[quote]inkaddict wrote:
Hey Sabrina, not to sound like a dick or anything, you didn’t know… but in the future would you please capitolize Marine? Thanks, we’ve earned it.
[/quote]
No offense taken, my apologies for the oversight.
It’s alright, just don’t let it happen again! 
[quote]Sabrina wrote:
On a technical note, did it feel “small” to anyone else? It seemed to me that in some scenes there just needed more, more people or…something, it felt a little T.V movie-ish in parts. Or was that realistic?
[/quote]
The director wanted it to be a very personal, first person experience. If you think about it, nearly every (if not every) shot is filmed from eye-level. He didn’t want it to be a big, sweeping war epic type of movie.
Swofford wasn’t exactly a stellar Marine, from his book I gathered that he felt he was too smart for the rest of the Corps. He never graduated rom S/S school and the whole home movie from the guys wife thing is a Marine Corps urban legend. I did like the scenes with the guys killing time and ripping each other- that was pretty accurate.
[quote]J0321 wrote:
Swofford wasn’t exactly a stellar Marine, from his book I gathered that he felt he was too smart for the rest of the Corps. He never graduated rom S/S school and the whole home movie from the guys wife thing is a Marine Corps urban legend. I did like the scenes with the guys killing time and ripping each other- that was pretty accurate.[/quote]
This is the kind of bullshit that makes me glad that I’m out. What is a “stellar Marine”? From the eyes of a SNCO and above, it’s someone who shines their boots and has a high-and-tight. In my mind, and the minds of most of the Marines I’ve respected, it’s a tough-ass motherfucker who thinks for himself, never quits, and loves his bros and would do anything for them. I guess I’m just a STA primadonna though…
[quote]dookie1481 wrote:
J0321 wrote:
Swofford wasn’t exactly a stellar Marine, from his book I gathered that he felt he was too smart for the rest of the Corps. He never graduated rom S/S school and the whole home movie from the guys wife thing is a Marine Corps urban legend. I did like the scenes with the guys killing time and ripping each other- that was pretty accurate.
This is the kind of bullshit that makes me glad that I’m out. What is a “stellar Marine”? From the eyes of a SNCO and above, it’s someone who shines their boots and has a high-and-tight. In my mind, and the minds of most of the Marines I’ve respected, it’s a tough-ass motherfucker who thinks for himself, never quits, and loves his bros and would do anything for them. I guess I’m just a STA primadonna though…[/quote]
Amen and Oorah.
SNCO’s in the Marines and E-7 and above in the Navy are all politicians who have detached themselves from the actual “job” and do things to help only themselves and their career. Long gone are the “carreer warriors” now, all there is is “Carreer Politicians”
A big reason why I got out. So many of the higher echelon are concerned with shiny boots, pressed uniforms, community service, and “collateral duties” that it makes the truly awesome Sailors and Marines who can think for themselves decide to bow out of the service early. No one wants to take orders from a desk driving shmuck who hasn’t aimed a weapon in a tactical or started an IV under fire…
They expect Sailors and Marines to be warriors and expert combat personnel, then in the rear they expect you to be a model citizen. That’s not how it works, but that’s how the machine expects it to work.
Sad, really.
Doc F.
I just got finished reading Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War, by Evan Wright. Wright was an embedded reporter for Rolling Stone who rode with a team with First Recon Battalion during the first month of the war. The biggest fuckups in virtually every situation were the officers and SNCOs. I thought it was a better read than Spofford’s Jarhead. I hope they make it into a movie and keep it as honest and simple as Black Hawk Down.
I was very excited about Jarhead, but it didn’t live up to what I expected it to be. It was extremely effecting, however. I was in a world of depression after seeing the film
I’ve never considered myself a pacifist, but always believe war should be the very last option. The sadness of Gyllenhal’s line, “the earth was bleeding,” the symbolism of the horse covered in oil, and the fact that some of the Marines were so emotionally torn up over the LACK of killing sends a very strong message.
Good, not great. Jake Gyllenhal will win Oscars in the next decade, I predict. He is top notch.
The Boomster
[quote]JimmyBoom wrote:
I was very excited about Jarhead, but it didn’t live up to what I expected it to be. It was extremely effecting, however. I was in a world of depression after seeing the film
I’ve never considered myself a pacifist, but always believe war should be the very last option. The sadness of Gyllenhal’s line, “the earth was bleeding,” the symbolism of the horse covered in oil, and the fact that some of the Marines were so emotionally torn up over the LACK of killing sends a very strong message.
Good, not great. Jake Gyllenhal will win Oscars in the next decade, I predict. He is top notch.
The Boomster[/quote]
It’s not the LACK of killing, per se. It’s the constant practice, the alerts, the waiting, and then…nothing. I know the feeling. I know it’s clicke, but imagine you are a football player. You practice 5 days a week, you lift, you run scrimmages, you get tons of reps every week, then…nothing. You never actually get to play a fucking game. It’s devastating.
"This is the kind of bullshit that makes me glad that I’m out. What is a “stellar Marine”? From the eyes of a SNCO and above, it’s someone who shines their boots and has a high-and-tight. In my mind, and the minds of most of the Marines I’ve respected, it’s a tough-ass motherfucker who thinks for himself, never quits, and loves his bros and would do anything for them. I guess I’m just a STA primadonna though… "
Well, I’d say that a stellar Marine is someone who is not an admitted malingerer to start with. But that’s just from the eyes of a former Sgt. (4 1/2 yrs. TIS as an 0321. And nothing in my post even sugested that being a good garrison Marine was a qualifying factor. His book was mediocre at best and seemed like an attempt to make the Gen X version of Apocalypse Now.
-A Reconnaissance primadonna.
[quote]Loose Tool wrote:
I just got finished reading Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War, by Evan Wright. Wright was an embedded reporter for Rolling Stone who rode with a team with First Recon Battalion during the first month of the war. The biggest fuckups in virtually every situation were the officers and SNCOs. I thought it was a better read than Spofford’s Jarhead. I hope they make it into a movie and keep it as honest and simple as Black Hawk Down.
I agree, a much more fun and entertaining read, though I’m biased (gotta love that 1st Recon, baby)and knew most of the guys. But it had it share of inaccuracies and I really thought they could have found a better team to follow around. Supposedly, HBO wants to make a mini-series about it.
Lt.Fick (the Plt. Commander) has a book out now also, called “One Bullet Away” but I have yet to read it. I’ve heard good things about it and he was a good platoon commander.
[quote]dookie1481 wrote:
It’s not the LACK of killing, per se. It’s the constant practice, the alerts, the waiting, and then…nothing. I know the feeling. I know it’s clicke, but imagine you are a football player. You practice 5 days a week, you lift, you run scrimmages, you get tons of reps every week, then…nothing. You never actually get to play a fucking game. It’s devastating.[/quote]
Dookie1481,
Paste some of your pictures here so people understand exactly where you are coming from. Those images of you MEN who look like boys are some of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen. Thanks for your service.
doogie
[quote]doogie wrote:
dookie1481 wrote:
It’s not the LACK of killing, per se. It’s the constant practice, the alerts, the waiting, and then…nothing. I know the feeling. I know it’s clicke, but imagine you are a football player. You practice 5 days a week, you lift, you run scrimmages, you get tons of reps every week, then…nothing. You never actually get to play a fucking game. It’s devastating.
Dookie1481,
Paste some of your pictures here so people understand exactly where you are coming from. Those images of you MEN who look like boys are some of the most powerful things I’ve ever seen. Thanks for your service.
doogie[/quote]
Hey doogie, whats happening? Gotta go to work, but I’ll post some later on. It’s a shame that other thread no longer works, huh? 
Have a friend who has done two tours in Iraq and the second time he was right in the middle of some heavy-duty fighting (I can’t remember his rank, I don’t know much about that stuff; I do remember hearing he’s pretty high up these days, though). He said it was the most realistic war movie he’s ever seen, at least according to his own expereiences, and he’s generally very critical about stuff like that. That lead me to believe they must have at least done something right in the movie.
I’m not sure I’d call it a war movie. Maybe a waiting for war movie. Anyway, it was more accurate and less Hollywood than most.
I saw this movie last weekend without seeing a preview solely on the basis of this thread.
I can’t comment on how “accurate” or what not the movie is, but will say that you will most likely enjoy it.
Go see it.
-FC
I got out because I started seeing all the politics to. That stuff isnt for me, so I went and got an education.
By the way… Happy Birthday Marines!!!