“Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles” (Anthony Swofford)
Received this book as a Xmas present a couple years ago (thanks, Uncle R), so watched the film with a slightly different perspective.
“Jarhead (Widescreen Edition)” (Sam Mendes)
Cpl. Anthony “Swoff” Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) endures the worst of war in this drama based on ex-Marine Anthony Swofford's biting memoirs about Operation Desert Storm. Swoff, his mercenary mentor, Troy (Peter Saarsgard), and the rest of the unit resort to cynicism and caustic humor in order to deal with the unbearable heat, dangerous missions and uncertain war. Oscar winner Jamie Foxx co-stars as Sgt. Sykes.
Without the voice over option, and without the written version's explanation, the movie suffered immensely, much less nuanced, less cynical, more gung-ho macho 20 year-old aggro. The book is ambivalent about the experience of being a marine, the film cut out nearly all of that self-doubt. Gyllenhaal and Foxx are good, as is Peter Saarsgard.
-chemical weapon propaganda not just used on the civilians back home, but on the soldiers too.
-“Elvis was a hero to most....”, again used somewhat ironically. Maybe Kenny “The Jet” Smith had rented this movie too?
Much less post-script of the post-war ennui in the movie, I guess for similar reasons.
(nearly incomprehensible notes deciphered from my 2006 moleskin notebook archives)
