Jarhead
 

just came back from seeing it. mendes is still the man. was desert storm really just 4 days?

I've been wanting to see this. Is it worth seeing in the theatre or wait for the DVD rental?

Jarhead
 

Just the name sends shivers up and down my spine.

Ooo-rah,
Charles "Doc" Newcomb
I-Corps, '66-'68

In the words of the great Tom Petty, "The waiting is the hardest part."

I really enjoyed this movie but my wife thought it was a bit slow. The cinematography was outstanding. It worked the way good cinematography is supposed to work, help sell/tell the story and not take a front row with flamboyant camera moves. particularly enjoyed pretty much all of the oil well fire scenes. It looked like Hell on Earth.

I think a lot of people are saying this movie is really slow, But I mean I think that was sort of the point wasn't it? These poor guys were out there forever and all they wanted to do was "their job" and then finally the order comes up, they go to war and friendly fire kills more soldiers then hostile fire. Then three days later (or whatever) it's over. I think you were really supposed to get a feel of what the soldiers were going through.

What I didn't like was at the end it started to get what seemed to me a little preachy, in the "we're out of here! Saddam's Dead! We'll never have to come back to this place again" sort of thing. Over all I thought the movie was good but it wasn't something I'd want to watch again like american beauty.

i think this movie's more about military life and how it affects a young man's life rather than the war itself. there are a lot of themes woven throughout the film that is very open to interpretation, much like American Beauty and Road to Perdition. it's very Mendes-esque. he likes to ponder larger questions of life through unanswers and unquestions rather than answers and questions. yesh it can get pretentious, but that's where subjectivity sets in.

mike, it depends on how you watch movies. for me, i typically watch only action movies on the bigscreen (like the upcoming king kong and Serenity a few months ago). i rent small character pieces via netflix. this jarhead is considered a small character piece (like his previous films American Beauty+Road to Perdition). so if you're like me, you'd rent. the reason why i went was because my friend dragged me to it and because sam mendes is wicked cool and i knew i was going to be in for a good movie.