watching Jarhead tonight good or propaganda?

[greenbriar]

hubby has wanted to see it for a while. I rented it for him tonight

[naturalselection]

1. I rented it last week

and found it extremely demoralizing.
It is not the typical "war" movie. But then again, maybe more realistic.

Thank goodness I rented "The Riddick Chronicles" with it.:eyes:

[LeftNYC]

3. Demoralizing in what way? nt

[naturalselection]

5. It was demoralizing

in the sense that these men got so "up" to fight a war, and then to have to deal with the problems at home and just sitting around. In that way it was more "realistic" IMO. You could just sense the let down in the men.

I guess it wasn't what I was expecting. Suppose I have seen too many other "war" movies.

[LeftNYC]

7. I agree. It was about the boredom of war. Its not your typical war movie

I think its also about the subject of war movies. These guys, having seen Apocalypse Now and Platoon, are expecting that type of war movie, like us, as viewers. However, it never happens.

[RaleighNCDUer]

9. Yup. Someone, I don't remember who, defined war as

weeks of utter boredom punctuated by moments of utter terror.

I thought it was an excellent movie.

[LeftNYC]

2. Definitely not propaganda...

its a good movie, but its more a flick about the soldiers waiting, and waiting. I would say its more a look at how the prospect of war for young soldiers leads them to want to fight, to want to kill. However, the time may never come. I dont want to give it away, but there isnt much action.

[leeroysphitz]

4. Neither...

I served in the first gulf war. I know for a FACT a lot of what happens in this movie is hollywood BS. I can also tell you that this movie is just one long pointless string of hackneyed military movie cliches with no coherent plotline whatsoever.

Do yourself a favor and rent four or five of the best war movies made since the eighties (full metal jacket, platoon, Heartbreak Ridge etc...) and you'll see almost every scene in "Jarhead" only done better and when the ideas were relatively fresh.

[Union Thug]

6. agreed. See the classics... but add to the list..

Apocalypse Now, imo. Jarhead was ok, but certainly not up to the level of, for example, Full Metal Jacket.

[Nightjock]

8. Agreed!

It is not a good movie. Cliched and BORING.

[deFaultLine]

10. My favorite

Maybe Mel Gibsons "We Were Soldiers" shows several points about the realities of war. On one hand there is the tremendous dedication and training of our own soldiers and on the other it shows the resolve of the other side to win at all costs.

Another may be "Gallipoli" because it shows the idiocy of commanders that utterly fail to grasp the hopelessness of a campaign. It also shows their willingness to sacrifice men withoout regard to the lives of the men the are responsible to command.

The farmers there are still digging up bones all this time later.

[peacebaby3]

11. I saw the movie. It wasn't bad and certainly not propaganda, but some

parts are embellished. There is a part with a video being watched by the guys and that has been told by a hundred different people, a hundred different ways. My husband who served in Desert Storm and OIF says the video part is folklore and there isn't a shred of evidence it ever happened. The problem it brings up was a reality though but it went both ways. I think you'll know what this means after you watch the movie, but I don't want to spoil it for you.

There is one part where they come up on some Iraqis who tried to escape and that part is very real. I saw some of the pics myself because they made their way around. Again, I don't want to give too much away.

They also do a fairly good job of showing the "oil" factor and the weird boredom as well. My husband said it was pretty good. While it is different from other war movies, one of the reasons is that Desert Storm was very different from other "wars" so you have to take that into consideration when you watch the movie.

Edit: typo

[bridgit]

12. imo Full Metal Jacket lite...

x(