A psychological study of a soldier's state of mind during the Gulf War. Told through the eyes of a U.S. Marine sniper who struggles to cope with boredom, a sense of isolation, and other issues back home.
Anthony "Swoff" Swofford, a Camus-reading kid from Sacramento, enlists in the Marines in the late 1980s. He malingers during boot camp, but makes it through as a sniper, paired with the usually-reliable Troy. The Gulf War breaks out, and his unit goes to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield. After 175 days of boredom, adrenaline, heat, worry about his girlfriend finding someone else, losing it and nearly killing a mate, demotion, latrine cleaning, faulty gas masks, and desert football, Desert Storm begins. In less than five days, it's over, but not before Swoff sees burned bodies, flaming oil derricks, an oil-drenched horse, and maybe a chance at killing. Where does all the testosterone go?Written by
<jhailey@hotmail.com>
In the final desert scene at the night-time party when Swoff and Troy arrive and begin shooting into the air, the camera cuts to a other men at the party also firing into the air. Swoff begins by firing his sniper rifle but when the camera goes back to him his weapon has switched to a light belt-fed machine gun. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
Anthony 'Swoff' Swofford:
A story: A man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war. And afterward he turns the rifle in at the armory, and he believes he's finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands, love a woman, build a house, change his son's diaper; his hands remember the rifle.
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Crazy Credits
At the end of the credits, Sykes can be heard calling out the following military cadence, with his platoon responding: 'All my life it was my dream/ To be a bad motherfucking U.S. Marine.' See more »
Alternate Versions
Military theatrical versions of the film remove some footage, including the scene where a soldier dies during training. See more »
Ride of the Valkyries
by Richard Wagner
Performed by Wiener Philharmoniker (as Vienna Philharmonic)
Conducted by Georg Solti (as Sir Georg Solti)
Courtesy of Decca Music Group Limited
Under license from Universal Music Enterprises See more »
Ladies and gents, I saw the movie very recently and as a Viet Nam era Marine I was particularly disgusted and had alternating feelings between going home and burning everything I had that referred to our Corps or just getting up and asking for my money back (which is what I ended up doing). None of us are perfect but if the portrayal of the Marines in this picture is accurate; we should get together, disband the current USMC and disperse the men and women to the appropriately tasked "other armed forces" and let our Marine Corps fade into history. We always had the "ten per-centers" that bitched and moaned about everything and didn't hold their end but to glorify the crap I saw on the screen in "Jarhead" this month - bull! RascalOne '72
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Ladies and gents, I saw the movie very recently and as a Viet Nam era Marine I was particularly disgusted and had alternating feelings between going home and burning everything I had that referred to our Corps or just getting up and asking for my money back (which is what I ended up doing). None of us are perfect but if the portrayal of the Marines in this picture is accurate; we should get together, disband the current USMC and disperse the men and women to the appropriately tasked "other armed forces" and let our Marine Corps fade into history. We always had the "ten per-centers" that bitched and moaned about everything and didn't hold their end but to glorify the crap I saw on the screen in "Jarhead" this month - bull! RascalOne '72