Swofford's Jarhead

I'm reading this Marine Corps memoir about the Gulf War. The film version will be released soon (November 4), and the commercials and trailer look pretty good. A stellar cast, including Jamie Foxx. (Did I just write that?) The book is pretty good, if you like this sort of thing. There's a lot of profanity and other "adult themes." But Swofford is an engaging writer, with a great sense for the language of Marines. Before CL asks how I'd know what Marines sound like, let me just say that the guys in this book are just like the guys on the wrestling team I knew in high school. In fact, several members of the team went into the Marine Corps, including my cousin, Fred. In fact, Fred could be a character in this book (not an insult to Fred).

Here's a passage I liked (and think is basically true):

There is talk that many Vietnam films are antiwar, that the message is war is inhumane and look what happens when you train young men to fight and kill, they turn their fighting and killing everywhere, they ignore their targets and desecrate the entire country, shooting fully automatic, forgetting they were trained to aim. But actually, Vietnam war films are all pro-war, no matter what the supposed message, what Kubrick or Coppola or Stone intended. Mr. and Mrs. Johnson in Omaha or San Francisco or Manhattan will watch the films and weep and decide once and for all that war is inhumane and terrible . . . but Corporal Johnson at Camp Pendleton and Sergeant Johnson at Coronado Naval Station . . . and Lance Corporal Swofford at Twentynine Palms Marine Corps Base watch the same films and are excited by them, because the magic brutality of the films celebrates the terrible and despicable beauty of their fighting skills. Fight, rape, war, pillage, burn. Filmic images of death and carnage are pornography for the military man . . . .

That will give you a sense of the book. We'll see what the film is like.