TheBanyanTree: Jarhead

[Maria Gibson]

This is a fantastic movie!  I know without a doubt that there will be a 
segment of the population who will not get it, not enjoy it, not 
appreciate the story and the implications.  Those people, perhaps, 
didn't spend seventeen years married to the Marine Corps or serve in the 
Corps or proudly give whole chunks of their life away in the service of 
their country in some other capacity.  It's alright.  We all made 
choices.  Our choice was to serve.  We got, enjoyed and appreciated the 
movie.

Technically, cinematically, the director, a name I've never heard before 
but will be paying attention to, absolutely outdid himself.  Without 
special effects, effects were made special by their genius placement and 
timing.  It seems a rare commodity these days that a director would 
utilize audience perception to heighten the story versus blowing them 
away with high-tech visuals that put all of the responsibility on the 
screen.  We're left not needing to feel the story, immerse in the story 
and identify with the characters.  We're left being told what we like, 
what the flavor is.  This was so much better in that I was swept away, 
being allowed to form my opinion as the camera angled slowly to capture 
the innocence leave a young man's face.  His experience on the battle 
field, the roar of the shelling and the deafening shaking of the air 
power were powerfully driven home by the absence of their sound, the 
effect of that sound in the eyes of the twenty year old Marine.  We 
didn't need special effects.  We had our hearts and minds and emotions.  
The music, the lighting, the timing.  The details were dead on but for 
one thing that Randy pointed out.  He feels in his heart that no one 
with the constant training Marines have in biological warfare, would not 
know to put their mask on first in the event of a drill or raid.  I 
thought maybe under stress but he was firm on it so I take his word for 
it.  That being the only thing he saw which didn't seem to fit, I'd say 
the details were done extremely well.  And, yes, if you see the movie 
but are not familiar with military life...I promise you, they really do 
treat each other that way and talk to one another that way.  It's a rare 
show of brotherly love that can be difficult to hear but it is real.  
The story is told extremely well and while it doesn't have a knock 'em 
dead plot, it is a story of a real guy and his experience.  Just as in 
real life, lessons learned and growing up took time and patience. 

I miss the Marine Corps.  I was in the position of being on the inside 
but a different inside.  As a spouse I was in the outer ring and that 
was ok for me.  I observed marines for years, male and female, and never 
went away with anything less than a heart swollen with pride.  I 
understood them to be flawed human beings who gave for various reasons 
but always gave 110%.  I know that the rough and tumble attitude, the 
F.U. attitude, is a necessary part of who they are and what they do.  
War is ugly and the people that have to go about it are many times 
ugly.  They have to be.  If they weren't, they wouldn't be able to do 
the job.  The job that allows me to sit and freely tap away on a 
keyboard on a Sunday afternoon.  It is often thankless and 
misunderstood.  And yet, it is done just as equally for the people with 
that opinion as those who support not only the troops but the ideals 
behind their work.   The greatest thing about this country is that we 
co-exist with these differing opinions.

I hope a lot of people will see the movie.  I hope they'll take 
something away and that it will be good.  I know that if they don't get 
it, they'll be poorer for it even if they don't know that.  It's ok.  We 
get it.

Maria