First, There Was
Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, which was all about how basic training fucks people in the head, and they are never again right in the old topside, provided that they even survive basic to begin with. Then there was Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, which was about how the things that are said and done in war can and will fuck somebody up for the rest of their preferably longlived lives. Now, there's Mendes' Jarhead. It's about how the things that somebody doesn't do during war will fuck him up forever and ever. It is the conclusion to the popular "War Is Fucked Up, Isn't It?" Trilogy.
Roger roger. So these guys are all training for a big war, for killing people and lots of people, preferably, but when the war does come, nobody gets to actually shoot at anybody because the airplanes do it all. Bombs, big bombs and more bombs and such as that. It all boils down to one scene, where the protagonists (Jake Gyllenhaal and Scott Macdonald? maybe) are sent on a mission and they set up, because they are snipers, to kill an Iraqi officer and they are all in position, and they get the go order and Jake is about to plug the guy, and then in storms a colonel and orders them to stand down, and calls in an airstrike instead. It is at this point that Jake and his buddy flip out and start begging and crying to be able to take the shot, just this one shot, but the colonel won't let them.
Wow. I know. That's what I thought too. Wow. Could there be a scene that resonates so completely with the everyman? A scene more capable of reaching its cold filmy hand into your chest and ripping out everything that you thought you knew, that you take for granted, your verily heartfelt heart of hearts?
Actually, there is. Maybe it's a scene that spans multiple scenes. A theme, even.
It's when Jake thinks his girl is cheating on him, because he's in Iraq and she's not, and some guy in his platoon's girl just sent this guy a videotape of her having sex with their neighbor and telling him to fuck off and everybody leaves the room wherein the tape is being played because it is, after all, this guy's wife, and Jake's buddy takes the tape out of the VCR and Jake says "Don't. I want to watch it. I want to know what it looks like when your girl's with somebody else." And then, some unspecified time later he's in the bathroom with a picture of his girl fiddling himself, but he just can't, and he starts hitting the wall because he can't.
Now that's what I call acting. Yep. It's a hell of a way to wrap up the trilogy too, coming full circle like that. Remember in Full Metal Jacket where that guy gets a psychiatric discharge because he's jacking off a dozen times a day, he even does it right there in the doctor's office, in front of everybody?
Full circle. Masturbation. It's what these movies are really about, and let nobody tell you otherwise.
Roger roger. So these guys are all training for a big war, for killing people and lots of people, preferably, but when the war does come, nobody gets to actually shoot at anybody because the airplanes do it all. Bombs, big bombs and more bombs and such as that. It all boils down to one scene, where the protagonists (Jake Gyllenhaal and Scott Macdonald? maybe) are sent on a mission and they set up, because they are snipers, to kill an Iraqi officer and they are all in position, and they get the go order and Jake is about to plug the guy, and then in storms a colonel and orders them to stand down, and calls in an airstrike instead. It is at this point that Jake and his buddy flip out and start begging and crying to be able to take the shot, just this one shot, but the colonel won't let them.
Wow. I know. That's what I thought too. Wow. Could there be a scene that resonates so completely with the everyman? A scene more capable of reaching its cold filmy hand into your chest and ripping out everything that you thought you knew, that you take for granted, your verily heartfelt heart of hearts?
Actually, there is. Maybe it's a scene that spans multiple scenes. A theme, even.
It's when Jake thinks his girl is cheating on him, because he's in Iraq and she's not, and some guy in his platoon's girl just sent this guy a videotape of her having sex with their neighbor and telling him to fuck off and everybody leaves the room wherein the tape is being played because it is, after all, this guy's wife, and Jake's buddy takes the tape out of the VCR and Jake says "Don't. I want to watch it. I want to know what it looks like when your girl's with somebody else." And then, some unspecified time later he's in the bathroom with a picture of his girl fiddling himself, but he just can't, and he starts hitting the wall because he can't.
Now that's what I call acting. Yep. It's a hell of a way to wrap up the trilogy too, coming full circle like that. Remember in Full Metal Jacket where that guy gets a psychiatric discharge because he's jacking off a dozen times a day, he even does it right there in the doctor's office, in front of everybody?
Full circle. Masturbation. It's what these movies are really about, and let nobody tell you otherwise.
posted by The Vicar at 11:45 PM
1 Comments:
"masturbation is what these movies are really about"
could you change that to "what war's really about" ?
plz?
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