicide bombers.

During the Gulf War, service personnel fought to liberate a country that some had never even heard of. For many in today's military, the terrorist attack on the United States made this fight more personal.

Swofford "doesn't seem to know the reason he's being sent to fight," said Pvt. Matthew Donnelly, 18, of Salem, Ore., who is being deployed to Iraq soon. "I know exactly why: to serve my country and protect my brothers in arms."

Ellie