Overall Rating
  Awesome: 16.67%
Worth A Look: 31.94%
Average: 27.08%
Pretty Bad: 12.5%
Total Crap: 11.81%
14 reviews, 60 user ratings
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| Jarhead |
by William Goss
"Bore Is Hell"
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I loved 'American Beauty,' and I liked 'Road to Perdition.' However, I was underwhelmed by 'Jarhead,' an aimless and unsatisfying Gulf War chronicle from director Sam Mendes, which seems destined to live by its oft-repeated maxim of “Welcome to the suck.”Based on his best-selling 2003 memoir, the film follows Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he joins the Scout Sniper unit of the Marines in Operation Desert Storm. Though him and his fellow soldiers have been primed for battle, true combat manages to elude them as they patrol the desert, and as their primary purpose begins to fade from sight, so does their tolerance for military service.
Jake Gyllenhaal does a satisfactory job of portraying Swofford as the clever recruit who grows callous to the notion of combat. He initially brings a droll sense of humor to his occasional narration, but soon enough, the inner dialogue turns from droll to dull as the story, and commentary, progresses. Swofford’s closest colleague, Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), begins to develop into an interesting person, only for the film to focus back to ‘Swoff.’ Jamie Foxx tactfully hams it up as Swofford’s staff sergeant, while Chris Cooper goes through the paces with his brief appearances as a lieutenant colonel who initially gives a pep rally to the new arrivals and later on sends Swofford and Troy on a climactic mission.
Squads of soldiers are shown getting revved up for combat by watching Apocalypse Now or The Deer Hunter. Yet, as a passing helicopter plays a ‘60s tune, they complain about how they don’t get their own music. Just as wars may be compared and contrasted, so will war films. Jarhead is neither graphic, like Saving Private Ryan, nor poetic, like The Thin Red Line. The problem is, Jarhead isn’t much one thing or another. The film doesn’t even bother to take up the current habit of drawing parallels to the current Iraqi conflict. By no means is a war film obligated to become a carnage-packed action extravaganza.
However, a story about men who end up with no role in their war hardly merits a film adaptation, one that likely won’t strike the proper chord about the state of soldiers living in perpetual limbo. Jarhead stumbles because it lacks its own purpose, its own tone, its own motives that would be necessary to achieve any adequate insight on their situation. Being his third feature, Mendes does nothing to make his film a unique contribution to either the war movie subgenre or his career. Despite the sporadic sardonic touches, William Broyles Jr. adapts the events faithfully and contributes little more. The most noteworthy aspect would be Roger Deakins’ stark cinematography, from the endless deserts to the flaming oil wells.It’s a shame that this is the rare movie that so accurately reflects the experiences on-screen. At first, it seems that things are going well, but just as it dawns on the Marines, it soon becomes apparent to the viewer that there really is no purpose after all. Lacking worthwhile combat and its own unique tone, the exceptionally bland 'Jarhead' may very well qualify for the title of Best Anti-War-Movie Movie.
link directly to this review at https://www.efilmcritic.com/review.php?movie=13464&reviewer=409
originally posted: 11/11/05 19:17:41
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USA
04-Nov-2005 (R)
DVD: 07-Mar-2006
UK
13-Jan-2006 (15)
Australia
09-Feb-2006
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