Monday, November 14
Jarhead
SIQ: 49 (lots of smoke smells from fireplaces--I hope--and some alfalfa wafting around in the breeze)
I saw Jarhead last night in El Centro. It's a HUGE movie around here because it was filmed in and around the area. The cast and crew stayed at a hotel about two blocks away from me (though I didn't pay much attention to it at the time). Jamie Foxx apparently worked out at the same gym my brother goes to, which meant that, when my mom told the story, it became, "Doug worked out with Jamie Foxx." A lot of my students were extras in the movie, which meant that all of a sudden one day last February all the guys in my classes came in with shaved heads (you know--jarheads). Also, one of the closing scenes in the film--the parade when they come home--was filmed on Main Street in El Centro. So it's a big film here for lots of reasons.
Anyways, I came into the film not expecting much--the reviews were mediocre at best. I expected it to no match for the other Gulf War film, Three Kings. That film was inventive, clever, intelligent, and pointed in its commentary on the war. Jarhead was different, certainly. It's not really a commentary on the war at all; if anything, it's a commentary on a single person's experience in the war. And, as a commentary on a single person's experience in the war, it's damn good. It has a singular vision that is rare in war films--it doesn't cover the war as much as it covers the actions of one person trying not to go crazy with boredom and loneliness during a situation that eventually turned into a very, very brief war.
Most critics, I think, wanted a critique on the war--they wanted an Apocalypse Now moment that revealed the futility of war and all that it destroys. My wife and I call that a "Where is your god now?" ending, after The Mole's wonderful line at the end of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. It's a moment that usually reveals the epiphany of the main character as he/she recognizes the universe (embodied in warfare) as the unfair, bitter, pointless place it obviously is. Most critics didn't see this sort of moment in Jarhead--but it's there, only it's not the moment they wanted. It's the moment at the end of the film, when the war has just ended and our heros have just come across their comrades dancing around a fire (like the pagans in The Wicker Man). Our heros are pissed off because they went through the entire war without firing a single shot (even though they were sharpshooters). Everyone is dancing and singing and laughing around them; they look at each other, and then they get their guns out and fire round after round into the air. It's a moment where they characters say, "We didn't kill anyone, but we did survive, so screw it--let's just shoot." It's not the greatest "Where is your god now?" moment in the world, and it says nothing whatsoever about the war's futility--but it does give the characters a certain distance from their own experiences and it gives them the release they need at that point.
And that's the key: the moment is specifically tied to these characters. It's their story, not the country's story or the world's story. They live it and experience it and survive it--and that's it.
As I said before, the movie this film is going to be linked with is David O. Russell's Three Kings, a great film with some great acting, great dialogue, and a significant message behind it. What this movie also has, however, is a contrived plot device--some mystery gold the heros want to steal. That device lowers the movie to the level of a caper--and, to its credit, manages to make the caper elements within the movie resonate far beyond the boundaries of a typical war or caper film. Still, it IS contrived. Jarhead, on the other hand, is about as original a narrative (at least for a war movie) as you're likely to experience. It's about (basically) young, dumb guys being trained to kill and then waiting and waiting for their chance to kill, only to not even get a chance to fire a weapon because the war is over so quickly. It's a minimalist narrative, with no contrivance or any other cloud to dissipate the central focus.
Jarhead doesn't have the depth and the creativity of Three Kings, but it has an honest, piercing narrative that really gets to the heart of the war experience. For this reason, I think the movie will be around for a very long time.
I saw Jarhead last night in El Centro. It's a HUGE movie around here because it was filmed in and around the area. The cast and crew stayed at a hotel about two blocks away from me (though I didn't pay much attention to it at the time). Jamie Foxx apparently worked out at the same gym my brother goes to, which meant that, when my mom told the story, it became, "Doug worked out with Jamie Foxx." A lot of my students were extras in the movie, which meant that all of a sudden one day last February all the guys in my classes came in with shaved heads (you know--jarheads). Also, one of the closing scenes in the film--the parade when they come home--was filmed on Main Street in El Centro. So it's a big film here for lots of reasons.
Anyways, I came into the film not expecting much--the reviews were mediocre at best. I expected it to no match for the other Gulf War film, Three Kings. That film was inventive, clever, intelligent, and pointed in its commentary on the war. Jarhead was different, certainly. It's not really a commentary on the war at all; if anything, it's a commentary on a single person's experience in the war. And, as a commentary on a single person's experience in the war, it's damn good. It has a singular vision that is rare in war films--it doesn't cover the war as much as it covers the actions of one person trying not to go crazy with boredom and loneliness during a situation that eventually turned into a very, very brief war.
Most critics, I think, wanted a critique on the war--they wanted an Apocalypse Now moment that revealed the futility of war and all that it destroys. My wife and I call that a "Where is your god now?" ending, after The Mole's wonderful line at the end of South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut. It's a moment that usually reveals the epiphany of the main character as he/she recognizes the universe (embodied in warfare) as the unfair, bitter, pointless place it obviously is. Most critics didn't see this sort of moment in Jarhead--but it's there, only it's not the moment they wanted. It's the moment at the end of the film, when the war has just ended and our heros have just come across their comrades dancing around a fire (like the pagans in The Wicker Man). Our heros are pissed off because they went through the entire war without firing a single shot (even though they were sharpshooters). Everyone is dancing and singing and laughing around them; they look at each other, and then they get their guns out and fire round after round into the air. It's a moment where they characters say, "We didn't kill anyone, but we did survive, so screw it--let's just shoot." It's not the greatest "Where is your god now?" moment in the world, and it says nothing whatsoever about the war's futility--but it does give the characters a certain distance from their own experiences and it gives them the release they need at that point.
And that's the key: the moment is specifically tied to these characters. It's their story, not the country's story or the world's story. They live it and experience it and survive it--and that's it.
As I said before, the movie this film is going to be linked with is David O. Russell's Three Kings, a great film with some great acting, great dialogue, and a significant message behind it. What this movie also has, however, is a contrived plot device--some mystery gold the heros want to steal. That device lowers the movie to the level of a caper--and, to its credit, manages to make the caper elements within the movie resonate far beyond the boundaries of a typical war or caper film. Still, it IS contrived. Jarhead, on the other hand, is about as original a narrative (at least for a war movie) as you're likely to experience. It's about (basically) young, dumb guys being trained to kill and then waiting and waiting for their chance to kill, only to not even get a chance to fire a weapon because the war is over so quickly. It's a minimalist narrative, with no contrivance or any other cloud to dissipate the central focus.
Jarhead doesn't have the depth and the creativity of Three Kings, but it has an honest, piercing narrative that really gets to the heart of the war experience. For this reason, I think the movie will be around for a very long time.
