thedrifter
11-22-05, 06:54 AM
NOW AND THEN
War is nothing like a Hollywood movie
By Donald M. Murray, Globe Correspondent | November 22, 2005
I first read Erich Maria Remarque's ''All Quiet on the Western Front" when I was a teenager who knew he would have his war. I must have seen the movie more than once, as well, because there are images in black and white I still see when I allow memory to take me back to the front.
After I came home from my war, I read the book again and experienced once more the fear and despair I felt in combat, the loneliness of my missions, the hatred I felt of most of my officers, the strange comradeship I felt with the enemy infantrymen I shot at, my not yet buried anger at the old men who sent the young to face enemy weapons.
Recently, I was taken to the movie ''Jarhead" by a young friend who wondered how I would react to it. I was not touched by what happened on the screen -- not once. It was just another Hollywood war, unrealistic as most war movies I have seen.
War movies -- at least movies of my infantry war in the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine -- always present several problems for the moviemaker.
Most of the time, we stayed 15 yards apart so a grenade or mortar shell would not eliminate an entire unit. No dramatic dialogue. We rarely talked because it might reveal our position to the hidden enemy. We fought or moved units as much as possible in the dark. We feared the beautiful moonlight might give us away. It is hard to film actors in the dark. We wore helmets all the time because we were ordered to, and after the first rolling barrage of enemy artillery, we knew firsthand it was a good idea.
But there are more serious issues. Drama demands something more than the professional demeanor of Army soldiers and Marines going about their jobs with the undramatic attitude of a plumber. Here's the problem. Fix it.
The soldiers in ''Jarhead" not only talked about sex, they masturbated with little privacy and acted out a fantasy of anal sex.
In the first week of my basic training, another soldier made a pass at me in front of the whole platoon, and I sent him to the hospital with one punch. I wasn't homophobic, but I had to live with those who were for the years ahead.
In this movie, there was an emotional closeness I never experienced. We did not get close to someone who might die an hour later.
In basic training, in specialized MP training, and in the macho paratroops, in jump training, we increased the distance from our emotions.
Actors in the movie wept at the sight of the dead. We were warriors. We did not weep.
We had become professionals -- distant, cold, able to function under fire. One of the great unspoken tragedies of war is that nice boy-men become professional killers in a few weeks. For the rest of their lives, most of those who survive will forever live with both pride and shame at what they could do.
Ellie
War is nothing like a Hollywood movie
By Donald M. Murray, Globe Correspondent | November 22, 2005
I first read Erich Maria Remarque's ''All Quiet on the Western Front" when I was a teenager who knew he would have his war. I must have seen the movie more than once, as well, because there are images in black and white I still see when I allow memory to take me back to the front.
After I came home from my war, I read the book again and experienced once more the fear and despair I felt in combat, the loneliness of my missions, the hatred I felt of most of my officers, the strange comradeship I felt with the enemy infantrymen I shot at, my not yet buried anger at the old men who sent the young to face enemy weapons.
Recently, I was taken to the movie ''Jarhead" by a young friend who wondered how I would react to it. I was not touched by what happened on the screen -- not once. It was just another Hollywood war, unrealistic as most war movies I have seen.
War movies -- at least movies of my infantry war in the Bulge and the crossing of the Rhine -- always present several problems for the moviemaker.
Most of the time, we stayed 15 yards apart so a grenade or mortar shell would not eliminate an entire unit. No dramatic dialogue. We rarely talked because it might reveal our position to the hidden enemy. We fought or moved units as much as possible in the dark. We feared the beautiful moonlight might give us away. It is hard to film actors in the dark. We wore helmets all the time because we were ordered to, and after the first rolling barrage of enemy artillery, we knew firsthand it was a good idea.
But there are more serious issues. Drama demands something more than the professional demeanor of Army soldiers and Marines going about their jobs with the undramatic attitude of a plumber. Here's the problem. Fix it.
The soldiers in ''Jarhead" not only talked about sex, they masturbated with little privacy and acted out a fantasy of anal sex.
In the first week of my basic training, another soldier made a pass at me in front of the whole platoon, and I sent him to the hospital with one punch. I wasn't homophobic, but I had to live with those who were for the years ahead.
In this movie, there was an emotional closeness I never experienced. We did not get close to someone who might die an hour later.
In basic training, in specialized MP training, and in the macho paratroops, in jump training, we increased the distance from our emotions.
Actors in the movie wept at the sight of the dead. We were warriors. We did not weep.
We had become professionals -- distant, cold, able to function under fire. One of the great unspoken tragedies of war is that nice boy-men become professional killers in a few weeks. For the rest of their lives, most of those who survive will forever live with both pride and shame at what they could do.
Ellie