jarhead - disjointed thoughts
Went to see Jarhead today. It was an early afternoon showing, and the movie's been on for a while already, so I was the only one in the cinema, hee.
Sam Mendes is close to God. It's like there are all these things - about life, about meaning, about the inherent beauty and cruelty in things - that you always want to say, but you don't know how to put them into words, and then he comes along and he says all of that and in a way that's more lucid and beautiful than you could ever think possible. (I'm saying all this in ignorance of Road to Perdition, which I haven't seen yet, and also his earlier work. This is purely coming from American Beauty and now Jarhead.) He does that, and he's never self-conscious about it, never theatrically romantic as though to make a point that's more elevated than what you'd experience out here in real life. You watch his films, and it just feels like truth.
I want to get a little more specific about the film, but I don't like reading too much into things that make me feel this way, so I'll stay vague. The visuals (especially in the second half) are stunning, and the music is gorgeous. I love the script, the overall feel of it right down to individual lines and the development of events. It stays with you, and nowadays it's a rare occasion that a film would do that to me.
In the end I still like American Beauty more, because it feels more relevant to me personally, but this was very good. Extremely good. The last movie I saw that I liked this much was probably Birth, and that was a while ago.
Sam Mendes is close to God. It's like there are all these things - about life, about meaning, about the inherent beauty and cruelty in things - that you always want to say, but you don't know how to put them into words, and then he comes along and he says all of that and in a way that's more lucid and beautiful than you could ever think possible. (I'm saying all this in ignorance of Road to Perdition, which I haven't seen yet, and also his earlier work. This is purely coming from American Beauty and now Jarhead.) He does that, and he's never self-conscious about it, never theatrically romantic as though to make a point that's more elevated than what you'd experience out here in real life. You watch his films, and it just feels like truth.
I want to get a little more specific about the film, but I don't like reading too much into things that make me feel this way, so I'll stay vague. The visuals (especially in the second half) are stunning, and the music is gorgeous. I love the script, the overall feel of it right down to individual lines and the development of events. It stays with you, and nowadays it's a rare occasion that a film would do that to me.
In the end I still like American Beauty more, because it feels more relevant to me personally, but this was very good. Extremely good. The last movie I saw that I liked this much was probably Birth, and that was a while ago.