Anthony Swofford Message Board
posts on 9/3/2006 11:05:20 PM
I didn't think the movie portrayed a negitive view at all. Just how it is in military life. I am in the military and when we need to be serious, we are serious, when we play we play hard. It is just how it goes. I actually laughed at most parts of the movie and thought it was great. Also, I didn't see the movie saying anything about suicide. It never said anything about Troy committing suicide, only lying there dead. Rewatch it with an open mind, and not jumping to conclusions. Good watch and Semper Fi.
posts on 9/2/2006 3:44:59 PM
Have any of you...ever slept in a fox hole for days @ a time??Where bodies start to smell...?where the sand gets in all of your gear and your body???didnt think so,or where you hear some propaganda dude over the loud phone getting to your head....dont criticise something you know nothin about.
posts on 8/29/2006 12:56:04 PM
does jarhead have any facts of the actuall war in it? im doin a history assignment and we had to choose a movie...i chose jarhead but i cant seem to see any historical connection! correct me if im wrong!
posts on 8/16/2006 10:59:08 AM
Not quite sure how some of you who have given a negative view to his portrayal of the Corps. Either you yourself were never in or at the very least a "real" unit. Because he was pretty much dead on if you ask me. Exactly how I remember it
posts on 8/1/2006 11:15:08 PM
I was a punk high school kid who joined the Marines in the mid-nineties. I enlisted and so did both my bros. Understand this. Marine Corp life is nothing like civilian life. Nothing. If you weren't an enlisted jarhead you wouldn't understand. Sure..there's honor, courage, and all that stuff in the Corps. However, Swofford is pretty dead on when he describes the experiences in his book. I personally don't know the guy or the validity of his claims. However, Swofford's descriptive experiences he talks about in the book are not far from the truth. To all you civilians bashing my fellow jarhead, join the Marines then talk trash...at least you'll have a little room to talk. Hoorah.
posts on 7/7/2006 8:08:46 AM
They were not really gang raping him....
They were just pretending, however, my husband who spent six years active duty in the corps, believes that even pretending actually the whole scene with the gas masks and full gear on would not have happened especially the way they goofed off in front of the colonel, would never have happened without serious repercussions, things like that just don't happen. Remember this is just one guys account of his time in the corps. Please don't let it make you think all Marines are like Swoff, because it is untrue.
posts on 7/6/2006 10:58:46 PM
I read the book, and I believed the biggest part of it. However, late in the book, Swoff describes a situation where American newsies were on the scene in Saudi Arabia, and a Colonel, escorting the newsies, asked Swoff's unit to put on a football game. Fine! and for a time, the gyrenes played, and a great time was had by all. But at some point, all the heat, all the adrenalin, and all the testosterone conspired to turn the entire unit into homosexual maniacs, and somehow, one ho' was selected from the unit, pinned down in a compromised position, and systematically gang-raped by every one of his comrades for what might have been two hours in the Arabian sun. And as I read the scene, the Colonel and the newsies witnessed this atrocity. Eventually a halt was ordered, and the jarheads went home. And lo! the next day, the victim was back on the job, no harm done, no hard feelings, case closed.
To me this reads like a scene from "A Million Pieces." Understand, I've not been in the corps (thank every god or God in existence, if it's really like this). And my medical training is minimal. But I sincerely dispute that any human being could suffer such an indignity without serious injury. And that any human -- a trained warrior, yet -- could swallow such horror and chill out about it? Horsefeathers!
As for the chain of command, I have to believe that that Colonel and all his subordinates should have been court martialed and sentenced to eternal latrine duty. I have discussed this with ex-marines, and all agree. Why can't I get somebody from TheSmokingGun or somewhere to correct this smirch upon one of America's great military institutions -- I've tried, and nobody seems interested. Or would someone kindly correct my erroneous judgement -- is this sort of fun really a commonplace in the corps?
posts on 7/1/2006 3:24:48 PM
Please note that the movie version made Troy's death a suicide -- Swofford's book does not. Swofford knew it was a car accident. There's no ignorance about that here.
Changing the death to a suicide was the filmmaker's decision, not the author's, and something they probably did to make the movie more dramatic than the book. By the time this became a movie, the person Troy was based on had become a character apart from who he was as a person. This is how it works in the movies, unfortunately.
posts on 6/28/2006 7:49:57 PM
My boyfriend got promoted to Captain I think you need to salute him next time jarheads! Don't mess with Texas!
posts on 6/22/2006 6:13:46 PM
I read a post from ex-grunt added on here back in Jan. of this year. He says, the book doesn't describe all Marines and if you think it doesn't describe grunts you're in a fanasty land?? What?Explain yourself, it's sounds contradicting somewhat.Party harder? That's BS. Seems you're stereotyping pogues and other units something you said not to do with WMs. That's a stereotype that grunts work harder than other units and play harder I was in I saw how it was.
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