Jarhead (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

I got no palpable sense of what the movie was gonna be about. I despise excessively revealing trailers as much as the next guy, but showing me a bunch of soldiers without a sense of the narrative does nothing for me.

Will wait for reviews.

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H

 

[Nathan V]

I too think the music is fitting and appropriate, for obvious reasons. Good move by the marketing department. Some of footage in the teaser looks absolutely unreal.



Wow, I didn't know that. Oscar nominations, here we come!

Regards,
Nathan

 

[Malcolm R]

I dunno. After first reading about the movie, I was kind of looking forward to it. But since seeing the trailer, I've really lost interest.

 

[Kain_C]

I really don't see how you can't get the 'gist' of the movie from the trailer. It's about a guy who maybe doesn't fit in or is a bit of a rebel during the Gulf War. More importantly, it's about the Gulf War. It's refreshing that there are trailers out there that don't give away the entire plot. Guess you can't please everyone.

 

[JoshB]

The presence of the last two alone will likely equal Oscar noms in those categories. Murch is perhaps the best editor in the business today, and Deakins cinematography cannot be beat. I suppose he had to go with the next best one after the passing of Conrad L. Hall. I can only imagine what he would have done with a film like this.

Something tells me that this being a war film may not have much from Thomas Newman in regards to a score. War films, especaiily the way this one looks, will likely have a popular songs to accompany it. But who knows, he is still doing great work.

 

[Holadem]

There are plenty of non revealing trailers out there that manage to be interesting. This one wasn't one of them. It's obviously subjective.

In any case, my last post was based off the teaser which I saw in front of Serenity - I thought it was the trailer. The actual trailer turned out slightly better.

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H

 

[Nick_Scott]

I had the same problem.
I read about the movie, and was excited about seeing a "smart" war movie. Then I saw the trailer, and I've lost interest.

The problem I had was it made the movie look kinda like "Over There", which is widely critized for being inaccurate.
"Over There" is the "Tour of Duty" equivalent of Vietnam, but "Tour" didn't take itself seriously. "Over There" does, but the lack of accuracy makes the whole show seem overly self-rightous and preachy.

Anyway, I guess its unfair to compare the 2, when they are probobly unrelated. Oh, I'll still see it.

nick

 

[JoshB]

I agree with saying Over There is inaccurate.

They seem to be going for a Platoon kind of story coupled with modern day politics and unexpected scenes of violence. They only show the worse case scenario in every instance, and go for oo much dramtic effect that makes it seem more like a tv show than it should.

As someone who has already spent some time in the military and is continuing to do so, I was suprised Over There let me down as much as it did, because it had potential, but alot of it just doesn't add up. Its more a story of vignettes of stories ripped from the headlines, or borrowed from previous incidents, and trying to weave them into a coherent story that tries to make us care. It can be disturbing thats for sure, but then realistic violence is, and believe me Southern California does not look like Iraq, no by a long shot. Take away the mountains and the green, and you have Iraq. I suppose I could go on about the tv show, but since the topic was brought up in comparison to Jarhead, I thought I'd give my opinion.

Jarhead is at least coming from a Marine's story of his experiences, and the book is a great read and highyl recommended. How much of it will translate to the big screen that well has yet to be seen.

I'm sure some are put off by the trailer, but it isn't the first time its happened. Remember Three Kings, and how WB messed up the marketing campaign for it? They tried to make it out to be a action film about stealing gold, etc and make it out to be a modern day Kelly's Heroes. Boy, did they get that one wrong, which is probably why its box office suffered and it didnt get the accolades it deserved.

 

[Kain_C]

It must be very subjective, because the the shots, the characters, the little bit of acting, and the locations all look spectacular to me. I don't really need alot of information to sell me on a film when it's subject matter already appeals to me especially, as I've mentioned before, when what the trailer does show me looks great. Plus when you're dealing with the caliber of people behind this film, it's looking pretty good.

I didn't know Sam Rockwell was in this. Wonder what he does.

 

[Nick C.]

Having just read the book, it's truly an enlightening and harrowing 'experience'. Judging from the trailers, it does appear to be accurately portraying the psychological rather than 'dramatic' aspects, immediately bringing to mind Full Metal Jacket, as Alex mentions above. Can't wait!

Speaking of Gyllenhaal, I'm also anticipating Brokeback Mountain! The trailer for that is really well done as well.

 

[BrianShort]

I'm looking forward to this one. The trailer looks really good to me (especially in 720p Quicktime), and I even like the music. I'm not a fan of rap/hip hop at all, but I even downloaded the song from iTunes (Kanye West - Jesus Walks if anyone is interested)

Brian

 

[Will_B]

I've seen this trailer before Serenity a couple times now, and each time the audience did not know how to react. If it is a pro-war movie, audiences here don't want to applaud or make happy-noises. But the trailer doesn't really say for sure that it is an anti-war movie either - there is a moment when it appears to be, when the troops are just laying around (and that does get some giggles) but that is counteracted most particularly by the ending of the trailer in which the guy says "I thank God for every day I am in the Core!". So there's a total silence when this trailer plays, for the most part, and there probably will be until there's a better sense of what the heck the film is about.

Certainly people WANT to like it because they liked AMERICAN BEAUTY.

 

[JoshB]

Not necessarily. Not EVERYONE liked American Beauty. I thought it was good, but not great, and certainly not worthy of all the attention and wards. On top of that, not everyone liked Mendes follow up, Road to Perdition, which I found to be much beter than AB.

People just can't want to like a movie based on the director's past efforts, and just because it is "From the Oscar Wining Director of American Beauty" means nothing at all. There is still a current war going on, and that will affect how many view what the film is like and whether or not they will go to see it. Oscars and past box office and critical hits may give the film more expectation, but he can just as likely have a flop or failure (Cameron Crowe and Elizabethtown, anone) because the audience just didnt like it or are put off by the subject matter. Still, it may be a great film but people just arent that interested.

Early word of mouth from what I have heard is that it is one of the year's best, but judging from what we have had so far, that isnt saying much.

Still, I like the actors in the film and the book it was bsed on is a great read. I would highly recommend finding a copy and reading it.

 

[Mattias Stridsman]

I took it he was being sarcastic?

 

[Jeff Gatie]

Trust me, no self respecting Marine ever said anything even resembling that quote in any way but complete reverence.

 

[Quentin]

Oh...you bet he's reverent. I love the delivery of his hooah.

This new trailer has me much more interested.

 

[Robert Crawford]

I'm afraid some people are going to be disappointed with this film because it's an unconventional "war" film with little actual "war" scenes.
However, I was impressed by the film and was totally into it from beginning to end. I would be very interested in reading other opinions about this film.

The studio really went overboard with publicity the last week or so with trailers playing constantly on television. Such an ad campaign probably helped the box office which was 10M for Friday alone.






Crawdaddy

 

[Cory S.]

Excellnet film throughout. It's definitely an anti-war film but Robert is very correct...it's an unconventional war film but a damn fine one. Definitely one of the best of the year.

 

[Craig S]

I saw Jarhead today with a pretty full house and I thought it was outstanding. It was riveting from start to finish (especially impressive given that there was no plot per se), and filled with top-notch performances - Gyllenhaal, Sarsgaard, and Foxx were all superb. DP Roger Deakins once again does some great work - the scenes with the burning oil wells were truly otherwordly.

This one will end up in my 2005 Top Ten for sure. Hopefully it will also garner some awards attention. Big from me.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I wasn't as enamored by this film, mainly because I didn't think the characters were all that interesting, or fleshed out enough to hook into their perspective of being in the military (as compared to other military/war films). Perhaps it was the cadence of the film as it went from one "highlight" to the next, which just never got in a good rhythm for me.

I give it 2.75 stars, or a grade of B-.