Jarhead

Stumbled upon Jarhead - a Sam Mendes 1st Gulf War movie. Jarhead is a reference to US Marines and the famous Marine haircut which makes their heads look like jars. Heard it was good. Surprisingly it is. Lots of style, like any Mendes film. A bit fetishist about its hero. But, unusually, it has substance. It conveys the banality of war. It also represents American soldiers as dropouts from normal society. Didn't buy the former. Was interested in the latter.

What does it say about American soldiers if they chose to join the army to escape the failure of their civilian lives? Is it even true? The reason to think it may be the case is that the US military machine did its utmost to eliminate the individual from having genuine impact on the battlefield. Weapons are designed to be idiot proof. Unfortunately, that is meaningless when war is fought in the twilight zone between policing and insurgency as it is in Iraq & Afghanistan. People matter. The human element is at the fore. If Jarhead is in anyway representative of the American military, we're f***ed.

PS 485km down. 515km to go.