I’m still sick, so I’ve not yet returned to work. That’s why I watched the movie Jarhead this afternoon. I wasn’t expecting much from it, as I recalled Nick Provenzo’s negative comments on it.

While I didn’t expect the movie to be heroic, I didn’t expect it to be so completely pointless. In fact, its rambling-to-nowhere was its only point. As Nick says,

The fundamental theme of Jarhead’s portrayal of Marine life is that heroes do not exist. One cannot depict the Marine Corps accurately without noting that at least some of its members perform feats of strength, endurance and bravery, and that to build an entire institution of such men, certain virtues are required. Yet like Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket,” a movie acclaimed for its supposed depiction of Viet Nam-era marines, none of these men and certainly none of these virtues are to be found.

Instead, what one finds in Jarhead are empty men who drift though life, denied of what they truly want, and who choose to make up for it in emotional outbursts and sadistic and debased pleasures.

Yup.