Read the book.

Rating: 7/10 (14 April 2007)

Any person who read the book would not be disappointed with the movie.
Any person who was in the military with their eyes open would not be scandalized.
To impute some kind of political motivation to the movie makers betrays ignorance of the both the contents of the book and the experience of military service.
Was it a great movie? No. Did it do a good job of capturing the spirit of Swofford's book? Yes.
Read "Catch 22" then go see the movie. Read "Slaughterhouse 5" then go see the movie.
"Jarhead" clearly belongs in their company though at a lower level.
Since war makes no sense, how can the military make any sense? If you hanker after John Wayne or Audie Murphy, you're in the wrong century.
In "Saving Private Ryan", in my opinion, one of the top five films of all time, Sergeant Horvath says, at one point, that we might as well try to protect the bridge and save Ryan's ass because it might help make this whole war make some sense. If even fighting Hitler and the Nazis makes no sense on a day to day basis, how does liberating Kuwait make any sense? The reality of military life and combat makes no sense and this movie and the book on which it's based illustrates that fact.