a film made about one concept

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2006)

There are lots of people who love this and film and many more that hate it..
In my understanding, those who love this film understand why the film was made, which was to show that some of the marines in the first Gulf War just waited and waited and waited ... and that the war that they had signed up for, was not what they expected.
Those who love it accuse those who hate it of them wanting more action etc ... Firstly, when you advertise a film heavily suggesting that it contains a lot of action, then there are people who are undoubtedly going to be disappointed.
But this is not the reason, why I did not like this film. The reasons why i did not like this film are pure characterisation and writing. The characters had hardly any journey or arc at all. Only Jake G's character when he temporarily goes insane amounts to any kind of character development. When the film begins, we do not know anything about his character, and to be honest, he does not change at all... The film changes around him. Aside from this, the other characters appear to have walked straight out of cliché school... We have the drill sergeant who does what every drill sergeant has done since Full Metal Jacket, we have Jamie Foxx's character who appears to be pure exposition (by this, I mean that he only really does anything when he shouts at the troops and tells them whats happening next) We have the remaining troops or are made up of stereotypical army school : the weird one with glasses, the slightly political one, the 'whoooping silly one', the mysterious one (peter skarsguard's character) and the sensitive one.
What the film actually does is allow the audience to hang out with these characters for almost the entirety of the film... which to be honest is like going to the zoo... Watch them act like children, play football, have interviews for TV (again straight out of Full Metal Jacket), they tease each other and they think about their girlfriends... ONce or twice they might meet some Arabs and camels.
This is not a film for me ... I can see what everyone is talking about in that "but thats what it was like" kind of manner. I do not watch a film to watch a bunch of marines being bored. I would prefer to watch them being tested or at least having an arc of character. There are two references to other great war films, The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now ... well, the only reason for including these were to show that this was the kind of war that these marines were expecting ... apart from that ... for me, they just emphazied that I was watching a film that was not as good as those... And by not as good, I mean, the characterisation, and the power of performance and test of character ... I do NOT mean that they are better because of action or whatever..
Sam Mendes has said that people do not get this film... This is wrong. . I get it. I totally get it... Its two hours to make a very basic point. The film echoes of pretentious direction (notice the 'cool' music kicking in for many scenes) that attempt to hold more sentiment that what the audience are feeling (sorry, this audience member).
The simple thing is, that there was not a lot going on that made us care about the characters at all....