The movie, plot-deficient as it may seem to some, actually relies on that insubstantiality to make the story; the story that fighting no war can make you go insane, just as fighting a war might.
A troop of American soldiers are sent in the desert of Iraq to protect the oil wells, having gone through rigorous training in preparation to fight a war. From the impatient waiting and torturous weather, the soldiers are psychologically disturbed from the disappointment of not having fought a war after all their anguish. They had yearned to fire their rifles to which they had pledged attachment, and they had yearned to kill some Iraqi soldiers, being that killing Iraqi soldiers was the prerogative that justified their very jarhead nature.
So the war ends and too soon they find themselves civilians again, back to their meaningless jobs.
Sure, it was a great story, if one was to simply consider it a mere narrative of a verdant marine, who goes to war, physically and mentally preparing to see the worse, but coming back home with war anguish that hasn’t been done justice .
I went to watch the movie, knowing that as a blockbuster, the movie had greater aspiration than what could be obtained from such a simplistic plot. Given that we’re actually, just in case you forgot, still in war in Iraq, I thought the movie had to play a certain part in that. And sure it did.
Before you even see the movie, you’d know from the soundtrack (Kanye West) of the trailer that it’s a movie targeted at you, the youth of America. A movie addressing the serious matter of war specifically targeting a young audience indicates to me, a motif of propaganda. Could it be that this whole no war concept seems to downplay the intensity and fear of war, in the devious intent to persuade people to join the military? JEEZ, I don’t know. A great illustration of course is the part in the movie and the trailer, where Jamie Foxx’s character exclaims “I love my job”. Another factor that made this movie just like any other commercial Hollywood effort was of course the Dodge commercial right smack in the middle of the movie; the part where Jamie Foxx’s character rants about cruising in that specific vehicle.
On one hand it can be seen as a personally poignant story of the feeling of not fighting a war, or it can be seen as what it is: another piece of Hollywood garbage.
