Jarhead (Full Screen)
by Sam Mendes
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Actor: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black, Peter Sarsgaard, Scott MacDonaldDirector: Sam Mendes
Brand: Universal
Producer: Bobby Cohen
Producer: Douglas Wick
Producer: Lucy Fisher
Producer: Pippa Harris
Producer: Sam Mercer
Writer: Anthony Swofford
Writer: William Broyles Jr.
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 5.1; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Arabic (Original Language); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Latin (Original Language); Spanish (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 5.1
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 125 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-03-07
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
DVD Reviews of Jarhead (Full Screen)
DVD Review: Fills Us in with Operation Desert Storm
Summary: 4 Stars
"Jarhead" is a marine expression that describes a recruit as an open vessel waiting to be filled by the commanders that be and by the haircut that makes the marine look like one. The movie is a recollection of the first Persian Gulf War, told from the point of view of Private Anthony Swofford (who wrote the book, but is played by Jake Gyllenhall) and his trek from marine recruit until the end of Operation Desert Storm. The war only lasted six weeks, and his contributions only four days, but the process he undergoes is absorbing. "Swoff" undergoes initiation and later reluctance until he meets his command leader Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Fox) who gets him ready. His biggest challenge is keeping a fellow marine in check (Fowler, an ex-con) who seems unstable at best and incorrigible at worst.
The movie isn't as intense as the most acclaimed war movies, but it isn't less insightful. We are given a palpable reality. The scenes show the urgency of missing women, the boredom and agony of anticipation, and the wild comraderie in all its details. The best scenes are when the narrative focuses on Swoff separate from his brigade and he shares his inner angst. The dream sequence tells more than any scene and has a surreal stream-of-consciousness effect. We also get a first-person feel to when they have to play football in the grueling 112 degree heat. Other revelations are done well, too. For instance, their frenzy is present when watching "Apocolyse Now". There's an interview scene where Swoff and others show their reluctance to follow the military's command to keep silence about the downside of being a recruit. (They're just brimming to tell it like it is.) Later, Swoff gets into big trouble during a holiday party where he shares contraband liquor. The war itself, for all its brevity, in the movie and in real life, just tells the unvarnished truth. It shows the war, like any war, in all its mundane horror. Swoff leaves us with some concrete thoughts about how his experience changed him forever.
"Jar Head" is a good movie experience. It feels genuine. The performances are fine, too. Gyllenhall makes the experience authentic, and the supporting cast is believable throughout. Jamie Fox, in particular, shows an acting range here that makes us appreciate his other contributions. (His Oscar for "Ray" seems all the more deserving after seeing this film.) The music and other atmospherics help to create a solid movie--even if it doesn't brim with suspense. Overall, it doesn't try to sensationalize anything. (3 1/2-4 stars)
Description of Jarhead (Full Screen)
A gripping portrayal of a group of young jarheads during the explosive days of the gulf war. In the blazing desert heat these marines whove been trained to kill find themselves in a brutal situation fighting a war they dont understand. Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 09/09/2008 Starring: Jamie Foxx Peter Sarsgaard Run time: 123 minutes Rating: RBased on Anthony Swofford?s excellent memoir about his experiences as a Marine Sniper in Gulf War I, Jarhead is a war movie in which the waiting is a far greater factor upon the characters than the war itself, and the build up to combat is more drama than what combat is depicted. To some viewers hoping for typical movie action, this will seem like a cruel joke. But it?s not. It?s just the story as it was written, and if you liked the book, you will probably like the movie. If you didn?t, then the movie won?t change your mind.
The movie follows the trajectory of Swofford (played with thoughtful intensity by Jake Gyllenhaal) from wayward Marine recruit (he joined because he "got lost on the way to college") to skilled Marine sniper, and on into the desert in preparation for the attack on Iraq. No-nonsense, Marine-for-life Staff Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx), the man who recruited Swofford and his spotter Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) into the sniper team, leads them in training, and in waiting where their lives are dominated by endless tension, pointless exercises in absurdity (like playing football in the scorching heat of the desert in their gas masks so it will look better for the media?s TV cameras), more training, and constant anticipation of the moment to come when they?ll finally get to kill. When the war does come, it moves too fast for Swofford?s sniper team, and the one chance they get at a kill--to do the one thing they?ve trained so hard and waited so long for--eludes them, leaving them to wonder what was the point of all they had endured.
As directed by Sam Mendes (American Beauty), the movie remains very loyal to the language and vision of the book, but it doesn?t entirely work as the film needs something more than a literal translation to bring out its full potential. Mendes?s stark and, at times, apocalyptic visuals add a lot and strike the right tone: wide shots of inky-black oil raining down on the vast, empty desert from flaming oil wells contrasted with close-ups of crude-soaked faces struggling through the mire vividly bring to life the meaning of the tagline "welcome to the suck." But much of the second half of the movie will probably leave some viewers feeling disappointed in the cinematic experience, while others might appreciate its microcosmic depiction of modern chaos and aimlessness. Jarhead is one of those examples where the book is better than the movie, but not for lack of trying. --Dan Vancini
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