Jarhead

[Lacero]

Jarhead looks to be an Oscar contender.

 

[DakotaGuy]

I might have to go and see this, but after spending a year in Iraq, a lot of war movies just bug me. I mean, I watch them and all I do is say, "Oh like that would ever happen." Sure there were a few bad times over there that I was scared senseless, but for the most part, many days were nothing but boring. Sit and wait for your next rotation to go out on a mission. After about 6 months I got moved into the Headquarters then I spent most of my day in front of a laptop tracking everything on Excel or running around the camp in a Humvee getting status updates. lol

Movies make everything look a lot more exciting then what it really is. If my experience in Iraq (make that just about everyone that is there right now) was a movie, it would be a flop, unless they are some special element that is seeing action all the time. The fact remains, for the most part, war is the most boring thing a person will ever live through. Maybe not the inital assult, but I can promise the occupation is.

 

[ham_man]

For some reason, this movie looks like its trying to recruit people. Regardless of what the movie is actually about, it looks like a big fat milti-million dollar attempt at recovering recent shortcomings in the military.

Just listen to the trailer:
Jamie foxx:

"I love this job. I thank God for every day that he gives me in the corps."

Maybe he likes be in the military just like teachers like to teach and chefs like to cook...or is that impossible?

 

[ham_man]

I might have to go and see this, but after spending a year in Iraq, a lot of war movies just bug me. I mean, I watch them and all I do is say, "Oh like that would ever happen." Sure there were a few bad times over there that I was scared senseless, but for the most part, many days were nothing but boring. Sit and wait for your next rotation to go out on a mission. After about 6 months I got moved into the Headquarters then I spent most of my day in front of a laptop tracking everything on Excel or running around the camp in a Humvee getting status updates. lol

Movies make everything look a lot more exciting then what it really is. If my experience in Iraq (make that just about everyone that is there right now) was a movie, it would be a flop, unless they are some special element that is seeing action all the time. The fact remains, for the most part, war is the most boring thing a person will ever live through. Maybe not the inital assult, but I can promise the occupation is.

I think that is exactly what this is about...

 

[TheMonarch]

Maybe he likes be in the military just like teachers like to teach and chefs like to cook...or is that impossible?

Maybe he does... And maybe he wants other people to like it too

 

[Jay42]

\/\/Spoiler Disclaimer\/\/

Jay42, the point of that was they had trained for well over a year or two (Swoff enlisted in '89, and Troy can't have enlisted much earlier than that) to do this ONE thing... they sat in the desert for 6 months, endured all that hell, being rained on by oil, losing girlfriends back home, having to clean out latrines in the desert... and then the ONE opportunity to release was taken away at the very last second by the brass just so they could use their toys (and surely those pilots had seen a LOT of action by that point).

Snipers train for years. They are professionals. They can sit in one place for hours, hidden, and take one shot to achieve their goal, then leave. Being a sniper is extremely hard. It isn't a "Well, I got handed the sniper gun today" kind of a thing. Far far different.

I didn't say that I didn't understand where that sniper was coming from, I just said that his whole reaction seemed a little over the top to me, not very believable...even after all that training, getting clearance, etc. etc. Just a little too hollywoodized with the other team walking in just as they were about to take the shot. I did like how the two soldiers saw an entire war fly by them as they got back to everyone partying; these days, that seems pretty accurate, everything goes extremely fast. As that one guy was saying as he was digging his sleeping hole, the whole war almost goes too fast for foot-soldiers at this point. Overall, though, the movie seemed to have little holding it together, and whatever plot there was was quickly scanned over, particularly at the end.

 

[jefhatfield]

I might have to go and see this, but after spending a year in Iraq, a lot of war movies just bug me. I mean, I watch them and all I do is say, "Oh like that would ever happen." Sure there were a few bad times over there that I was scared senseless, but for the most part, many days were nothing but boring. Sit and wait for your next rotation to go out on a mission. After about 6 months I got moved into the Headquarters then I spent most of my day in front of a laptop tracking everything on Excel or running around the camp in a Humvee getting status updates. lol

Movies make everything look a lot more exciting then what it really is. If my experience in Iraq (make that just about everyone that is there right now) was a movie, it would be a flop, unless they are some special element that is seeing action all the time. The fact remains, for the most part, war is the most boring thing a person will ever live through. Maybe not the inital assult, but I can promise the occupation is.

thank you so much for answering this thread, abercrombieboy...it was starting to look like a military movie circle jerk

 

[DakotaGuy]

I did like how the two soldiers saw an entire war fly by them as they got back to everyone partying; these days, that seems pretty accurate, everything goes extremely fast. As that one guy was saying as he was digging his sleeping hole, the whole war almost goes too fast for foot-soldiers at this point.

Yeah I think this is one of those war movies that Hollywood never gets right. Nothing moves that fast. You would be suprised out how slow events really play out in war. Many times you are just making up things as you go because it is a new situation at any given moment and nothing is ever "smooth." It's rough, hasty and takes time. That is where Hollywood always gets these things wrong.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Just a little too hollywoodized with the other team walking in just as they were about to take the shot.

I haven't seen it yet, but if it is anything like some other movies I have seen, it won't come close to being TOO Holywood-esqe.

 

[solvs]

For some reason, this movie looks like its trying to recruit people.

It's not. Go see it.

 

[radiantm3]

I enjoyed the movie. It was a nice change of pace for a movie based on a war.

 

[rickvanr]

Yeah I think this is one of those war movies that Hollywood never gets right. Nothing moves that fast. You would be suprised out how slow events really play out in war. Many times you are just making up things as you go because it is a new situation at any given moment and nothing is ever "smooth." It's rough, hasty and takes time. That is where Hollywood always gets these things wrong.

Jarhead is completely about nothing happening. It's about waiting, and about nothing happening. It's exactly how your posts in this thread have discussed actual war, and unlike how you discuss how every hollywood movie has gone wrong.

 

[iJon]

Jarhead is completely about nothing happening. It's about waiting, and about nothing happening. It's exactly how your posts in this thread have discussed actual war, and unlike how you discuss how every hollywood movie has gone wrong.

And that is exactly why I loved this movie. Went over there and didn't even get a chance to do what he trained for. Reminds me a lot of my brother's stories when he was in Desert Storm. Plus I love Jamie's quote, "Who else gets to see s*** like this."

jon