Jarhead Movie Review:


There is an old saying that states, “There is nothing more dangerous than a bored Marine.” That saying unto itself perfectly describes the new war film, Jarhead.

Jarhead is directed by Sam Mendes, the man behind “American Beauty” and “Road to Perdition”. In both of those films, Mendes was commenting on the American ideal in some way shape or other. In Jarhead, he decides to turn his social look at warfare and the men engulfed in it.

Jarhead follows Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) who enters the US Marine Corp on the eve of Operation: Desert Shield. Swofford signed up because the Marines have been part of his family for generations and Swofford’s father served in Vietnam.

Swofford quickly begins to hate the Corps that is until his Staff Sergeant (Jamie Foxx) introduces him to sniper shooting. Swofford is hooked and it seems to be the only thing he was ever good at. His life seems to have purpose. Swofford quickly becomes one of the best and is teamed with his spotter, Troy (Peter Sarsgaard).

Then the war comes and Swofford wants nothing more than to see some action. But it’s a different kind of war, a war Swofford may end up battling within himself than with some enemy in some foreign land.

Jarhead reminded me in some of Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” except it was a lot more toned down and it was a film more about the inner-workings of a marine’s mind than the shock of Vietnam and the tragedy that gripped Marines in that war.

I do have to admit I loved the way a lot of this film was shot. The photography and attention to detail is brilliant but I wouldn’t expect anything less from the director of “Road to Perdition”.

My biggest problem with the film as a whole is that I couldn’t relate to any of the characters in the piece. If you have no military training and have no real desire to do so then how does this film work for you? It just doesn’t.

I really tried to relate to the central character but found him so unapproachable even when Jake Gyllenhaal was giving such a wonderful performance. There was no common ground unlike previous characters from other war films like Charlie Sheen in “Platoon”, Mark Wahlberg in “Three Kings” and Martin Sheen in “Apocalypse Now”.

Maybe it was hard to relate to these characters because for almost 80% of the film they are bored out of their skulls. A bored man with a gun, well, that sounds safe. Are we supposed to feel pity because this man can’t destroy another human being’s life? I thought not.

You know in some respects the whole film seems like one giant allegory to what is impotence. A man, his gun, his insecurities and his slowing under-developing mind. Sound familiar?

So Says the Soothsayer.



Dean Kish

Mendes (American Beauty) and Broyles (Cast Away) clearly use Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket as a template to adapt Anthony Swofford's Gulf War I memoir for the big screen. The result is strikingly visual and thematically stirring examination, but it doesn't say anything terribly revealing.

Swoff (Gyllenhaal) is a gung-ho 20-year-old Marine, a highly trained sharp-shooter who's thrilled to finally see action after Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in 1990. But "action" isn't exactly the word for what's happening along the Saudi border, where an increasing number of pumped-up soldiers have little to do besides wait. And play football in blistering heat while wearing gas masks. And wait for their girlfriends back home to cheat on them. And cheer along with classic war movies.

This is an antiwar film without a war, which makes it thoroughly intriguing, although it struggles to make a point. There are some terrific sequences--from the brutal boot camp to the raucous Christmas party to the otherworldly burning oilfields. But the main problem is that there's nothing terribly involving about the plot; we're left to identify with characters who seem to exist in isolated limbo from each other.

Fortunately, the cast is excellent. This is Gyllenhaal's best-yet work, beautifully balancing Swoff's eager energy and inner confusion--his lust for life is unquenchable in such a pointless place. There's superb support from the amazing Sarsgaard as Swoff's likeable-but-dangerous sniper partner and Foxx as his mercurial commander. While Cooper and Haysbert add terrific texture as colourfully rah-rah officers, and the sprawling cast of marines nicely avoid stereotypes.

Mendes directs this with a stark visual sensibility that inventively captures life in the desert, where over-trained young men have little to do besides, ahem, play with themselves. He also maintains a sharply singular perspective that's focussed and illuminating. The hijinks are aptly mean-spirited, and the superior "Let's kick Iraqi ass!" culture is brought to sobering reality by the real world out there. This is sharply observed and strikingly strong stuff, especially since the actual war only lasted four days. But it never manages to transcend the specific, small story to say something important.

Rich Cline

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