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I went and saw Jarhead Sunday afternoon. I saved a coupla bucks by going to the matinee, but now that I've seen it, I'd have paid full price.

I read the book when it came out, and the letters about it in Leatherneck magazine panned it as "sullying the reputation of the Marine Corps". The Corps' carefully cultivated public image maybe, but not its reputation. Folks, the Corps I remember wasn't quite like this movie, but neither was it a church camp like they'd have you believe. Kids today are a lot harder-edged, maybe just less naive, than we were way back then, and it shows.

I've never seen a movie, even a war movie, quite like it. Very stylized, definitely very, very noir. Quite a bit of humor, very dark also. My Marine Corps of forty years ago was more like Gomer Pyle, USMC. This is more like Apocalypse Now. It is most definitely not Sands of Iwo Jima, maybe a little Full Metal Jacket. It defies easy comparison, but that's a good thing. I think it's a unique approach for the genre.

The movie has three distinct parts: Boot, Desert Shield, and Desert Storm. Not much Boot, but a good bit on Scout/Sniper school, quite a bit of Desert Shield. Portrays pretty well what happens to guys stuck in a sandbox for 175 days with no human contact. Boredom and borderline insanity. It's hard to tell, actually, since these guys are a little nuts anyway. There is a depiction of the most graphic "Dear John" letter in the history of movies, without a doubt!

Desert Storm is pretty much foot-slogging without much seeming purpose, which I think is the whole point. There are scenes along the road leading north from Kuwait City after the air strikes were over, and of life in the burning oil fields. There's even a Fellini-esque moment with a horse.

Basically, the show is about 175 days of waiting and anticipation, culminating in four days, four hours, and four minutes of virtually no war. The end is a combination of disappointment and glee at still being alive.

There's a scene where a grizzled old 'Nam Marine welcomes them home that moved me almost to tears.

The bonding that you no doubt had enough of in my posts and others on 10 November is shown quite well.

I liked it. I saw some things that haven't changed in forty years, some things that have, and a lot that I sincerely hope was made up. Old Vets like me will probably like it, too, but that's a guess.

Anybody who is contemplating going into the service in these times should go see this, or their parents should drag them to see it. It's not particulary pro- or anti-war, but it may be a glimpse of something they need to see.

Oh, yeah. The movie was plenty long enough for the Tub O'Dr. Pepper I bought on the way in to want back out!