Labor Day Double Feature...................

[Scott]

JARHEAD (2005) - Not a bad film. Not a great film. Always like movies with D.I. moments were they are training the troops. The film is about a platoon of snipers that are in the 1991 war Desert Storm in Iraq. The film is really meaningless. Not sure if they are portraying the war as meaningless or the director just had a poor story. It seems to be about the confusion of the American military and foriegn policy. It's an ok film if you have some time to waste.



MATADOR (2005) - Pierce Brosnon plays a hitman who meets up with your average American played by Greg Kinnear who learns about Brosnon's occupation while in Mexico City. The film is fun, but not as good as I was hoping. Good role for Pierce Brosnon. This is another film worth catching if you have some time.

[Yaddo 42]

I've seen both, and liked both, but I liked The Matador a little better than you seem to. I took Brosnan's character to be the dark side of James Bond's life or at least to be a guy trying to live out the Bond life in a mostly "real world" and falling apart from it. Partying, world travel, lots and lots of casual sex, lots of money, the logistics of his job done for him, killing and a casual attitude toward it. No responsibilities and no ties and no regrets, until his conscience catches up with him. I love the race track scene, and the use of "Heat of the Moment" by Asia. So cheesy and so perfect. The movie made me laugh and gave me interesting characters even if the story did get a little flat at times.

Jarhead I liked but, less than the book since it changed things, which is par for the course and much of the book was made up of Swofford's internal dialogue about what was happening, so changes had to be made. But so much of the movie was made up of things not in the book that i found it a little annoying. The Jamie Foxx character (well done work by him, I've been slow to come around on his dramatic work since I found his comedic stuff to be very unfunny and stupid), the christmas party gone wrong, and, I think, the friendly fire strafing and the video tape "incident" being stuff that was added. I saw it at the theater, if you saw this on DVD, does the disc have anything explaining if the things added were drawn from Swofford himself or were the work of writers and the director?

The sense of meaningless I believe was intentional since in the book Swofford and his fellow Marines are first frustrated by the heat, tedium, and waiting during the buildup and deployment; then bewildered and confused once the ground war begins by being caught in the fog of war and their lack of a clear goal of what part they play in this large and fast war; then frustrated in a totally different way once combat ends since they have been whipped into a killer frenzy in preparation for this and never got an outlet to unleash it. Here it resembels the book greatly.

I'd say it's more about the confusion of the trooper on the ground as the meaning of war plays out on a scale that he can have little if any effect on. Although I can see the Chris Cooper character as a critique of the Pentagon and military leadership.

I asked my cousin who is a marine who served in Iraq during the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom, and is currently in Afghanistan, what the reactions of marines he knew were to the film and book. He quit the book, not liking Swofford's views on the Corps, and said the marines he knew had no interest in seeing the film. On the other hand, my sister has a close friend who is regular Army who recommended the film to her, saying that the combat scenes of the Gulf War were the closest thing he had seen in film to his combat experiences in the Iraq War.

I'm also curious to know the feelings of Andrew and any other military people to the film. This may have come up during the theatrical release, but it's been a while, and I wonder if time has changed anyone's opinions.

[Scott]

Yaddo, I didn't watch the extra's for JARHEAD so I'm not sure about any additions, but I was hoping for something a little more gritty like maybe BLACK HAWK DOWN. A film that I liked about the gulf war was THE THREE KINGS. Do you think Hollywood or any other filmmaker should worry about other countries opinions when setting out to make a good film. I think they could make a great serious fictional war film about the Middle East if people wouldn't be so concerned about world opinion and how much money it's going to make at the box office.

Don't get me wrong about THE MATADOR. It is a fun film, but I watched the commercial when it was at the theater and was thinking this film must be hilarious with Brosnan in such an unsophisticated role. The scene where he walks through the lobby and to the swimming pool in the commercial was funny looking and wanted to see the rest of the film. I will say the movie is good and worth checking out and I understand what you said about the dark side of Bond. That is another fun way of looking at his role.