Watched Jarhead a few days ago. You can watch that trailer here. IMDb users give it a rating of 7.3. You can purchase the DVD from Amazon.com. The movie is actually based on the book written by Anthony Swofford – Jarhead : A Marine’s Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles. Actually, I entered this movie pretty much uninterested. However, the movie turned out a lot better than I expected. I wouldn’t say the movie was touching, but it felt really real, though I’m not sure how real it is.
Spoilers: (Show)
The movie starts off with a guy that didn’t really see a purpose in life and joined the marines because his father served in the Vietnam war.
It then goes through a series of training and suffering they get at boot camp, where it was so tough when they say if you stick your head above the line, you WILL get shot. Apparently that’s what happened to an unfortunate guy when bullets were fired above the training area to simulate a real battle.
As the movie goes on, this guy Swofford was selected to be a sniper. I wasn’t too sure how he got chosen, but because it took 6 marines to pin him down, the staff seargant chose him to try out.
Movie goes on when Kuwait is being attacked by Iraq. Operation Desert Sheild starts where their goal is to protect the oil fields. During the movie, there were scenes where oil was shooting out and it was lit on fire. There were several of these oil geysers, and I was wondering if that was what it looked like in real life.
As the movie goes on, we finally declare war on Iraq and enter Operation Desert Storm.
As the war drags on, what was believed to be a several week mission dragged on to half a year. There is this person known as Jody that apparently is the guy that steals your girlfriend and wife. And as the movie shows, they actually had a bulletin for you to pin up your pictures of your now ex-wife or ex-girlfriend on the board where Jody stole her. From wikipedia: In the United States, these songs get the name jody call or jody (also jodie) from a recurring character, a civilian named “Jody” whose luxurious lifestyle is contrasted with military deprivations in a number of traditional calls. Jody is the person who stays at home, drives the soldier’s car, and gets the soldier’s sweetheart while the soldier is in recruit training or in country. (Serendipitously, the name works just as well for female soldiers.)
What was clearly shown and how painful it was, was the decision between killing or not killing. He did not kill a single thing, much less a person, during the entire war. They had a chance once, and was seconds away from sniping out two tower guards, but were called back because the Army was going to be dropping bombs. (President David Palmer from 24) led the Army in this operation. It was pretty cool seeing him. Troy (Swofford’s partner) begged Palmer to let them just snipe the guard. It wouldn’t make much difference, since the jets will be laying bombs throughout the entire camp.
At the end of the movie when the war is over, all the armies celebrated by firing all the ammunition into the air. I was thinking what would happen if the bullets started raining down on them. But Swofford returns home and his girlfriend was taken away by her colleague who started out as a “good listener”.
At the end of the movie, Troy’s death signifies a very important message. Troy was the only marine that wanted to stay a marine and serve his country. The marines was his home and if he was forced back into Civilian life, he would end up being a criminal selling drugs or something. But because he did indeed have criminal records and lied about on his application, he was kicked out of the marines.
Funny thing was as I was driving home today, the radio was talking about the origin of Hoo-Ah (or Hoorah). If you watch the movie you’ll notice they say it at least a few hundred times in the movie. I dont recall if it was a Marines term only, or if it was any soldier term, but the best origin of this term supposed comes from the acronym HUA which which stands for Heard, Understood, and Acknowledged. Hoo-Ah in can mean anything from okay to a scream of joy. I originally thought it originated from the word Hooray (which apparently originated from the word Huzzah which sailors used). But it appears there are many theories on how this utterance originated.
Here’s an interesting article from Marine Corps Times: “Hooah”: A singularly odd word goes everywhere soldiers do
By Nick Wadhams
Associated Press
BAGHDAD — In the Army, which has so many acronyms, expressions and opaque phrases that it seems to deserve its own language, there is one word that is quite possibly uttered more than any other.
That word is “hooah.” Pronounced HOO-ah. Alternatively spelled hua and huah.
Attend a company command meeting and you’ll hear hooah uttered as often as a 15-year-old says “like” or “you know.” Head to the post exchange and buy a Hooah Energy Bar or Hoo-Ahhs wet wipes or HOOAH2O water.
It’s not just in Iraq. At U.S. bases around the world, hooah seems an inseparable element of Army life.
Just don’t try to define it. And definitely don’t try to figure out where it comes from.
“I believe it came from hurrah. It basically means everything from ‘yes’ and ‘yes, sir,’ to ‘that’s great,”’ said Capt. James Lowe, public affairs officer for the 506th Regimental Combat Team. “You could use it as a generalized cheer. It’s one of those multipurpose phrases — when in doubt, say hooah.”
That doesn’t even begin to cover it.
They shout hooah to get motivated, and they whisper it when they concur with something someone just said. Hooah means you understood something, or is the proper reply when someone says “thank you.” On the other hand, it may also be used to say “thank you.”
Hooah is a catchall phrase that will get you out of any situation, particularly when receiving a scolding from a higher-ranking officer.
“You use it when you’ve got a flame on your butt and you’re just trying to extinguish it,” said Capt. Brian Buckner, 30, of Sumter, S.C.
Take this conversation, overheard recently outside the mess hall at Camp Rustamiyah, on Baghdad’s eastern outskirts:
Soldier 1: How you doing?
Soldier 2: Fine. How you doing?
Soldier 1: Hooah.
For the different branches of the military, each vastly competitive with and jealous of its distinctions from one another, hooah has become something of a sore point. Marines and sailors have their own saying, more of a “hoo-RAH” or a “hoo-yah,” which they claim is entirely separate in origin.
The Air Force brass once reportedly got so irked about sharing “hooah” with the Army that it tried to get airmen to shout “Air power!” instead. But “Air power!” did not have the same potency as “hooah,” and has been largely abandoned.
Sgt. Joe Carter, a 23-year-old from Kennett, Mo., recalls how, after arriving at basic training, he and other young Army recruits attended a motivational talk from their commander.
“When we first got there, the commander gave a speech, and at the end he told us, ‘I want to hear a loud and thunderous hooah!”’ Carter said. “We were real pumped and amped up.”
Yet the use of hooah by the uninitiated is generally frowned on. Carter recounted that a drill sergeant barred him and his fellow recruits from saying hooah until they had finished the basic course and earned the right.
And civilians uttering hooah are generally looked upon with either disdain or the astonishment of a person who has just heard a koala bear recite lines from e.e. cummings.
As with any good word, the origins of hooah are highly disputed.
Some claim it derives from the military acronym HUA — Heard, Understood, Acknowledged.
Another tale: When Army Rangers landed at Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944, a sergeant ordered them to scale the cliffs looming above them and neutralize the German pillboxes perched on top. One soldier, aghast at the idea, responded, “Who, us?” Soldiers ended up following the order, in what became one of the most celebrated acts of World War II.
Then there’s the theory that hooah comes from hurrah and hooray, themselves believed to be bastardizations of the sailor’s cry “huzzah,” which dates back to the 16th century.
With the Internet widening the forum for debate, blog entries suggesting definitions of hooah have been met with dozens upon dozens of comments from those who think they know better.
With all the derivations that exist, a few souls have tried to come up with an official meaning. One such half-serious, half-humorous definition, listed by the Urban Dictionary, reads in part: “U.S. Army slang. Referring to or meaning anything and everything except ‘no.’ Generally used when at a loss for words.”
Lt. Col. Brian Winski, commander of the Army’s 1st Squadron, 61st Cavalry Regiment, who sometimes says “hooah” so often it seems to have entered into his subconscious, isn’t entirely satisfied with that definition, but says it will have to suffice.
“That’s about right if you have to really box it in,” he said. “I guess that’s about as close as you could get.”
Another interesting phrase they used was pink mist. This was the phrase to mean head shot. It took me awhile to figure out what the heck pink mist was, but as it turns out, it’s the blood that splatters out behind the head, creating a pink mist.
