As a demonstration of their readiness for any threat, they are instructed to play a game of football - in the desert at mid-day - in their CBW suits and hoods. Just look, for instance, at the scene in Jarhead in which a stateside journalist is brought in to observe Swoff's unit, and the men are carefully instructed in what to say to her - and what not to say. Swofford and Mendes to tease it out for us - to write, film, and ratiocinate their way to the presumptively hidden truth behind a myriad of illusions. Of course, if the reality of soldiering were readily accessible, there would be no reason for extra-smart people like Messrs. That word reality has a power to fascinate writers and journalists as well as film-makers like no other. Get it? Swoff is not only the autobiographical presence in this film, he has also cast himself in the familiar role of the sensitive soul surrounded by coarse and brutal men who are less intelligent than he and therefore less able to understand the "reality" behind their experiences as Marines in the first Gulf War. A Marine drill sergeant ridicules him for his choice of reading matter, pronouncing the author's name as Came-us. The tell-tale moment in Sam Mendes's movie version of Anthony Swofford's book, Jarhead, comes early on when the young recruit, "Swoff" (Jake Gyllenhaal), is sitting on the toilet reading a translation of Albert Camus's L'Etranger.
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