Jarhead (2005)

Excellent adaptation.

Better than most people think

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Jarhead peaks in moments of its stellar cinematography and visual effects, which are scattered throughout the film and are utilised to great effect. It similarly utilises music to great effect. Gyllenhaal delivers a modest performance in the lead role and his character is bolstered a unique monologue that runs throughout the film.However, I could not help but feel as though Jarhead was recycling all the traits of the war film genre: mentally unstable protagonists, a near constant sense of toxic masculinity and some reflections on the horror of war. Despite Jarhead's clear nods to anti war sentiment, this is certainly not so much a politically motivated film as it is the gritty, intimate tale of one soldier's involvement in a war he is (to some extent) excited to be in. Jarhead is a competent film that tells its story in unique ways, but doesn't deliver a wholly original narrative.

Years ago I started watching this movie. Couldn't finish it as it was so brutally cynical, hopeless and pretentious. Just stopped in the middle or before then.Recently I started watching it again. Obviously I had erased from my mind the memories of the self-gratifying obscenities, the documentary supposed angle of it, the gross, graphic, and unnecessary sexual content, and all the rest of the F-wording.Well, same again. I remembered that I had watched this movie when I realized that I am going to quit watching, so dull and pretentious it seemed to me with all the nonsense that made it on the director's camera and in front of the weary eye of the viewer. That's when I realized: "Ah! Now I remember this movie! I could not keep on watching the flick so I quit!" Then I quit again.And decided to write a review to explain this phenomenon. How frustrating a movie has to be to remember it only by the fact that you had not been able to bear to watch it in the first place?There is one good point to it. At least these characters did not talk about their hemorrhoids. Well, I am not 100 per cent sure as I did not finish it. Maybe they did in the second half which I did not watch?

Sam Mendes' Jarhead is the true story of what former marine Anthony Swofford went through before, during, and after the Persian Gulf War. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford a marine who fired his gun years before the gulf war happened but never got to fire a gun during a time of war. This is truly what I consider to be a great piece of movie making and with both Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx giving the best performances of their entire careers in one of 2005's best films. Director Sam Mendes took the time to create a war movie classic, which goes on a par with Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, The Devil's Brigade, The Deer Hunter, and Patton. This move also shows what the marines have to go through constantly. As Gene Shalit of U.S.A Today "A Masterwork, Jarhead is more than a movie, It's an experience.". I truly agree with that because that is actually what Anthony Swofford went through during his time in the Marine Corps. For those people who are veterans in any military branch or are currently serving right now and if you get to watch this movie it will stay with you for a very long time.

From personal memoirs and written with first hand knowledge of his military experiences comes a movie called " Jarhead. " Director Sam Mendes allows audiences to follow actor Jake Gyllenhaal as Anthony Swofford from Boot camp to The Gulf War otherwise called 'Operation Iraqi Freedom.' Swoffords' book describe the many experiences of the new Marine during his early days in Basic Training, through his desert travels in the Country of Iraq. He learns, as many young men have learned that going to war, does not necessarily means understanding why he must fight. A fact no one ever explains either. Although he and the military enters Iraq, indeed, Kuwait, to secure Freedom for the citizens of Kuwait, none are ever given democracy. In fact the country is returned back to the Despot King after the war ends. As for the movie, it becomes a fixture in Swofford's mind of all the misery the Corps bequeathes to him and his brother Marines. There is no glory in this war and even less in the country he is stationed in. He does however witness the political turmoil and double talk, of the various leaders of his own country from his immediate officers to the inept President George W. Bush who had to further invade the neighboring country of Iraq to try and finish Operation Desert Shield with Operation Desert Storm. The movie is slow to follow as is the gritty outcome of the war. Scenes from utter boredom, the childish behavior of his fellow soldiers to the emotional reactions of comrade's when receiving bad news from back home. Still the cast which includes Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx and Chris Cooper, make for good acting and an interesting story line. The memorable scenes in the movie include the burning of the Oil Wells which in itself are well worth the viewing and the long destructive mess left behind by the Air Force. ****