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Speakout: 'Jarhead' a viciously dishonest lie
Rocky Mountain News ^ | 11-11-05 | By Tom Neven, Special to the News

Posted on 11/11/2005 3:42:27 PM PST by dynachrome

By now you've probably read the varying reviews of Jarhead, the new movie that purports to be about the Marine Corps and the first Persian Gulf War. Based on the memoir of the same name by Anthony Swofford, both the movie and book bear only a superficial resemblance to anything real. First, the book. Third-generation enlistee Swofford joined the Marines to escape a dysfunctional family, but unfortunately he brought a lot of that dysfunction into the Corps. In the end, he dishonored the uniform he wore.

(Excerpt) Read more at rockymountainnews.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: jarhead; moviereview; movies; swofford
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"Tom Neven served seven years as a Marine Corps infantryman. He is the author of the book Do Fish Know They're Wet? and lives in Colorado Springs." Didn't see this posted yet.
1 posted on 11/11/2005 3:42:28 PM PST by dynachrome
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To: dynachrome

There is a lawsuit in the works as well. Several parts of the movie are apparently taken verbatim from another book called Baghdad Express, or something similiar to that.


2 posted on 11/11/2005 3:52:50 PM PST by TheErnFormerlyKnownAsBig (I get paid to get in your business.)
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To: dynachrome
I went to see Jarhead last night and I thought it sucked
(no pun intended!) It was totally derogatory about the way it presented our fine young Marines as a bunch of borderline wack jobs and psychos. It actually offended me that they could be allowed to portray these genuine American hero's as such , and if I was a real Jarhead , I'd be pissed off.
The movie is nearly worthless and not worth the dime to go see it.
It does not in any way come even close to the best and most authentic war movie of recent times "We Were Once Soldiers and Young" .
I hope that some day , and with the Corps own blessings , a good movie is made portraying their incredible assault up the right flank of the drive into Iraq , the fights in Nasariyah and al Kut and many other shoot outs. I hope they make a movie, a real good one , about Falluja , that shows our enemies as the bestial scumbags that they really are and shows the Marines in their best light as incredible street fighters .
It would do America good to see the 'real thing' from time to time , not more of this idiotic Hollyweird crapolla.
Semper Fi Marines ! oooorah!
3 posted on 11/11/2005 3:53:06 PM PST by injin
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To: dynachrome

One thing worth nothing: the liberal press, at least here in Los Angeles, doesn't like this movie either. For different reasons, to be sure--but it isn't getting fawning reviews from anybody that I've read.


4 posted on 11/11/2005 3:55:52 PM PST by Nick5
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To: dynachrome
I saw it and had to laugh at the "dear john" video tape scene. In my years after the war I probably heard that story from 20 guys who SWORE they were there when it actually happened, yet all of them were in different units (and often different branches).

Did anyone read the book? Did Swofford say he was there or did the filmmakers add it?
5 posted on 11/11/2005 4:00:01 PM PST by Gator101
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To: Gator101

I watched about ten minutes of the TV show Over There before I got sick stomach.


6 posted on 11/11/2005 4:14:00 PM PST by sgtbono2002
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Speakout: 'Jarhead' a viciously dishonest lie
By Tom Neven, Special to the News
November 11, 2005

By now you've probably read the varying reviews of Jarhead, the new movie that purports to be about the Marine Corps and the first Persian Gulf War. Based on the memoir of the same name by Anthony Swofford, both the movie and book bear only a superficial resemblance to anything real.

First, the book. Third-generation enlistee Swofford joined the Marines to escape a dysfunctional family, but unfortunately he brought a lot of that dysfunction into the Corps. In the end, he dishonored the uniform he wore.

In his book he boasts of stealing equipment from his fellow Marines and selling it on the black market, forcing them to pay for the loss of government property. He is openly contemptuous of his comrades (at one point he calls them "mouth-breathers") and puts on intellectual airs because he reads Sartre and Camus and they don't. (And lest I be accused of anti-intellectualism, I was a philosophy major in college.)

Worse, Swofford has been caught telling tall tales in what purports to be a nonfiction memoir, most notably attempting to pass off a well-worn urban legend about a malicious "Dear John" video as if he witnessed it himself. This hoary fib has been discredited by that great debunker of the spurious, snopes.com, and it's only one of many fishy anecdotes in Swofford's book.

Jarhead the book is a silly political manifesto, too, asserting that the Gulf War was fought to protect "the profits of companies, many of which have direct ties to the White House." Most egregious, though, Swofford relates an incident in which he threatened a comrade with a loaded weapon, twisting the rifle barrel into the man's ear until he broke down in tears. Swofford deserves to be court-martialed for that.

Instead, reviewers who have never worn a military uniform swooned over the supposed realism of Swofford's storytelling. Author Bing West, a Marine Vietnam vet, saw through the fawning reviews: "Far from telling the story of The Universal Soldier, the grunt's unadorned truth, as reviewers have intimated, Jarhead is the overwritten memoir of someone who did not experience serious combat. He either told tall tales or committed criminal acts under oblivious leaders whom he does not name. Either way, this is not how combat soldiers behave. Jarhead is to nonfiction what Platoon was to the movies: an insult to the American infantryman."

Add movie director Sam Mendes to the formula and you get a particularly noxious mix. As he did with American Beauty, Mendes has taken a few specific truths and extrapolated them to the whole. I served in three different infantry units over seven years in the Marine Corps, and I never encountered a unit remotely as dysfunctional or undisciplined as the platoon portrayed in this film. Sure, many Marines curse a blue streak, and some are obsessed with sex. And Mendes (with the help of unofficial Marine advisers) gets little details right, such as the way Marines talk or carry their weapons. But the overall image is a deeply dishonest lie because it relies on a misfit like Swofford for its basic story. It's unfortunate, too, that many people have gotten their impression of Marines from Swofford's book or will now do so through this movie.

Mendes is already a bit defensive about his film. He told Entertainment Weekly, "Our intention, above and beyond any specific narrative about the Gulf War, was to give human shape to these numbers you read about every day. Everyone thinks somehow that Marines are all the same. Which is, of course, nonsense."

But Mendes is trying to have it both ways, as did Oliver Stone with Platoon. Many people throughout the world will come away with the unmistakable impression that all American fighting men are foul-mouthed, sex-crazed, homicidal maniacs and that their wives and girlfriends back home are unfaithful harlots just itching to hop into the nearest bed. After all, they have the "word" of an actual former Marine.

Swofford got away with a lot with his 2003 book. Now that the story is being more widely told, I hope he's held to account for his self-indulgent, nihilistic fairy tale. In the end, the truth will find you out.

Tom Neven served seven years as a Marine Corps infantryman. He is the author of the book Do Fish Know They're Wet? and lives in Colorado Springs.

Copyright 2005, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.

'Jarhead': Whose Stories Are They?

7 posted on 11/11/2005 4:14:14 PM PST by A.A. Cunningham
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To: dynachrome
'Jarhead' a viciously dishonest lie

Which is much worse than an honest lie.

8 posted on 11/11/2005 4:23:10 PM PST by Graybeard58 (Remember and pray for Sgt. Matt Maupin - MIA/POW- Iraq since 04/09/04)
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To: Gator101

" Did anyone read the book? Did Swofford say he was there or did the filmmakers add it?"

I read the book (it sucked since he was writing it for the Move On crowd). If I understand the scene you're talking about, he claimed he was watching a video from home with a bunch of other Marines when one of the Marines recognizes either his home or an identifying feature on the woman (can't remember which). The Marine in question ran crying from the room.

Screw this movie. I'm waiting for "Generation Kill", a far superior effort.


9 posted on 11/11/2005 4:25:12 PM PST by Stand W (Confusion to our enemies)
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To: dynachrome; All

A companion post to this thread. Possible plagarism on Swofford's part:


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1520502/posts


10 posted on 11/11/2005 4:27:37 PM PST by dynachrome ("Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?")
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To: dynachrome
Well, do fish know they're wet??
11 posted on 11/11/2005 4:28:16 PM PST by AntiGuv (™)
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To: A.A. Cunningham

Whoops. Did not see that you had all ready linked to the New York Slimes piece.


12 posted on 11/11/2005 4:29:02 PM PST by dynachrome ("Where am I? Where am I going? Why am I in a handbasket?")
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To: dynachrome

I have the an autographed book. It was given to me by my son after he saw him on campus, thinking I would like it. It stunk, and much of it is disingenuous crap. I'm sure the movie is even worse.


13 posted on 11/11/2005 4:29:06 PM PST by Fzob (Why does this tag line keep showing up?)
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To: injin

It so sucked. Makes Matthew Moline look like a Republican.
It depicts:
White Marines as either redneck,disfunctional or hiding their criminal records when they signed up.

The only marine fatalities are naturally by friendly fire code for, "they can only kill themselves"....and for sport, friendly camels.

It's about snipers, who never get to snipe.
It's about Marine Wives who make porno films of themselves with the neighbor, girl friends who cheat and bulletin boards plastered with Dear John Letters.

It's about coming upon a desert highway crammed bumper to bumper with loot laden scorched cars...but never showing or mentioning the "loot".
"They were just trying to get away".
( And look what we did to them).
It's about our marines posing with "Crispy Critters".
It's about the impotence of our military as they fire their weapons into the air...just like you know who.
You get the idea. Lots of Left wing invalidating sound bites, all uttered by elevated minority types.
At the end, back home, in civilian life, they attend each other's premature funeral service. They can't make it in the real world.
Thanks Hollywood.
Now Hype it as the greatest war movie of all time.


14 posted on 11/11/2005 4:31:52 PM PST by TET1968
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To: TET1968

Now Hype it as the greatest war movie of all time.

not worth a trip to the john in my opinion ,
totally lame and insulting .
Tell everyone you know not to go .


15 posted on 11/11/2005 4:40:43 PM PST by injin
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To: Stand W

I never read the book on the recommendation of a good buddy who did and said it was absolute BS.


16 posted on 11/11/2005 4:43:02 PM PST by lt.america (Captain was already taken)
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To: injin

I had a feeling that movie was going to be a giant pile of suck when I saw the previews...ultra-loud blasting gangsta rap over various scenes of the lead actors being screwed up, dysfunctional, and scared. Yeah. "Sands of Iwo Jima," it ain't.

}:-)4


17 posted on 11/11/2005 4:50:36 PM PST by Moose4 (Liberals and vampires: Both like death, both hate crosses, and both are bloodsuckers.)
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To: dynachrome
So much for Jaimie whatshisnames career..
What was his name.. no matter.. affirmative action Hollywierd awards.. should be humor.. same with Kanje 50cent.. oh no sorry thats two other idiots... 50cent is not his last name..

Where is black outrage to all this.. maybe there is none, mores the pity..

18 posted on 11/11/2005 4:57:26 PM PST by hosepipe (CAUTION: This propaganda is laced with hyperbole..)
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To: injin

pissed off Marines? head over to the military.com Marine Corps Open Discussion forum. A few of those Marines know stafford personally and a few live in the same town as he. Stafford turns the other way when these Marines approach him


19 posted on 11/11/2005 5:22:50 PM PST by ma bell ("Take me to the Brig. I want to see the "real Marines". Major General Chesty Puller, USMC)
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To: hosepipe

it's Jaime Foxx and I think he deserved the Academy Award for his role in the movie "Ray".....it was actually very good, and I doubt you have seen it.


20 posted on 11/11/2005 5:24:30 PM PST by MikefromOhio
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