What? Are you saying I didn't like the movie because it didn't have enough action in it?

That's not what bothered me about Jarhead.

Inconsistent characters, no theme, and a scatterbrained script is the problem.

Did anybody else notice that the three "acts" in this film are almost the same as Full Metal Jacket's three acts?

I don't see anybody here who doesn't understand why the movie is slow paced and has almost no action. So I think Libs bringing up this point and negating our opinions based on this is pretty... well... lame.

Argh! I was going to see this tomorrow morning, but I didn't really like Full Metal Jacket all that much.

The first segment is truely mini-Full Metal Jacket. The whole "Yes sir yes; no I'm sorry I don't understand sir..." There are shadows of a lot of past war movies at different parts such as a few scenes reminded me Three Kings when someone is questioning what they accomplished, and this sort of collage is one reason it didn't achieve greatness for me, but I still enjoy it overall.

As I mentioned briefly in my mini-review, I definitely agree there are too many mentions of masterbation and jokes of guys having dicks in their hands. That theme was too repetitive, and being bored doesn't mean you have to talk about that all day.

The part that struck me as Three Kings retread was when they were taking the interviews and the Christmas party (I believe Three Kings used "I Got the Power" by Snap! at their party). I won't blame it for that, because... well... there's all of two movies which explore this subject.

The first third of Jarhead is easy to see in Full Metal Jacket, but the second third of Full metal Jacket is kind of "life in Vietnam" while the last third is the surreal combat section.

No, I didn't say that you didn't like the film because of that, just that it was one of the reasons you didn't like it. I also think Libs brings up a good point, because I have also noticed that most of the negative commentary on the film has complained about the lack of action, so I don't think it's a lame point at all for her to mention. I've noticed the same thing.

If people wanted to see a good war movie, buy or rent the dvd of Band of Brothers series instead. At least you dont have to hear them talking about getting a hard on every 5 minutes and the characters are likable,shows the real hardship and casulties of war, not to mention more action

Ah, sorry, andaroo, I didn't mean to include you in my original question, I know that's not what your fault with the movie was.

I wasn't just referring to this thread, I was referring to other scattered comments I'd seen about the film in other threads.

I'm not trying to negate anyone's opinion, really, I'm just trying to understand why people were so surprised by what the film was like versus what they were expecting. I mean, I pretty much got what I thought it would be like. I also don't see the thing with the likable characters. A lot of movies don't have many likeable characters, that doesn't make them bad.

Sorry if I came across as blah originally.

Well.

I saw it yesterday.

And i give it a C/C-

The intentions of the film was good. The execution was horrible. By the end of it, the only theme that i could even decipher from the movie was showing how the soldier's life isn't what we all expect it to be, how the experience changes them forever and finally, how freaking bored they are. Well .. heres the thing. Most amount of time is spent on how bored they are and if you're going to spend the majority of your time displaying this boring aspect, i expect the audience to get bored too .. which i did.

Honestly, the film could have been summed up in less amount of time but it felt like it went on for 4 hours!!!! i got the point ... many times. A great example of this film stretching itself is well ... lets look at the last minute of this movie. The final monologue was a great way to end it. Yet he could have ended at about 4 different occasions in that monologue .. he didn't .. he just kept going on and on .. homing in the point again and again and again and again and again. You see .. i could have ended right now after 2 'agains' but i didn't.

The movie at the end of the day just felt like a long drawn mess.

If you think Jarhead was a war movie going in, that is why you we're extremely disappointed.

If you cant figure out what the 'point' of the movie was, I don't think anyone is going to be able to convince you.

Wait, I'm confused...haha. What did you mean to quote me for?

Pointless and an exercise in futility.

D

What a surprise.

A little slow, but kind of brilliant. Absolutely fantastic acting. A-

the more i think about the film, the more i hate it.

A permament C- now.

More food for thought... I'm sorry I'm not that articulate today, I'm throwing up every 30 minutes...

The movie is like... a guy who works at McDonalds, and can't quit, and his job is boring. Of course it's slow, but if the story is not about how McDonald's corporate is abusing him, or his disgust at selling junk food to people, or his search for his inner truth, then it's just a boring movie about a depressed guy who works at McDonalds.

The movie is about nothing, and nothing happening, yet it wants to have that angle of WAR IS HELL. Or does it? Was living in the desert for 150ish days "hell"? Were the soldiers just whiners? Or just really boring? Okay if it was "hell" was it because your sarge made you play football in the desert in your gas mask? How exactly did these kids go insane? Because they are not endangering themselves or the Iraqis (at least during the "non action section" of the movie)... do I care enough about them to make it compelling? Because they can't jack off enough?

I read the CHUD article, and he seems to think it's a damning anti-war film. But is it? Is that just the baggage that you as a viewer bring into that? Some say it's a pro-Marines movie, and I can definately see where they are coming from. Does the movie get into why the Iraq war happened? The one character says it's for oil, but there's also the television program with the Kuwaiti president asking for external help directly from the US (archival even).

I guess the reason why the film is a failure is not because of the questions it raises about the situation in the movie, but for me, it raises questions about the motivation and goal of the writer/director.

Oh, and I'm kind of pissed off. Me and my friend assumed the director wanted us to believe that Sarsgaard's character committed suicide because he couldn't be in the Marines. In reality, he was a rather well adjusted kid (according to his mother) who died in a CAR ACCIDENT. Hmmm.

OJ with a fair amount of salt mixed in. Trust me, it works.

I think it's the OJ that is making me hurl.

I too am docking the movie from a C/C+ to a C now. The movie somewhat pisses me off. I guess its because the soldiers were cheering at the wrong situations like when they were watching Apocalypse Now and cheering at the soldiers bombing the civilians. Way too many "Lets kick some Iraqi ass" and laughing at that one guy's wife cheating on him on tape. I dont know if the movie really wanted us to care for what happens to the soldiers and the supposed hardship they have to endure by waring the gas mask in the hot weather

i think thats because of what happens in the beginning of the movie. The entire brainwashing that takes place in the beginning of the film.

But, the problem is, that's the only scene where Swoffard appears to be brainwashed. For the rest of the training sequences they put him across as someone who is a bit more "aware" of his surroundings than the rest of the soldiers.

oh i was refering to everyone in general.

Oh.

I with bABA. The more I think back to the film the more I detest it. The characters were all extremely unlikeable A-holes and despite a decent performance by Sarsgaard (he was the only halfway likeable character, and that was only sometimes), the film is a dull mess that seems to think it's being profound but really, it's not saying anything that hasn't been said by past films on similar subjects.

New Grade: F

Wow, a total failure? It didn't suceed at one thing? Hmph.

I still don't understand why the film is being faulted for unlikeable characters. They were supposed to be likeable? I didn't even feel great measures were taken to really make Swoff the hero either.