Jarhead

Welcome To The Suck (A Jarhead Theory From a A Reader)

As a reader/fan of yours, I think you've misread Jarhead. I saw an advance screening and here's my interpretation.

Who cares if Sam Mendes is "shockingly unwilling to connect with deep emotion"? I don't think that has anything to do with the types of films he wants to make. If you think there's some evidence in his earlier work that he cares about emotion, then maybe he failed here. But I don't see any inclination that he wants to tug at your heartstrings. American Beauty may have had that effect, because you end up caring for the main character, but otherwise it's really static and formal.

I think Mendes makes films that are exercises. And Jarhead succeeds as an exercise in gay metaphor. By emphasizing the male bonding rituals that go on between the troops, Jarhead is the gayest war film of all time.

Recipe for gayest war film of all time:

1. Combine macho homophobic comments of soldiers with showering together (loads of slapping of asses)

2. Mix in tight bonding (note the pairing-off of sniper teams) of often topless hard-bodied troops (even the stereotypical nerdy recruit is ripped)

3. Juxtapose with sub-theme of cheating by far-away girlfriends and wives (including one who is said to only wear her boyfriend's military clothes and have a soldier fetish)

4. Equate shooting of gun with masturbation (x10!)

5. Add General who keeps saying he's getting a hard on while speaking to the assembled male troops

6. Simulate gay group orgy to embarrass Sergeant

7. Climax film with scene about as close as you can get to a literal circle jerk (firing guns into the air until all their rounds are spent)

This film is comparing war with busting your gay cherry. Or, if you want to get all film-crit 101 with it: the sexualization of war. They're all waiting for their first kill, to fire a shot, to do something, anything! And everything they do while waiting is highly sexualized. And then when it doesn't come, when nothing happens, it's like the biggest cock-tease in history.

Most of the early reviews I've read have not pointed any of this out, so I'm starting to feel a li'l bit crazy.

As you point out and I agree with, there are definitely some flaws with Jarhead (including a feeble attempt at a "message" at the end with the Viet Nam vet). But it is so over the top with its (homo)sexuality that it's worth seeing to piece it all together. I may even pay to see it again. Remember how Desert Shield was billed in the media at the time as the first war fought with a large number of women troops? Not one to be seen in this film. The only women here are in photos, most posted on the "Wall of Shame".

What do you think? Am I crazy?