Posted on 11/11/2005 3:42:27 PM PST by dynachrome
By now you've probably read the varying reviews of Jarhead, the new movie that purports to be about the Marine Corps and the first Persian Gulf War. Based on the memoir of the same name by Anthony Swofford, both the movie and book bear only a superficial resemblance to anything real. First, the book. Third-generation enlistee Swofford joined the Marines to escape a dysfunctional family, but unfortunately he brought a lot of that dysfunction into the Corps. In the end, he dishonored the uniform he wore.
(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...
There is a lawsuit in the works as well. Several parts of the movie are apparently taken verbatim from another book called Baghdad Express, or something similiar to that.
One thing worth nothing: the liberal press, at least here in Los Angeles, doesn't like this movie either. For different reasons, to be sure--but it isn't getting fawning reviews from anybody that I've read.
I watched about ten minutes of the TV show Over There before I got sick stomach.
By now you've probably read the varying reviews of Jarhead, the new movie that purports to be about the Marine Corps and the first Persian Gulf War. Based on the memoir of the same name by Anthony Swofford, both the movie and book bear only a superficial resemblance to anything real.
First, the book. Third-generation enlistee Swofford joined the Marines to escape a dysfunctional family, but unfortunately he brought a lot of that dysfunction into the Corps. In the end, he dishonored the uniform he wore.
In his book he boasts of stealing equipment from his fellow Marines and selling it on the black market, forcing them to pay for the loss of government property. He is openly contemptuous of his comrades (at one point he calls them "mouth-breathers") and puts on intellectual airs because he reads Sartre and Camus and they don't. (And lest I be accused of anti-intellectualism, I was a philosophy major in college.)
Worse, Swofford has been caught telling tall tales in what purports to be a nonfiction memoir, most notably attempting to pass off a well-worn urban legend about a malicious "Dear John" video as if he witnessed it himself. This hoary fib has been discredited by that great debunker of the spurious, snopes.com, and it's only one of many fishy anecdotes in Swofford's book.
Jarhead the book is a silly political manifesto, too, asserting that the Gulf War was fought to protect "the profits of companies, many of which have direct ties to the White House." Most egregious, though, Swofford relates an incident in which he threatened a comrade with a loaded weapon, twisting the rifle barrel into the man's ear until he broke down in tears. Swofford deserves to be court-martialed for that.
Instead, reviewers who have never worn a military uniform swooned over the supposed realism of Swofford's storytelling. Author Bing West, a Marine Vietnam vet, saw through the fawning reviews: "Far from telling the story of The Universal Soldier, the grunt's unadorned truth, as reviewers have intimated, Jarhead is the overwritten memoir of someone who did not experience serious combat. He either told tall tales or committed criminal acts under oblivious leaders whom he does not name. Either way, this is not how combat soldiers behave. Jarhead is to nonfiction what Platoon was to the movies: an insult to the American infantryman."
Add movie director Sam Mendes to the formula and you get a particularly noxious mix. As he did with American Beauty, Mendes has taken a few specific truths and extrapolated them to the whole. I served in three different infantry units over seven years in the Marine Corps, and I never encountered a unit remotely as dysfunctional or undisciplined as the platoon portrayed in this film. Sure, many Marines curse a blue streak, and some are obsessed with sex. And Mendes (with the help of unofficial Marine advisers) gets little details right, such as the way Marines talk or carry their weapons. But the overall image is a deeply dishonest lie because it relies on a misfit like Swofford for its basic story. It's unfortunate, too, that many people have gotten their impression of Marines from Swofford's book or will now do so through this movie.
Mendes is already a bit defensive about his film. He told Entertainment Weekly, "Our intention, above and beyond any specific narrative about the Gulf War, was to give human shape to these numbers you read about every day. Everyone thinks somehow that Marines are all the same. Which is, of course, nonsense."
But Mendes is trying to have it both ways, as did Oliver Stone with Platoon. Many people throughout the world will come away with the unmistakable impression that all American fighting men are foul-mouthed, sex-crazed, homicidal maniacs and that their wives and girlfriends back home are unfaithful harlots just itching to hop into the nearest bed. After all, they have the "word" of an actual former Marine.
Swofford got away with a lot with his 2003 book. Now that the story is being more widely told, I hope he's held to account for his self-indulgent, nihilistic fairy tale. In the end, the truth will find you out.
Tom Neven served seven years as a Marine Corps infantryman. He is the author of the book Do Fish Know They're Wet? and lives in Colorado Springs.
Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
Which is much worse than an honest lie.
" Did anyone read the book? Did Swofford say he was there or did the filmmakers add it?"
I read the book (it sucked since he was writing it for the Move On crowd). If I understand the scene you're talking about, he claimed he was watching a video from home with a bunch of other Marines when one of the Marines recognizes either his home or an identifying feature on the woman (can't remember which). The Marine in question ran crying from the room.
Screw this movie. I'm waiting for "Generation Kill", a far superior effort.
A companion post to this thread. Possible plagarism on Swofford's part:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1520502/posts
Whoops. Did not see that you had all ready linked to the New York Slimes piece.
I have the an autographed book. It was given to me by my son after he saw him on campus, thinking I would like it. It stunk, and much of it is disingenuous crap. I'm sure the movie is even worse.
It so sucked. Makes Matthew Moline look like a Republican.
It depicts:
White Marines as either redneck,disfunctional or hiding their criminal records when they signed up.
The only marine fatalities are naturally by friendly fire code for, "they can only kill themselves"....and for sport, friendly camels.
It's about snipers, who never get to snipe.
It's about Marine Wives who make porno films of themselves with the neighbor, girl friends who cheat and bulletin boards plastered with Dear John Letters.
It's about coming upon a desert highway crammed bumper to bumper with loot laden scorched cars...but never showing or mentioning the "loot".
"They were just trying to get away".
( And look what we did to them).
It's about our marines posing with "Crispy Critters".
It's about the impotence of our military as they fire their weapons into the air...just like you know who.
You get the idea. Lots of Left wing invalidating sound bites, all uttered by elevated minority types.
At the end, back home, in civilian life, they attend each other's premature funeral service. They can't make it in the real world.
Thanks Hollywood.
Now Hype it as the greatest war movie of all time.
Now Hype it as the greatest war movie of all time.
not worth a trip to the john in my opinion ,
totally lame and insulting .
Tell everyone you know not to go .
I never read the book on the recommendation of a good buddy who did and said it was absolute BS.
I had a feeling that movie was going to be a giant pile of suck when I saw the previews...ultra-loud blasting gangsta rap over various scenes of the lead actors being screwed up, dysfunctional, and scared. Yeah. "Sands of Iwo Jima," it ain't.
}:-)4
Where is black outrage to all this.. maybe there is none, mores the pity..
pissed off Marines? head over to the military.com Marine Corps Open Discussion forum. A few of those Marines know stafford personally and a few live in the same town as he. Stafford turns the other way when these Marines approach him
it's Jaime Foxx and I think he deserved the Academy Award for his role in the movie "Ray".....it was actually very good, and I doubt you have seen it.
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