Jarhead

[ArchAngel]

So, who's gonna see it and who's gonna pass? I love the previews, gets me pumped up everytime the music starts rolling and you see the Marines running and blowing shit up.

I read the book a while back, it's pretty good, but I'm just hoping the guy isn't as bitchy and moany as he is in the book.

What you all think?

[Frisbee]

Here's what a Marine Vietnam Vet, goes by the callsign 7point2, who was with a CAP had to say about Jarhead on a Vietnam Vet forum I post on.....
I'll take his word on it anyday

Boycott the movie "Jarhead"

Posted by: 7point62 ®
10/27/2005, 09:20:37





"Jarhead is getting rave reviews in Hollywood because it is an anti-War, anti-Marine movie written by a whining dirtbag who admits to being a thief, a liar and a crackhead; a shitbird who somehow slipped through the cracks. The book is a disgrace to any man or woman who ever wore the uniform. Imagine the worst guy you ever knew in the military, the most untrustworthy skank you ever knew writing a book about it. That's what has happened here. This man served in the first Gulf War. He saw virtually no combat. Very few American troops died in this war and the ground offensive was over in three freaking days. And everybody who served there was treated like a hero. And all he does is bitch about it. It is a disgrace."

[Vulture6]

Read the book, thought it sucked -- a personal diatribe trying to justify past failures and the ego that he thought that he should have.

Gonna have to pass on the movie.

Music in the commercials is catchy, though.

[ArchAngel]

Thank you god! I thought the same thing! He complains the entire time when he's not even in a real war. I'm going to see the movie just to see how it is, but the book pissed me off, I like how he wrote it, but the purpose of it was for a fucking pussy!

Just making sure people felt the same way I did before I bitched about the book, thanks!

[USMC Chuter]

I'm mixed on the issue. I read Swofford's book, and can see it a couple different ways. A lot of past and present Marines don't like the way he described the Marines.. Like it or not, whoring around, binge drinking, and actually WANTING to go to war (for those who haven't been) are and have been common traits.. A lot of Marines want to glorify the Corps, ignoring some of the reality of day to day life..

What I don't like is how Swofford managed to inject his anti-military/anti-war agenda, ad nauseum, into his writing. Not to disparage his service, but he didn't experience anything that was all that terrible, considering. He did manage to snivel about it a lot though. He clearly had an agenda in writing the book, which I'm sure lent to Hollywood's willingless to make a movie of it. In short, I'll see the movie. If nothing else, to see for myself whether or not the movie industry was able to accurately portray what Swofford wrote, for better or worse.

[Grimmy]

Binge drinking, whoring around and wanting to go to war were pretty much top of the list for why I joined the Corps.

[ArchAngel]

Which brings me to my favorite line in the book; "I want ammunition, alcohol, and dope, I want to screw some whores and kill some Iraqi motherfuckers."

[USMCRET6391]

I got about half way through the book and quit. This idiot joined the Corps for all the wrong reasons then whined because reality slapped him in the face. I am quite sure that the movie will be totally anti Corps, anti Bush and not worth the 9 bucks it costs to get in to see it.

[Curt]

A usual hollywood attempt to stab the military in the back

[ArchAngel]

I read the whole book and felt the same way Top, the guys complains way too much and I'm hoping the movie isn't the same way. Though, like you guys have pointed out, Hollywood of course helped make this movie because it most likely is anti-Marines, anti-war, and anti-Bush.

[ArchAngel]

I just read an article on the movie and it just put what the book was into a different perspective for me. Basically, and I'm not gonna quote the entire article, Swoffords complaining has to do with the fact that they revved them up so much for war and got them so pumped up and then snap, the war ended in 4 days. It was like a climax with no relief, as they said in the article.

Go get the magazine, it's the latest Entertainment Weekly. Great article, it also has an article about R. Lee Ermey in it.

[Frisbee]

Originally Posted by ArchAngel

I just read an article on the movie and it just put what the book was into a different perspective for me. Basically, and I'm not gonna quote the entire article, Swoffords complaining has to do with the fact that they revved them up so much for war and got them so pumped up and then snap, the war ended in 4 days. It was like a climax with no relief, as they said in the article.

Go get the magazine, it's the latest Entertainment Weekly. Great article, it also has an article about R. Lee Ermey in it.

Give me a break …. climax with no relief?….. anyone who was to go into combat or has been in combat, that I know of, would have been thanking every God in the universe that the Gulf War was over in such a short time. It’s not any fun getting shot at, having your buds killed or even killing the enemy. So our hero is mad because the war was over so quickly that he didn’t have a chance to waste anyone?



I haven’t read the book but I’ll go by what my bro 7point62 has to say. Read my earlier post in this thread.



I found the online version of the magazine. The part refered to is on the second page.
http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6115,1...||0_0_,00.html

[Vulture6]

Like it or not, whoring around, binge drinking, and actually WANTING to go to war (for those who haven't been) are and have been common traits..

I don't have any problem with that, as you say, it's a fact of life in the Corps (at least before they closed Subic Bay). My complaint is with the way that in Swafford's book, EVERYBODY ELSE is screwed up -- everbody EXCEPT this one Lance Corporal and one or two of his buds. He so clearly has a personal ax to grind, and so much of what he writes smacks of trying to justify his service.