What's the Purpose?

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2005)

This review does not reveal any plot points, but does mention specific scenes which persons who have not seen the movie may not wish to have revealed.
I noticed that this film will either appeal to your sensibilities as a provocative and philosophical art-film, or you won't see the point and walk out halfway through after hearing your share of curse words and seeing graphic sexual sequences.
The person in the seat next to me asked, "Does this movie have a point?" just beyond the halfway mark. I will say this was a valid inquiry. The first part of the film has some great comic relief and one-liners that you are intrigued enough to think this will be a great shoot-em-up, testosterone-filled war flick to show the superiority of the US military might. The second part of the film seems to trail off, but I think that *was* the point. Young men go into the military having idealized versions of what they expect to encounter when they are sent off to fight. Case in point: the screening of Deer Hunter where the marines are chanting and shouting and cheering at helicopters sweeping in over the ocean. But the realities of being shipped halfway across the world only to combat boredom and see little or no real action is anti-climactic at best. This is how the viewer is left, but it ties you in more deeply with the characters.
I believe this film is a real depiction of a soldier's life. You train, you work, you believe so deeply in something, but when the time comes to perform, that is taken from you... and then what? What was the purpose in all the struggle and sacrifice? This is the point that the book's author, Anthony Swofford, and the movie's director, Sam Mendes, adeptly point out. The motto, "Without me, my rifle is nothing; without my rifle, I am nothing" is the basis for this poignant look at a young man's decision to enlist in the military. Is he really nothing without his rifle?
Some of the sequences that not only depicted sex, but were frankly pornographic in nature were a little misguided and misplaced in the film, but the emotional connections these men have to sex and love and death and friendship and family are very real and should not be dismissed.
This is an important, thought-provoking film for mature adults. 7/10 stars.