How Accurate Is Jarhead?
What one Marine makes of the Gulf War movie.
By Nathaniel Fick
Posted Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005, at 2:09 PM ET
Jarhead的真實性？
描述波斯灣戰爭中一名陸戰隊員的電影。
Part I, Part II
Waiting is what Jarhead is all about. When the colonel warns that "the bureaucrats have a lot of jawboning to do," I was transported back to my own vigil in the Kuwaiti desert in the early months of 2003. We passed time with the same silly formations, reckless football games, and endless conversations about girls left behind. When discussion in the movie turns to whether the war is just a bid for oil, a Marine says to his buddies, "Fuck politics. We're here. All the rest is bullshit." This rings true. Marines don't pick their battles. Swofford and the others care only about the guys to their left and right and their chances of "getting some."
Jarhead裡自始至末描述的都是「等待」。2003年最初數月，當上校警告「官僚們得進行大量施壓呼籲」時，我被送回科威特沙漠進行警戒。我們打發時間的方式同樣愚蠢，踢些隨意的足球比賽，話題永遠在那些被留下的女孩們中打轉。電影中討論到這場戰爭不過是為了石油而發起時，一位陸戰隊員對夥伴們說：「去他媽的政治。重點是，我們在這裡。其餘都是狗屎。」這是真的，陸戰隊從不挑選要參加何種戰鬥。Swofford等人只會關心身邊的人，以及任何能讓他們「得到些什麼」的機會。
When that day finally comes, and Iraqi artillery blossoms into dust clouds around the Marines' position, Swofford stands transfixed while others dive for the bottom of their holes. "My combat action," he muses, "has commenced." It seems staged, melodramatic, too perfect to be true. And yet, I saw similar reactions in Iraq. After my platoon's first firefight, we basked in the validation of all our training and waiting and sacrifice. We finally felt like real Marines.
當那一天終於到來，伊拉克砲兵從沙塵中出現，並包圍陸戰隊的基地時，大家忙著跳進洞裡，Swofford呆若木雞，若有所思的說：「我的任務終於開始了。」或許看起來太戲劇化，以現實來看過於完美。然而，我們在伊拉克的狀況是相似的。當我的排經歷過第一次交火後，眾人皆沐浴其中，所有訓練、等待與犧牲終得驗證。這一刻，我們才真正有自己是位陸戰隊員的感覺。
Near the end of his book, Swofford writes, "To be a Marine, a true Marine, you must kill." This confirmation eludes him in his war, snatched away by an officer who calls in an air strike rather than allowing the snipers to fire. In this sense, the movie, indeed Swofford's entire Marine career, is like an unfired slingshot. The stone is loaded and the elastic pulled back. It's aimed, and pulled, and pulled, and aimed. But no target appears. Soon, the elastic goes slack and leaves us standing there, holding a rock. Swofford's war—boredom, loneliness, doubt, terror, rage, and numbness—is mostly inside his own head.
Swofford在書中接近尾聲時寫到：「作為一名真正的陸戰隊員，你得殺人。」這樣的認知令他在戰爭中感到困惑，並從一位呼叫空襲的軍官手中奪取電話，阻止狙擊手開火。在某種意義上，電影中Swofford的整個軍旅生涯的確就像把未發射的彈弓。裝上石頭且拉緊橡皮圈，不斷的瞄準、拉緊、拉緊、瞄準，卻沒有任何的目標出現。橡皮圈很快就鬆弛了，留下我們握著石頭，站在原處。Swofford的戰爭──充滿了厭倦、孤獨、懷疑、恐懼、憤怒與麻木──充斥於他的腦中。
Jarhead strives for timeliness with a resonant last line (absent from the book): "We're still in the desert." This will surely evoke wry laughs when bootleg DVDs arrive at American camps in Iraq. But when the lights come up, those audiences will go out on patrol without another thought for Swoff and his war. Today's Marines fight more than their fears.
Jerhead片中最後的一句話，適時的引起共鳴（並未出現在書裡）：「我們仍在沙漠裡。」當DVD被非法引進在伊拉克的美軍兵營時，必然會令人苦笑。但燈光亮起時，觀眾會一如往常的外出巡邏──完全拋下Swoff與他經歷的戰爭。如今陸戰隊員所需面對的，將不只是自己的恐懼。
-----------------------------------------------------The end---------------------------------------------------
感謝Negro幫忙校正。
本來有很多心得想打，但不知道是翻譯完虛脫了，
還是太過五味雜陳，反而什麼都寫不出來耶...XD
翻這篇最大的收穫就是好風跟Negro的感想啦！
有看這篇的，記得點開這幾篇連結裡的留言看看喔。
到現在還是提不起勇氣重看這部電影，怕美好的泡泡會破滅...
是說...一直很好奇，到底有多少人在逛這個充滿碎碎念、花痴，
不務正業（都沒在畫圖）又亂到不行的網誌呀？XD
