(2005, Sam Mendes)
A depressingly true story about a singularly uninteresting man who joins the US military and ends up in Gulf War I where he spends most of his time acting like an imbecile alongside his idiotic colleagues. The war ends before they have the opportunity to take any human lives, which leaves their thirst for sadism unquenched and makes them all feel sad. Whether Mendes expects us to feel sorry for them because of this, I really don't know. The film begins and ends with some narrative spiel lamenting the irrevocably damaging psychological effects on human beings of their involvement in war. This kind of message might have succeeded in generating some amount of sympathy had we been dealing with a band of noble heroes reluctantly but bravely taking up arms in defence of a just cause. But Jarhead is set in the context of US involvement in the Gulf and focuses on a bunch of thugs who have joined the military either because they couldn't think of anything better to do with their time, or simply because they wanted to engage in legitimised forms of violence against other people (or, failing that, the local wildlife; or, failing that, each other). Chuck Palahniuk-style narration (repetitive, monotone, mantra-like recitation of technical instructions, lists, rules, etc.) fails to add any point to an entirely pointless film. Granted, there's only so much you can do to improve a script when it's based on a true story, but the whole thing would have at least been a source of amusement had the entire cast of thoroughly dislikable characters been violently butchered at the hands of their enemies.
Jarhead @ IMDb(UK)
A depressingly true story about a singularly uninteresting man who joins the US military and ends up in Gulf War I where he spends most of his time acting like an imbecile alongside his idiotic colleagues. The war ends before they have the opportunity to take any human lives, which leaves their thirst for sadism unquenched and makes them all feel sad. Whether Mendes expects us to feel sorry for them because of this, I really don't know. The film begins and ends with some narrative spiel lamenting the irrevocably damaging psychological effects on human beings of their involvement in war. This kind of message might have succeeded in generating some amount of sympathy had we been dealing with a band of noble heroes reluctantly but bravely taking up arms in defence of a just cause. But Jarhead is set in the context of US involvement in the Gulf and focuses on a bunch of thugs who have joined the military either because they couldn't think of anything better to do with their time, or simply because they wanted to engage in legitimised forms of violence against other people (or, failing that, the local wildlife; or, failing that, each other). Chuck Palahniuk-style narration (repetitive, monotone, mantra-like recitation of technical instructions, lists, rules, etc.) fails to add any point to an entirely pointless film. Granted, there's only so much you can do to improve a script when it's based on a true story, but the whole thing would have at least been a source of amusement had the entire cast of thoroughly dislikable characters been violently butchered at the hands of their enemies.
Jarhead @ IMDb(UK)
5 comments:
Hey I do film reviews also. although yours are much more in depth and better than mine.
and Benrik says hi
msquare2.blogspot.com
I'll put that on my list of films not to see.... Oh, wait, it's already on there!
Oooh yes, I agree with you very much. It was truly a rubbish film.
x
Well johnny
I have The squid and the whale sitting on my coffe table right now. so that will probably be my next film I review. If I get around to it.
How about watching The Da Vinci Code, and letting us know if it's worth the wait... =)
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