adrian is rad

I watched Raging Bull from Netflix on Friday and Jarhead yesterday.

I don’t quite remember why I put Raging Bull on my netflix queue. It’s apparently one of the best sports movies and best all around movies ever. Robert De Niro plays real life boxer Jack La Motta and Martin Scorsese directs. It was well-acted and directed well, but it just never engaged me.

Jarhead, on the other hand, I found engaging from just about minute one. It’s about a kid of 20, “Swoff”, played by Jake Gyllenhaal, who has entered the Marine, trains as a sniper and goes to the Middle East in the first Gulf War conflict. There’s something about the characters that one can relate to.* In a way it’s not that political, echoing what one character says: “Fuck politics. We’re here [at war]. All the rest is bullshit.” It’s not the best movie ever, but I thought the direction (by Sam Mendes, who did American Beauty and Road to Perdition) was good, some great visuals. The acting by the principles was solid across the board and Peter Sargaard, I thought, put in a stand out perforamance as the guy who takes Jake’s character under his wing. Some war movies are all about the plot, the mission (the Great Escape, Saving Private Ryan), and some more about the psyche and the aftermath of war (Apocalyspe Now, for example). This one was more toward the later, but had enough of the former that it kept moving.

*I should note that I’ve always had a slight thing for the military. I even briefly thought about going to the Naval Academy… I certainly don’t like all or even most war movies, though.