Chris Cooper ,same role?

Rating: 8/10 (10 February 2006)

Having just seen "Jarhead" yesterday I wonder if anyone else thought that actor,Chris Cooper could essentially be playing the same character as he did in "American Beauty",and if so was this a deliberate reference on the part of director Sam Mendes. I can't remember the rank of the of the marine played by cooper in the first film but given the timing of the first gulf war it is certainly chronologically possible that this is the same person. Anyway,that little piece of train spotting aside ,I found "Jarhead" to be an insightful piece of flaking. Wile some have criticized the film for being pointless in it's narrative,I believe that this was a deliberate and effective device on the part of the director to convey the idealogical void which the soldiers increasingly inhabit. The increasing dissatisfaction of the marines in the desert is a stark counterpoint to the excellent "Apocolypse now" sequence earlier in the film.