Jarhead 1 was marketed so aggressively as a "war movie without war" that it's utterly hilarious to see how quickly the sequels degenerated into brainless, jerk-off action.
I saw it in a lovely little traditional cinema, absolutely packed and audience members howling with laughter - which stopped dead when Malcolm Tucker threatens the government minister with "hounding you to an assisted suicide." And I was thinking about that going, "Oh man. We never fucking talk about that part." One of the darkest Weinstein-like chapters of the war and it just fell out of our collective consciousness.
I want to know what Vietnam era movie was actually, ‘We shouldn’t be here killing all of these people-‘ ??? Perhaps ‘Born on the Fourth of July’, but most of them never go anywhere near questioning the war, either. Do they? See ‘Paths of Glory’ if you want to see an actual *antiwar movie, by Stanley Kubrick*
Full Metal Jacket? ("How can you shoot women and children?" "EASY, YOU DON'T LEAD 'EM AS MUCH!") Also a Stanley Kubrick flick, of course. Deer Hunter? Heaven and Earth?
For anyone wondering, they discuss: The Hurt Locker Zero Dark 30 Green Zone American Sniper Fair Game Stop-Loss Home of the Brave Transformers movies The Guest Southland Tales
I want Jarhead 4: The Informant 2 about Felix's Lying Guy going State's witness, with him accurately blowing the whistle on atrocities while also stealing valor.
The Hurt Locker is pretty ridiculous as an attempt at an Important War Movie (tm). But it does have some good suspense in its setpieces, such as when the crew is responding to a bomb threat there are people filming them. Are they filming bc they know a bomb is about to blow up these Americans? Or are they filming because the Americans doing an op in your street is a spectacle worth recording? That sort of uncomfortable alienation from the locals is well depicted. The movie is full of nonsense scenes (such as the EOD guys also being expert snipers?) and anachronisms (wrong uniforms for the depicted year; soldiers are playing Xbox 360 when it wasn’t even released yet). No a terrifically detailed film. It’s purely a suspense action movie with mixed success.
I thought Hurt Locker was ridiculous schlok before enlisting, and then it escalated to secondhand embarrassment after the fact. Most war movies should never have been made, all so wrong, and in so many ways...
No mention of Redacted, bummer. I don't remember much of the film other than that it pissed off neo-cons and other ghouls. Bill O'Reilly was foaming at the mouth daily over it.
Not about the second but three kings is an excellent take of a war film. I also liked shooter and jar head and yes even the borne identity. The last mostly because it shows how top secret ops are rip for abuse and overreach of the intelligence.
Aww man! I really liked Green Zone! At the time I was just happy to see a "They lied!' movie since there were surprisingly few. Been years since I've seen it, mind. I'm significantly more leftist than I was in 2010.
I did too because it was one of the first films made as Hollywood was finally turning the corner on iraq war bad, but it doesn’t hold up. Also it stole the title of a really, really good book that it has nothing to with other than it mostly takes place in Baghdad.
