Jarhead/Lost In Translation

Now, the obvious thing to do in this review is to compare Jarhead to Full Metal Jacket. It certainly paid tribute to it (or maybe the word I'm looking for here is "plagiarized"). I still stand firm that Full Metal Jacket is the best war movie ever madealthough some other good ones are Platoon, Apocalypse Now, and Tigerland. Compared to those, Jarhead is terrible. However, don't stop reading just yet- I'd like to advance the notion that it isn't really a war movie at all. If I had to put it into a genre, I'd say that it's a film about self-discovery. In that light, it isn't half-bad.

There are long stretches of loneliness and, some might say, pointlessness. Tony Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhall) is a sniper for the Marines during the Gulf war, which apparently means that he is sent to the desert to wait until he is called upon to take that one perfect shot. It's a set-up that's bound to make a young and basically messed-up, testosterone-charged 20 year old go a little loony. Although none of the characters in Jarhead are especially introspective, the impetus is put on the audience to interpret their crazy pranks and idiotic behaviour as the results of intense frustration at the seeming futility of their mission.

It's a very stereotypically male perspective, with the fellows hoping that masturbating and "shooting stuff" will relieve their tension. I can't say that I really understood it, but I suppose that's probably a good thing. In Lost in Translation, we see the feminine side of a character dealing with feelings of futility. Charlotte (Scarlett Johansson), like Swoff, is also far from home and at a point in her life where she doesn't know what to do next. In the delicate, pastel world with soft, ambient music that director Sofia Coppola creates, Charlotte tries to find meaning by going to Buddhist temples, drinking too much, and flirting with a mysterious older man.

In Jarhead, Swofford waits under the harsh desert sun and tortures himself imagining what his girlfriend is up to while he's gone; Charlotte in Lost in Translation debates what she should do to fulfill herself while her husband travels around as a music photographer. In both films, loneliness is the dominant emotion- which character you identify with most will probably tell you a lot about yourself.
Selina frequents movie theatres and video stores so often that she is often misateken for an employee. She actually works at the Epcor Centre and also organizes a monthly performance event. For details, go to http://spaces.msn.com/members/redmilerevenge/. Please send questions, comments and offers of fame and fortune to sechebib@gmail.com.