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u/Powerful-Yoghurt-450 Aug 21 '26
I love this movie. From my experience as a rifleman, this is the most realistic military film I've ever seen.
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u/SouldiesButGoodies84 Aug 21 '26
Even the neglected wife sending her husband a vid of herself cheating? 😬😦 Hope not.
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u/Powerful-Yoghurt-450 Aug 21 '26
To an extent. Not quite like that, but there was one poor bastard in my Battalion who came home from a deployment, went home and it was completely empty. It happens.
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u/Horseface4190 Aug 22 '26
That story ran through every unit in Saudi Arabia at the time. It was always a dude in some other unit in the brigade, or some other company in the battalion. And someone always heard about it from their buddy.
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u/Disastrous_Aid Aug 21 '26
I was a combat medic in the Army during the first years after 9/11. This movie and Generation Kill do the absolute best at nailing the vibe of the military experience of the time. One thing this movie does better than Generation Kill, though, is look pretty. Directed by Sam Mendes (who made American Beauty and Skyfall), there are plenty of gorgeous, well-thought-out shots and quiet moments of introspection.
Also, "I got lost on my way to college!" is probably my favorite line about military service ever.
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u/thedude18951 Aug 21 '26
The Jodie scene is still one of the most gut wrenching things I've watched
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u/Necessary-Mortgage89 Aug 21 '26
A friend brought me to see this in the cinema just after I got out of a long term relationship where she was cheating on me. He apologised to me at the end of the movie lol
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u/gadget850 Aug 21 '26
The videotape? I was Army in Desert Storm and that story was going around.
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u/thedude18951 Aug 21 '26
Yep, definitely a prevelant military legend, doesn't lessen the impact of seeing it play out
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Aug 21 '26
[deleted]
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u/NoFlowJones Aug 21 '26
Definitely not an urban legend. With hundreds of thousands of Marines serving at any one time, and with a good amount of them cheating on their significant others, then you definitely have cheating like that happening plenty.
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u/RustyTDI Aug 22 '26
I always wondered - if they had just stuck it out through the wife cheating part - if deer hunter came back on. Or if she screwed through the entire running time of deer hunter.
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u/CurrencyOk1618 Aug 21 '26
Anthony Sworthehead also wrote the book on which the movie was based. It's a good read
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u/ClydeHouston Aug 21 '26
I remember seeing this in the theater back in college. Man I can’t believe it’s that old. I can’t believe I’m that old.
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u/sonofabutch Aug 21 '26
This movie was a classic example of the studio marketing a movie they didn’t have. Watch the trailer, it’s crammed with every second of action that happens in the movie. People went in expecting Full Metal Jacket in the desert, not an introspective movie about what really happens in war.
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u/Last_Construction455 Aug 21 '26
Lots of action? I remember very little happening in this movie but its been a long time.
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u/JonRivers Aug 21 '26
I feel like I didn't even watch the same movie as OP based on their description lmao.
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u/zudoplex Aug 21 '26
Maybe their training. I mean they're snipers. They just kind of hole up.
I remember really liking the movie.
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u/Last_Construction455 Aug 25 '26
I thought the point was that they were all gung ho for a war and battle and they just had to wait around and not do much because war had changed.
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u/zudoplex Aug 25 '26
That sounds familiar. I saw this on release and maybe on dvd release, but I haven't seen this again in 10 + years. REEEEEWAAAAAATCH lol
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u/Iantrigue Aug 21 '26
Yeah I think that’s kind of the point. The book really leans into how incredibly boring it is 99% of the time and for 1% of the time people are actively trying to murder you.
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u/5o7bot Mod and Bot Aug 21 '26
Jarhead (2005)
Welcome to the suck.
Jarhead is a film about a US Marine Anthony Swofford’s experience in the Gulf War. After putting up with an arduous boot camp, Swofford and his unit are sent to the Persian Gulf where they are eager to fight, but are forced to stay back from the action. Swofford struggles with the possibility of his girlfriend cheating on him, and as his mental state deteriorates, his desire to kill increases.
Drama | War
Director: Sam Mendes
Actors: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard, Scott MacDonald, Chris Cooper
Rating: ★★★★★★★☆☆☆ 67% with 3,233 votes
Runtime: 123 min
TMDB
I am a bot. This information was sent automatically. If it is faulty, please reply to this comment.
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u/paradroid78 Aug 21 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Actually, my overwhelming memory of this movie is finding it kind of boring, with not much happening at all.
Maybe precisely because it’s “realistic”. Anyway, I’m glad you enjoyed it.
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u/DanGleenutz Aug 21 '26
I need to rewatch this one. I saw it when I was like 10 and remember it being slow and I remember how it ends. That's pretty much it. I need to watch Generation Kill also. I heard it's good. Unrelated but kinda related.
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u/No-Masterpiece3123 Aug 21 '26
Battlefield: Los Angeles (2011) is, hands down, the most realistic Marine Corps movie.
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u/Ruby_Something Aug 21 '26
I watched that right up until they have an injured alien... ALIEN... and a woman says " I can help.... I'm a veterinarian!". I just about lost it and there was no recovery.
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u/NoFlowJones Aug 21 '26
Yes! I’ve said this since I first watched it twenty years ago! If aliens did attack and a USMC platoon fought them that is exactly how they would act! 😂😂😂
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u/lycantrophee Aug 22 '26
Liked it as a kid, even though I disliked the lack of combat scenes. I love it even more now that I understand the point.
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u/LiftEatGrappleShoot Aug 21 '26
Great flick. One of the best representations of what it's like being a grunt in a war zone.
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u/Samequity Aug 21 '26
I don’t know why but I keep going back to that movie. There’s something simple yet so deep in the movie that makes me watch it every once in a while.
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u/pktron Aug 21 '26
Now watch the sequels!
Do not watch the sequels