Review of Jarhead (2005) by Seamuss. — 19 Mar 2006

As much as I disagree with the rating given by the New York post, it's all to easy to agree with the fact that it IS infact a plotless movie. The idea of a coherent war film doesnt really show it's self so much as the poetic meditiation on the war in ourselves and the reflection on the idea that many did not fight the real enemy there.

The movie is full of sublties and those, may be hard to catch for those if one goes into the movie expecting a kind of Kelly's Heroes romp. Now, I'd like to point out for everyone who's arguing details like 'they didnt do this or that' that, this was based pretty faithfully on a Memoir by a soldier who actually fought in the war.

I'd say it's pretty dead on. And what's an anti-war war film as a statement without it's surealism and bleak, sometimes comedic nods. I'd like to point out the infamous sequence in APOCOLYSPE (prolly spelt it wrong) NOW in which a mass is being held in a veitnam village while takes burn the huts behind the priest.

There's also the great M-I-C-K-E-Y sing along in The Full Metal Jacket that cant go without taking note. In all, it's no classic so much as it's a period peice. A filmmaker now has taken a bold statement against the war in Iraq without sounding annoying and making it something that's visually arresting.

Yeah, on an off note, if this movie was rated on Cinematography alone, it'd get a 4000 out of 10.