I read Anthony Swoffords book after I returned from Iraq and many times I found myself either having flashbacks or thinking "man this kid is a S**tbird". S**tbird being a term we use to describe a Marine that is a slacker.

The movie does an excellent job of portraying what it is like being a young Marine growing up in the Corps and with dealing with the wait and then experience of war.

With each character in the movie I found that I have either experienced something like what they were going through in the Corps or had met someone just like them. I find some of the comments posted hear very interesting, mainly because I honestly feel that to really appreciate this movie you have to be an enlisted Marine from a combat arms unit. For example when Swoffard stands in the mortar fire and says in the narration "my combat action had commenced" only a Marine will truly understand the deep meaning of this. Your first chance at Combat whether you hate the Marines or love it, is what you live for as a Marine.

There were parts in this movie that literally gave me chills, especially toward the end when SSgt. Sieks, now 1st Sgt. Sieks is back in Iraq.

My brother (also a Marine) said it best, "...from now on when ever someone asks me what it's like to be a Marine, I'll just tell them to watch Jarhead." I have to agree.

Another excellent, quite possibly the best, war movie is Blackhawk Down. This movie gives the best view of what todays military really is. These are young men. Today's elite forces are not composed of 45 year old men. They are built upon the backs of young soldiers. The average soldier in a leadership position will be in his early to mid-twenties. These are not 'boys' however. This movies shows just how professional these young soldiers are.

Pretty much every other military-based movie made in the last 50 years has been focused on soldiers misconduct, leadership failures, corruption, scandals, or plain insanity. We Were Soldiers and Blackhawk Down are the only two movies I can name off the top of my head that truly honor the military in all aspects. They do our country proud.

An interesting article about this can be found at http://www.hillsdale.edu/imprimis/2005/may

I think the idea that it's illegal to have perfectly correct uniforms in movies is an urban legend.

Jess and I went to Jarhead tonight. We both enjoyed it a lot, though Jess was sort of sick and was out of it during the last part of the film.
The movie is based on the book of the same title written by author (and main character in the story) Antho...

"I was a sailor floating around in the middle of the Arabian Gulf at the time, and the only celebration I experienced was a steel beach picnic after we’d be relieved and had chopped out of the area"

The only thing close to the movie I say when we had our SBP was a civilian contractor hurling into the wind on the flight deck after he had too many beers (I traded both of mine to him for $50 apiece...I love alchaholics)

I can help out a little bit with the uniforms. The reason that they aren't accurate is that it's against the law to have an exact replica of the uniform.

Regarding the entertainment industry, I recall a story about the costume designer for a film that starred Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson (sorry, I don't remember the name of the film). It was a courtroom drama, with military incident flashbacks. The costume designer had given everyone in the film who was Jackson's unit the Purple Heart ribbon. It was not done, as James Webb, the advisor on the film, said it was unrealistic to have an entire unit get wounded for the action they took part in. The designer said that he liked the color of the ribbon, and decided it would look good against the Marines' uniforms. FWIW.

I was never in the military, but I my husband was in the Navy for the first 5 years of our marriage.

One thing that bother's him to no end is how much the officer's "sir" each other in movies and similar little things. Oh, and he almost always notices when they screw the uniforms up.