Waiting for the war to start

Rating: 8/10 (16 July 2017)

Anthony "Swoff" Swofford could have gone to college; instead he enlisted in the US Marine Corps he soon starts to wonder if he made the right choice. He isn't very enthusiastic but shows aptitude with a rifle and ends up a Sniper Scout. When Saddam Hussein's forces invade Kuwait in the summer of 1990 it looks as though Swoff and his comrades are about to see action. They deploy to Saudi Arabia and await their orders to cross the border. They wait and they wait and they wait; as the weeks and months pass they stew in the desert and boredom takes its toll. Tempers fray, discipline breaks down and Swoff starts to question his sanity. When the order is finally given the war moves so fast that the Marines are behind the action; all they see is the aftermath of air attacks and burning oil fields then just as it looks as if they are going to see action the war is over.
This is unusual for a 'war' movie in that there is so little actual war. Before that we get training scenes that will be familiar to anybody who has seen 'Full Metal Jacket' and the bulk of the film that shows us the marines waiting to go into battle. These scenes impressively capture the boredom and frustration the men suffer. Some of the ill-discipline is rather surprising; one can only hope that it is exaggerated for dramatic effect especially the scene where Swoff threatens a fellow Marine with a loaded rifle! The scenes showing what the squad see during the war are disturbing without being too upsetting; most notably the night scene amongst the burning oil wells. The cast is solid with Jake Gyllenhaal dominating as Swoff. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting a war film that is somewhat different to most; importantly for a film that is largely about boredom I never found it boring.