I watched Jarhead last night. I liked it quite a bit, would give it 4/5 on the Netflix scale. I had forgotten that this is a Sam Mendes (American Beauty) movie. How long before the first movies start coming out on this gulf war? Until then, here are links to a couple scenes of chaos behind the wheel in Iraq, thanks to Winding Road for them.
How soldiers drive in Iraq. I don’t blame the soldiers for driving like that, given the risks they face, but if I was an Iraqi, it would be pretty damn annoying.
Rush hour in an Iraqi intersection.
I’ll send this to Chuck, who drives a styker, for a reality check. I’m picturing him behind the wheel with Sufjan Stevens on his ipod.
Re: Jarhead, I haven’t seen the movie but I did read the book. I’ll definitely keep my eye out for the DVD. The most interesting part of the book was how they would watch anti-war movies (e.g., Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket) to get fired up (he analogizes it to porn.
Yeah, there’s one scene where they watch Apocalypse Now to get amped, but that’s the only one (others didn’t make it in the interest of time, I guess). Do you know if the movie is supposed to be pretty truthful? I know it is based on Swofford’s book, but not sure how many liberties they took with his accounts.
Here’s Chuck’s response to the clip:
It definitely looks like Iraq as I recognize the taxi cabs, they are the piece of shit cars that are the two tone white and orange. The Iraqi police officer obviously isn’t doing shit but that could be for a number of reasons: hasn’t been paid, was shot at earlier or generally doesn’t care. Americans wouldn’t have any problem making it through the intersection(warning shots usually clear traffic quickly) but the amazing thing is for how bad of drivers the Iraqis are, and they are really bad, I never once saw a traffic accident.
re jarhead, for a brief glimpse into at least one Iraqi soldier’s experience in GWI, I highly recommend the first act of the 2/11/07 This American Life podcast (it begins 7:32 into that podcast).
A-bo, thanks for Chuck’s take, hilarious to hear. Kinda sounds like Detroit: just fire your gun in the air to clear the path!