Jarhead

Last night, I saw Jarhead with Tim. It's about the Gulf War and the disillusionment of the soldiers who went there (and, more generally, disillusionment among soldiers in any war), and it's gritty. The most common word in the movie is 'fuck', so Georgia Carlin would be proud. It had some amusing moments as well, and I should also mention that the song that plays during the beginning of the credits (which is the same one that plays during the trailer) fits this movie spectacularly. When I saw the trailer, I got the impression that the main soldier being followed would be one who started off as being gung ho for war but who later became disillusioned, but I found that his narration basically gave away the disillusionment at the beginning (not that that outcome was any surprise at all). They hammered this point on several occasions (so it's not exactly a subtle film, but I don't think it particularly needs to be one), especially at the end. This film is based on a book, though I don't know how closely it followed it. (Given the film's message, I assume it was reasonably faithful.)

The film has some anachronisms. One that I noticed that IMDB doesn't yet have listed involves the song O.P.P., the CD single for which came out in Sept. 1991, which is several months after the troops in the movie were singing along with it. (Another song or two to which the troops were listening in the movie may be similarly anachronistic.) This is a small thing (and not as bad as a couple of the other anachronisms), but I have to have my Comic Book Guy moments occasionally, you know? (As MC Hawking sings, "Who's down with entropy?")

Anyway, the movie was good, and I recommend it. However, it's kind of gritty and it doesn't have a happy ending. (Then again, that's no surprise and it's also not supposed to.)

Over the weekend, I'll try to get around to writing about Pride and Prejudice (the movie version) and Shopgirl, which I've also seen recently.