A popular belief among Marine officers is that 90% of their time is occupied by 10% of their people. This small fraction of maturity-challenged grunts makes such a frequent practice of misbehavior (both alcohol-induced and otherwise) that leaders are forced to concentrate all their efforts into disciplining this handful of recalcitrant malcontents. While unfortunately masquerading as a true narrative-based on a memoir by former Marine Anthony Swofford-of life in the Marine Corps, what its characters call "the Suck," the forgettable motion picture Jarhead is actually an acute characterization of those 10% and nothing more. The film's lack of authenticity might cause viewers to ask a deeper question: Why was it made in the first place?
Although Jarhead claims to be an apolitical take on Marine life in Operation Desert Shield/Storm-the official website says it is "a true account of a war that was antiseptically packaged a decade ago"-the film makes frequent references to the current war in Iraq. As a brash lance corporal from Texas protests about oil, another corporal reinforces the point as he pontificates: "We're here. The rest is bullsh_."
Ah, but the rest is not bullsh_, at least from the perspective of director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road To Perdition) and screenwriter, former Marine, and Vietnam veteran William Broyles, Jr. (Cast Away, Apollo 13). After the men of 2d Battalion, 7th Marines win the ground war, they burn their desert cammies and proclaim, "We're never coming to this sh_hole again!" Viewers soon see Jamie Foxx's Staff Sergeant Sykes-one of the few remotely believable characters in the movie-as a sergeant major wearing desert digital cammies and leading his men on an urban assault in a city that looks remarkably like Fallujah. The end of the movie somberly intones, "We are still in the desert."
And so we are. But the Marine infantrymen depicted in this movie are not the same warriors that Lieutenant General James N. Mattis and others led into Iraq in 2003 under the credo of "No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy." The men in Jarhead are enemies of each other, held prisoner by a barrage of phallic references, boredom, and their own inability to make sense of their decisions. Collectively, they are driven by nothing more than a base lust to kill. Honor, courage, and commitment mean nothing to the Marines in Jarhead. They only want to fight, frolic, and fornicate.
But before the reader says, "That's just like most lance corporals I know," think carefully. Most lance corporals were once quivering recruits who sobbed like babies the first time they held their own eagle, globe, and anchor. They might condemn hypocrisy in the system, but they also look at a professional, humble platoon sergeant or commander (and, yes, the Corps does have a few) with devotion, respect, or even reverence. Most do not celebrate death for its own sake, especially the ones who have personally encountered it. Most lance corporals, in short, are not the violence-inebriated brats that populate this movie.
Of course, professional lance corporals still engage in youthful, sordid pursuits. Young Marines have occasionally been known to wrestle and carouse. But their time and energy are also spent in other-more noble-endeavors. Anthony Swofford himself read Camus and, according to one of the many unbelievable scenes littered throughout Jarhead's detritus, even managed to learn Arabic. No matter how much Mendes and Broyles might want to believe that the Corps is decrepit and everything that touches war is mendacious, a few good things still exist inside these few good men. By attempting to shade the world grey, Jarhead actually stakes out black and white terrain, and this film's Marine Corps features only the dark side.
The real Marine Corps is a much more nuanced and colorful place. It's too bad a movie couldn't be filmed that the other 90% of Marines could relate to, instead of only these 10%. Jarhead's Swofford endured his six-month deployment and 96-hour war with angst, weakness, and self-loathing. The men this reviewer knew who recently returned from their third seven-month deployment to Iraq-including members of today's 7th Marines-bore their sufferings with stoicism, strength, and good humor. These grunts' stories are powerful enough to be made into movies. Judging from Jarhead, Anthony Swofford's own tale would have been better left untold.
Mr. Danelo is a 1998 Naval Academy graduate and former U.S. Marine Corps infantry officer. He deployed to Camp Fallujah, Iraq, in 2004 with I MEF. Danelo left active duty in November 2004 and now splits his professional time between consulting and freelance writing. His first book, Blood Stripes: The Grunt's View of the War in Iraq, which profiles Marine NCOs in the war, will be published in May 2006. His most recent contribution to Proceedings, a report on the rescue efforts in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, appeared in the October issue.