Jarhead (2005)

It is both painfully honest and laugh-out-loud funny at the same time.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

It's a movie as timely as it is provocative and amazingly, for much of its running time, it is weirdly funny.

The best scenes are the opening 30 minutes or so at a Marine boot camp. They're very similar to many other such scenes over the years but most likely with a greater abundance of colorful words and expressions, most of which probably aren't permitted to be printed here. Once we leave training and head to what's supposed to eventually be war the film has a rapid descent downhill.Pulling an audience in with the promise of a Marine sniper in action and then never even having him fire his weapon really sucks. There's an old adage in writing that if a weapon is shown on a fireplace mantle in act one it better damn well be used by act three. Otherwise, why show the damn thing at all? The life of an average Marine may be boring as hell, but showing that boredom for an entire movie gets a big thumbs down from this reviewer.

Jarhead (2005): Dir: Sam Mendes / Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Chris Cooper, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black: Energizing war film about those individuals that walk through trauma without choice or care. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a young marine who goes through basic training while observing the attitudes of those around him. One of its flaws is that its structure isn't always focused and the conclusion isn't as remarkable as it could have been yet director Sam Mendes delivers realism as if this is his observation of leaving home to face war and the reality of uncertainty. Mendes previously made a great film called American Beauty. He followed it up with an effective gangster thriller called Road to Perdition. Here he is with his third success and the genre is war films. Gyllenhaal delivers a great performance as someone who discovers the highs and lows of being a soldier and slowly numbing himself to it. To its disadvantage the supporting roles are basically the usual round up of misfits. Jamie Foxx does pass the test as the commander who is fair but stern. Others who appear are Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black and Chris Cooper, all fine actors but they get lost in the clichés that come with the territory. Although not the best of its kind, the film does deliver on its grueling theme. It regards the devastating affects of violence met with numbing determination. Score: 7 / 10

Jarhead is a 2005 biographical drama military film based on U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 memoir of the same name, directed by Sam Mendes, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford with Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard and Chris Cooper. "Jarhead" (the self-imposed moniker of the Marines) follows Swoff, a third-generation enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound rucksack on his back through Middle East deserts with no cover from intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand against an enemy they can't see for a cause they don't fully fathom.

A lot of people don't like this film because it holds no message or anything other than the story line itself. But it is worth a watch if you like this sort of war humour film. I was laughing all the way through it. But aside from all the funny stuff, it also shows the emotion and torture of war. This guy as to go 175 days away from home, he starts getting worrying letters from his girlfriend and he thinks she's cheating on him while he's at war. On top of that he's going 175 days with nothing to do but sitting around with the other bored soldiers. There are some beautiful dessert shots in this film. Considering it is based in the dessert and there really isn't much to see, they actually did quote a good job of it. The acting is okay, especially as you see Jake's character slowly break down as the days in the dessert carry on. When you take away all the hilarious humour, this is actually quite an emotional film. You see the happy and carefree side of him but then you also see the darker and more emotionally tortured side of him when he finally begins to loose it. The only bad thing about this film is its slowness. Not a lot happens but I guess that is the reality of the film since not a lot is meant to happen. You see Jake mess up, get punished, threaten his friend and loose his mind. But not much else. I guess the humour really makes up for that though because it's a really funny film. So there we go, a tragic and also a very funny film. Worth a watch but don't watch it with your parents around!