7. Jarhead - Watching The Deer Hunter
Sam Mendes' war film Jarhead is based on U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's (played by the difficult to spell Jake Gyllenhaal) memoir of the same name. The movie depicts many facets of being a U.S. Marine stationed remotely on the Persian Gulf. One of the sad facts of being in the military is the time away from your spouse. Many marriages fail with military spouses, so often that in the movie, there is a 'Wall of Shame' that warns the other soldiers the perils of being married. One particular scene is when Swofford's compatriot, Brian Dettman (Martin Papazian), receives The Deer Hunter from his wife. The VHS tape starts with a title card and immediately cuts to Dettman's wife being screwed by their next door neighbor. Brian has a dramatic breakdown and is escorted away. However, Swofford sticks around to continue to watch the tape as he has his own suspicions that his girlfriend is cheating on him. He tells his friend Alan Troy (the also difficult to spell Peter Sarsgaard) that he wants to know what it feels like to "watch somebody else f*ck your girlfriend".