“The Marine” — Are They Serious?

A reader suggested we review “The Marine” for a Hollywood Heroes article. “The Marine” is actually the first installment of 3 movies by the WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment.) That would have been good to know, but I didn’t figure that out until afterwards, when trying to figure out who could have made something so bad.

movie poster

If you all are anything like me, you are really annoying to watch a movie with, especially one that relates to a subject you have some knowledge of. I become a peanut gallery, nit-picking details, audibly groaning and providing an endless commentary to the annoyance of those around me. I really, really tried to watch the first movie, but the errors and discrepancies came at such a furious pace that I had to stop for air, eventually giving up all together. So, keep that in mind. I did not nor will I ever watch these movies in their entirety.

“The Marine”, first in the series, stars John Cena who is a professional wrestler.

John-Cena-at-Marine-Boot-Camp3

The plot basically is this: A super tough Marine in Iraq saves a bunch of hostages but disobeys a direct order in doing so. He is honorably discharged and goes home to “re-adjust”. Somehow or another, a gang of criminals kidnaps his wife, and he kills them all and rescues her. Pretty original, don’t you think?

The First Salvo of Horrible

First off, before I go into the awards they chose for their character, the movie poster at the beginning of this article may be irksome to you. It is to me. What’s our second Weapon Safety Rule? How about finger straight and off the trigger until you’re ready to fire?”

salute

Anyway, here’s another picture of our Marine in his Dress Blue Uniform. The first thing I notice is that someone gave him military advice in this production. His left hand is in the proper place for the position of attention;

“thumbs along trouser seam, palm inboard, fingers joined in a natural curl.”

Also, his salute isn’t terrible;

“The tip of the right forefinger touches the lower portion of the headdress above and slightly to the right of the right eye. The fingers will be extended and joined, the thumb along the hand and the palm down. You should be able to see the entire palm when looking straight ahead. The wrist and forearm are straight. The forearm is inclined at an angle of 45 degrees. The upper arm is parallel to the deck, with the elbow in line with the body”

These things, particularly the position of the left hand, lead me to conclude that a person with some military background adjusted his posture to the correct position. (John Cena was never in the military, thus would not know the correct position)

But I’m astonished at the rest of the uniform

Given the assumption that he had someone with a military background advising him, I’m surprised that the rest of his uniform is so jacked up. Can you imagine the reaction of an inspecting Sergeant Major when he saw you in his formation at “Hand, Salute” with one of your top buttons undone? You’d be painting rocks and raking sand for a while.

How about his awards? Yep, they’re just as bad. Here are his awards as portrayed in the movie:

The Marine movie rack

He’s wearing

Sea Service Deployment Ribbon

Marines Corps Good Conduct Medal

Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal

National Defense Service Medal

Combat Action Ribbion

Expert Rifle and Expert Pistol Marksmanship Badges

Here’s how his rack SHOULD look, from the MyServicePride.com Rackbuilder:

MSP rack

The only thing in the correct position is the National Defense Service Medal. In addition to the Combat Action Ribbon being out of place, it’s worn backwards.

Since the character served in Iraq, he should have the Iraq Campaign Medal or possibly a Global War on Terror Expeditionary Medal,. If the Combat Action Ribbon he’s wearing was from some action other than Iraq, one would expect to see some type of Expeditionary Medal (Armed Forces or Marine Corps), or a corresponding campaign medal.

Oh, but the misery continues…

I mostly skipped the second movie in this series because I couldn’t find pictures of anyone actually in a military uniform. Well, there was actually one scene where the main character, obviously a Marine, was wearing Army ACUs.

In the third installment, another pro-wrestler, named “The Miz” is the main character. The plot is roughly the same. Guy gets out of the military, doesn’t fit in, wants to fight everyone, rescues some women single-handedly, kisses one of them while things are exploding around them.

In one of the scenes, the Marine, who is supposedly out of the Marine Corps, is seen in “uniform.” I’ll just leave this here, and you can take a stab at what is wrong with this picture:

second character

For Hollywood portrayals of military personnel in proper uniform, these movies are by far the worst I’ve seen yet. Granted, it’s made by the people who bring us Pro Wrestling, so it’s hard to take too seriously, but the above picture is so wrong in so many ways, it makes my head hurt. That’s not even a Marine Corps khaki shirt, it’s a Whackenhut Mall Security Guard shirt!