Funky Forest Funky Forest
Nov
03
2005

Jarhead REVIEW

Posted by Jim at 9:06pm.

Posted in Film & DVD Reviews , Drama, Action, USA & Canada.

Jarhead.jpg

Despite being inherently watchable, the strange thing about “Jarhead” is the sense of cinematic déjà vu that comes along with it. For the first ninety or so minutes of its 123 minute running time, it goes from essentially being a “Full Metal Jacket” remake to being an early 1990s Gulf War I version of “Platoon”. Obviously the film is aware of its predecessors from which it’s obviously derived, as the jingoistic, crazed characters go so far as to cheer at other notable modern war movies onscreen, such as “Apocalypse Now” and “Deer Hunter”, as well as read thematically similar books such as “Catch 22” and Marvel’s award-winning “The ‘Nam” comic books. All of this referenced material has one thing in common – it’s all Vietnam-based work. Perhaps that’s the touch of Vietnam vet screenwriter William Broyles Jr. Or maybe the filmmakers behind this well crafted film are of the ilk who tend to view most every modern military action as “another Vietnam”, particularly the big ones like Operation Desert Storm, and the current Iraq war. Not that the current war fits into the story, but the mere fact that this film has materialized now can’t help but evoke associations with what is happening overseas. And if the oblique last line of the film is any indication, that’s no coincidence. But apart from the broader, universal themes of this cynical and irreverent war film, the on-screen association between the two Gulf Wars pretty much end there. Perhaps surprisingly, “Jarhead” is not a political protest movie, but rather a bleak, autobiographical character study. Beyond its seen-it-all-before opening ninety minutes, “Jarhead” manages to find its uniqueness in the odd fact that it is a war film with no war.

In the early 1990s, the United States sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers over to the Middle East, gearing up for a full-blown war with Iraq over the fate of the tiny country of Kuwait. Tons of money was spent, and a great many lives were disrupted for a mission that ultimately was resolved in a questionable manner at best, despite whether one believes the U.S. went too far or not far enough. “Jarhead’ is apparently a true story, adapted from an auto-biographical novel of the same name written by disgruntled Gulf War I vet Anthony Swofford. For this reason, the unflattering and often hostile depictions of U.S. Marines cannot be completely disregarded as unfairly biased, but all too often these psychologically damaged gun-toting misfits in their chocolate chip cookie camo gear are more disturbing and unlikable, never commanding the respect that deployed troops deserve. Director Sam Mendes would probably argue that these are stark, human portrayals of young people thrust into insane circumstances under murky pretenses. I can go with him on that, but the fact remains that “Jarhead” comes off as harsh and upsetting, unfairly leaving us to inappropriately wonder why anyone would be crazy enough to fall into an outfit like this. In other words, viewers with close ties to the U.S. military are likely to be very offended.

In the film, Jake Gyllenhaal plays the original author’s namesake, “Swoff”, a young Marine who finds himself slowly and completely wrapped up in the unstable brotherhood of his fellow soldiers, and the home-front paranoia they effortlessly instill. (Is his girlfriend remaining faithful while he’s away??) He goes from being boot camp whipping boy to enduring the long mind-numbing wait for war in the desert, where he eventually becomes that guy we’ve seen in so many modern war movies. You know - crazed, glass-eyed, and mechanically spouting his ingrained military doctrine while pointing his rifle at a fellow Marine in an intense moment of insane confrontation. Gyllenhaal does this as well as anyone who’s done it before him, and he does an exceptional job of carrying this film. Deployed with him are the always great Peter Sarsgaard as a dour truth-sayer, and Jamie Foxx as their cool and wizened sergeant. Over the course of their mission, they all portray the feeling of gun toting blue-balled delirium in their own way. They practice their maneuvers and stave off the boredom in all manner of ways recommended and not recommended by the U.S. military. Chris Cooper turns up as a USMC sergeant, which made me wonder if he is intended to be the same Marine character he played in Mendes’ “American Beauty”. (The answer turned out to be no, but with all the latent homosexuality and homophobia brewing just beneath the macho surface of this film, it may as well be yes.)

Director Sam Mendes hits a visual homerun with “Jarhead”. His carefully composed and brilliantly color-timed images of the Marines illuminated only by the burning oil fields of Kuwait are some of the most incredibly striking of the year. This sequence alone is reason enough to see this film on the big screen, but Mendes’ heavy-handed symbolism gets a bit long in the tooth at times. Overall, of the director’s three big screen efforts thus far, this may place second, in between the excellent “Road to Perdition” and the over-rated and often-contrived “American Beauty”. As I walked out of “Jarhead”, I was admittedly uncertain of what I thought of it, but the fact that I’m still pondering it, to some degree, days later does indeed bode well for it. Gulf War I may not have been the warless Vietnam Part II that this film often makes it out to be, but we all know it also wasn’t the slickly packaged American triumph that we were fed through the media back when it was current. “Jarhead”, in all its familiarity, manages to stand tall among the best and brightest of Gulf War I films, even if its characters fall short as Marines.

- Jim Tudor

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Reader Comments

  1. Oldboy 11/04/2005 @ 3:35am

    Sweet review man, it’s what I’m expecting.

  2. Louise 11/06/2005 @ 6:19pm

    I loved the film. What other people consider boring, I consider normal for the Marine who lived though Desert Shield / Storm. What’s wrong with a movie that isn’t all blood and guts, but rather reflections and memories of someone who has actually been there? I’m sure those men were going stark-raving crazy waiting for something to happen. So was I and I was in my living room!

  3. Corporal Anthony Silva III USMC 11/07/2005 @ 3:27pm

    That movie is awesome. Hey, it might not be all blood and guts, but thats GRUNTS at their everyday best. Maybe this movie will open up America’s eyes to what Marines have to do everyday. It shows america our mentality, to be the best, to be firece and to be agressive. Most people probably could’nt understand alot of the stuff the marines deal with, unless you were an Infantry Marine. Welcome to our world, the suck… Operation Iraqi Freedom 1 and 2 Combat veteran…

  4. Paul 11/10/2005 @ 6:58am

    Man, talk about disappointment… I read several reviews of this movie before going, and nowhere did it mention how boring, and how blatantly homosexual this movie is… I find it hard to believe that life in the US Marines is as gay focused as this movie portrays it to be… Do Marines really run around wearing nothing buy Santa hats on their “privates”? Do they really spend LOTS of time dry-humping each other? I doubt it very much… But all the homosexual references aside (and there’s plenty of them), the movie was dull… I know real life “slices” are not as action filled as fictional accounts, but man, this was like watching paint dry… A few moments of tension? Yes, I suppose there was a few, but that may only have been because the rest of the movie was a snorefest… The tensest moment of the movie for me was watching some guy argue with the popcorn vender in the lobby… I’d give it at best a 3/10… I think Jake Gyllenhaal was excellent in October Sky, so if you really want to see him shine, rent that…

  5. Dave 11/10/2005 @ 3:10pm

    Hate to break it to you, but that movie was suprisingly accurate of the way Marines act. If you were never in, then yes, you probably think the Marine life falls more in line with the other cliched military movies.

    Being a fromer Marine, I really liked this movie.

  6. orien 11/10/2005 @ 7:37pm

    “As I walked out of “Jarhead”, I was admittedly uncertain of what I thought of it”

    same here

  7. Dave 11/11/2005 @ 2:47pm

    fyi ... “Catch-22” is WWII material, not Vietnam. It was published in 1961.

  8. WIlkinson 11/12/2005 @ 10:19am

    This moving was great! Even though some people might find it boring, it is a good perspective of Marine life in Desert Shield / Storm. I would definately recommend this to my friends and let them decide whether or not it was worth it!

  9. Anna 11/12/2005 @ 12:36pm

    I was uncertain what I thought about it as well… But then I thought why? Is it good that I saw exactly how mind control affects our society or will it now be used by other people for their advantage. This movie was purely psychological. The letter writing to eachother, the grim pictures of nerve gas, the punishments, the reproaches, the discouragment. When someone encourages you, you have the free will to choose what to do, but what they did was show those men what it is like not to be free. They forgot how to feel. Everything that makes them alive, their feelings and senses we4re taken away just to turn them into insensible brainwashed robots. Those are the correct and pure routines. The last line was the summary of the whole movie. No matter how long they live they will never become like people again. The good thing is that they experienced this control to such an extreme that they felt whats its like to lose humanity and began to remember the people they care most about, as well as small things. They wanted to be people again. One thing to try to never forget is that a person will never lose their humanity that is instilled in us. We will always be primitive beings. We need these basic things to survive and to want to live. The bad things is when we start to take things for granted. The solution is to keep balance4 in life. And to have a free will by not letting others influence what you want. To listen to your gut feelings and not to forget who you really are. Never forget who you are and what you want. We are to easily programmed by people who are programmed themselves. The only ones who want to control are the ones being control. So whos really the main guy in control??????? Noone. Its you!!!

  10. Chris 11/13/2005 @ 12:06am

    Like many others on this thread, I am still wondering how I felt about the film. As an Air Force flyer and OEF vet, my perspective of the Middle East conflicts is admittedly different. I can relate to the intense boredom portrayed in the film as well the helpless feelings experienced wondering about what might be happening at home. This was portrayed quite well in Jarhead.

    Many of those I work with commented that the film lacked action. However, I believe that was the entire point of the movie. These Marines were denied the very essence of what they (all of us in the military) have been conditioned to do. That being, execute the mission and kill the enemy. The fact that the film built up to climax that never happened left me as emotionally frustrated as they must have felt.

    I left the theater wanting to know more about what was going on inside the mind of Swoof. Early on in the movie we heard insightful monologs from the young Marine. I wish there were more of those particularly during his emotional decline. This may have focused the direction of the movie more towards the point that was trying to be made.

    It felt like the film didn’t quite know what direction it wanted to go. Was it about Swoof’s emotional decline? Was it a look at the group dynamics of young impressionable men thrust into war?  Or was it an examination of what happens when the product of military indoctrination is not realized? I’m not sure.

    Without a doubt, the visuals were excellent and the performances were great. I felt for each of the characters and related to the bonding experience portrayed in the movie.

    In the end though, the jury is still out on how much I liked the film.

  11. Pothead 11/13/2005 @ 2:01pm

    Wow, this movie really sucks! A reviewer above said, “What other people consider boring, I consider normal for the Marine who lived though Desert Shield / Storm.” That may be true but if it’s that boring, they really shouldn’t be making movies about it! If they were trying to bring the viewer into the sense of boredom that Marines felt in Desert Storm, they did a great job. At several points I actually tried to go to sleep in the movie theater. If you’re a soldier, you’ll like it; if you’re gay, you’ll probably like it; if you want to feel less alone as a chronic masturbator, you might like it… everyone else be warned.

  12. Vidal 11/13/2005 @ 4:24pm

    I think this movie was pretty good except all the times this dudes ASS was flashed in front of the camera. For those who wanted to see should wait until there is a operation Iraqi Freedom click. I could relate to this movie in many aspects. There were some parts that would have never of happened in the real military like the firing rounds into the night for no reason and even though it happens the drill sergents aren’t allowed lay hands on trainees. The part about cheating partners is real though and yes military dudes do tend to get a little… fagetish when the begin to lack female companionship. By the way wish me luck for getting into West Point. HOOAH!!!

  13. joe 11/14/2005 @ 2:37am

    so damn gay, so stay the fuck away

  14. jarhead 11/14/2005 @ 6:48am

    As a former Marine, I was disturbed by this movie yet pleased to finally see some reality in a military movie. The only enjoyable portion of being enlisted is in boot camp where you are forced into the best shape of your life and brainwashed into beliving that you are on your way to becomining a hero who will be remembered throughout history, like the next Chesty Puller. You are so pleased with yourself that chillbumps rise at even being called a Marine. Then, reality hits as you enter the fleet and you gradually realize that you have indeed been mislead. Brotherhood? My first taste of brotherhood was at a small base called Camp Delmar where a Sgt and a Corporal tried to mug me at a beach bar. Excitment and thrill? It’s more like hurry, now wait wait wait. Hurry, now wait wait wait. Clean weapon, clean this, clean that, now wait. No more chills, just constant complaining and bitching from all around without end. Even the fun stuff is shortlived and creates more cleaning and waiting waiting waiting. I could go on and on and on.

  15. jarhead 11/15/2005 @ 3:22pm

    i have always wanted to be a marine, seeing this movie makes me want to be a marine more than ever, too bad i live in australia

  16. jarhead 11/15/2005 @ 3:23pm

    i have always wanted to be a marine, seeing this movie makes me want to be a marine more than ever, too bad i live in australia

  17. jarhead 11/15/2005 @ 3:33pm

    i have always wanted to be a marine, seeing this movie makes me want to be a marine more than ever, too bad i live in australia

  18. Wondering 11/16/2005 @ 3:47pm

    This movie was a good movie that exposed the many realities that Marines face during hours of non-combat. The fact that so many found it boring or to gayish is just plain dumb...because it ia slmost certain that they haven’t ever served in the military. How the hell do you know how it is?

    What surprised me about the film was that there was no women portrayed in it except for an object of sexual desire. They did not show any female marines...only unfaithful wives and girlfriends.

  19. PFC. Romeo Eskobar 02/06/2006 @ 3:49am

    I’ve never shot at anyone, driving trucks for days on end is as far as I’ve got.
    -----

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