7 out of 10
 

Muslims, Marines & Masturbation

"Jarhead" is an adaptation of a novel by Anthony Swofford. It follows him as he joins the Marines, just like his dad did in Vietnam. Swofford survives the rigours of boot camp and is recruited by Sgt Sykes (Jamie Foxx) to join the snipers. Shortly after training is complete, a little thing called Operation Desert Shield commences! He and his platoon are excited rto be shipped to where the action is.

For Swofford, the main reason he joined was lack of options and nowherego but enlist in the Marines. The movie barely touches on his home life - one gets the impression his father was one of many Vietnam War vets that came back with serious emotional issues that have affected them long after the War was over.

Swofford and the other Marines get over their initial excitement and soon realise they were not sent tokill anyone,much to their chagrin: they have lots of free time, spent mostlyby mastubating - one of many things on a list Marines can do during downtime - as read by Swofford. Eventually the conflict escalates and the snipers are given missions.

One of the things that the film seems to highlight is the changing face of warfare, for, even up to Vietnam, soldier faced off against soldier; sure, there was bombing and whatever, but grunts were still a necessity. Lately with technology, the commanders in a control central can order big yield missiles to be launched, with very little need for ground troops. At one point, in the film,several portions of the military over which gets to go after a certain target.

The imagery is surprising. I did not expect to see scenes of bombed out cars with dead passengers still inside. Also the oil raining down on the Marines is something else, with the oil wells in the background, The scene is nicely composed and the credits are where you will hear the song from the trailers "Jesus Walks" by Konge West.

Overall, the film lacked a little something by glossing over some important things like his family life and a few too many scenes showing what bored Marines do with their time. You are supposed to get the idea that Swofford is disappoionted and disillusioned with the whole "Marine experience". Even so, it's actually a shame this movie was not poorly done, as one of the tag lines is, "Welcome to the suck".- Something this movie does not do!

Lacked a little something