Movie Review: Jarhead

November 4, 2005 by Alex
Filed under: Movie News, Movie Reviews

Movie Review: Jarhead This movie took me completely by surprise. Going into it I expected a typical war movie, maybe with a little more focus on the political side of things. After all, it’s a movie based on the memoirs of a marine in the Gulf War — With everything going on in the world right now, how could it not be political? But it doesn’t make that mistake. Instead, it’s a movie about loss – about going through things that change your life completely for the rest of your days. And it’s damn near perfect.

Jake Gyllenhaal stars as Anthony Swofford, a fresh-faced marine just starting to undergo boot camp. He didn’t mean to be here. In his own words, he got lost on the way to college. But here he is stuck in this place, for better or worse, so he eventually makes the best of it. Despite a bit of initiation he starts forming bonds with his fellow troops and finds he has an affinity for sniping. Actually, that’s putting it lightly. He’s great at it, and soon becomes infatuated. It’s his way of shutting out the world around him and just focusing on one thing, the target. While he’s adapting to his new life (job) as a marine sniper, the Gulf War threatens to break out in the world.

While the movie starts off light-hearted, you know where this is all going to eventually lead. When the marines get sent off to Operation Desert Shield, you know that this is it — their lives are going to never be the same. You fear for what’s going to happen to these people. This is where the movie shows off its strengths. Not one character in the movie is a cliche. Even the guy that seems just like comic relief when he’s first introduced eventually shows layers, which is important because when they get stuck in bad situation after bad situation there’s real tension going on — and you don’t want anything bad to happen to them.

A huge focus of the film is Swofford’s stress about what’s going on at home. He’s got a girl back in the States who promised to be true to him, but stories and rumors about fellow marine’s cheating wives and girlfriends drive him to obsession. You can see it eating him alive, bothering him in every aspect of his life out there. He hates losing control of his situation and being stuck out there in the desert but there’s no other option for him other than to go ahead and do what he was made to do.

As the soldiers head out for some real action, the movie hurdles towards its inevitable end. But this isn’t your typical war movie. One of the reasons it works so well is that this is taken from a point of view you don’t typically see. The soldiers aren’t under constant fire. They aren’t struggling in huge battles. The whole time, they’re looking for something to do — a reason to justify all the training they’ve undergone. They want to kill, to fight, to perform the only duty they’ve prepared for. It shows the frustration of preparing for something only to have it not happen. Saying any more would give it away, but at the end of the movie you’re shown a hidden casualty of war.

Jake Gyllenhaal is amazing in this movie. How can one go from The Day After Tomorrow to this? I don’t know, but it must’ve been the same route that Jamie Foxx took from Stealth. (Foxx is also great as a career solider – the troop’s staff sergeant.) But Gyllenhaal shows that he’s more than just Donnie Darko and is completely believable as a marine who’s constantly on the verge of breaking down. If he hadn’t been convincing, this movie would have fallen apart. It all hinges on a strong leading man, and Gyllenhaal shows that he’s fit for this position.

If I have one gripe about the movie, it’s that the effects work was a little sub par. A couple times I was taken out of it by CG which just looked like bad matte shots. But for the most part, this is a beautifully shot movie. It sounds funny for a war movie, but it’s true. Even the scenes where the marines are walking near burning oil wells have a strange sort of beauty to them.

You know you’ve seen something special when you can’t get it out of your head for days. I’m sitting here, listening to the Kanye West song that’s used (to great effect) in the trailer, and am just thinking about how much I want to see this again. You know it’s special when you think about little nuances of the movie instead of scenes. There are so many moments that just work. Like with American Beauty, Sam Mendes has created another instant classic. (9.5 out of 10)

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