"Welcome to the suck"

Quick aside, from trailers it seems they're making a film of the comic book V for Vendetta. I'm surprised that I hadn't heard of it yet, and kinda saddened that to be honest for such a critically acclaimed book the trailer looked fairly rubbish. Just hope the film is better.

Anyway, I saw Jarhead last night. My conclusion: it's amazing.

I would recommend that everyone see it once. I say that because it is very visually arresting and moves more than once towards shocking. The thing is; it's brutal, it's existential and it's extremely real. Personally I think it's important. Dreadfully important in a way that is slightly horrifying.

It's visceral, it stabs straight into the gut. I also found the political commentary on the more recent war in the gulf to be sharp and very cutting.

It's in many ways hard to define, and I know quite a few of the people I saw it with were shocked and maybe even disgusted by it, but it burns its message inexorabley on the inside of your eyelids. It's beautifully shot and directed, some of the images were just simply stunning. Beautiful in a way, assuming "beautiful" means that you can't help to appreciate the artistry of something so horrendously tangible and absolute that strikes a cord deep within the psyche and uses your appreciative outrage to elict a response to agree with it.

War doesn't make sense. It changes you.

Every war is different, every war is the same.

Whatever else he may do with his life - build a house, love a woman, change his son's diaper - he will always be a jarhead. And all the jarheads killing and dying, they will always be me. We are still in the desert.

Welcome to the suck.