Pointless

Rating: Null/10 (1 December 2009)

Anthony "Swoff" Swofford, a kid from Sacramento, enlists in the Marines in the late 1980s. He malingers during boot camp, but makes it through as a sniper, paired with the usually-reliable Troy. The Gulf War breaks out, and his unit goes to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield. After 175 days of boredom, adrenaline, heat, worry about his girl-fiend finding someone else, losing it and nearly killing a mate, demotion, latrine cleaning, faulty gas masks, and desert football, Desert Storm begins. In less than five days, it's over, but not before Swoff sees burned bodies, flaming oil derricks, an oil-drenched horse, and maybe a chance at killing... Jarhead is one of the most pointless movies I have ever seen,it's empty and hollow and there is absolutely no development.The film shows Swofford and the rest of the marines stranded in the desert, "fighting" an enemy they can't see for a cause they don't fully comprehend. Nothing goes on and the marines have to entertain themselves and keep a grip on reality. Jarhead is based on a book written by former Marine Anthony Swofford's where he describes his pre-Desert Storm experiences in Saudi Arabia and his experiences fighting in Kuwait.Now; while I can accept that the events (or lack of of events) that we see in the film did in fact happen, and that this is in fact, the other side of war that many of us don't know, I don't understand what's the point of this film.Jarhead portrays the marines as a bunch of dumb foul-mouthed sex-crazed drunk idiots who were trained by stupid and sadistic leaders and I don't think that's a fair image. As everywhere else I'm sure there are jerks in the marines but I'm pretty sure there is some good people as well. I'm not a marine neither do I know anyone who is and I'm not saying that I endorse the war,I just don't think that this is a fair portrayal of this people.On top of all of this in the end,Swofford says that war veterans never truly readjusts to civilian life and that they'll feel like marines for the rest of their lives. While I'm sure this is true,at least to some extent,Swofford did not killed one man, faced one enemy or shot a single bullet.He didn't experienced war in a single bit.What he went trough is the same as camping with a bunch of kids for months and now in the end he's saying that he can't let go of it? Oh the irony. On a more positive note,there are some interesting sites like the desert with the burning oil wells in the horizon and the movie does benefit from two good performances,both Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard as Swofford and Troy, but I just can't see past the lack of meaning of the story.
6/10