Jarhead [2005]

See Larger Image	List Price: £19.99 Our Price: £2.98 Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours Manufacturer: Universal Pictures Video Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Wade Williams, Matthew Atherton, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard Directed By: Sam Mendes Average Customer Rating:


Audience Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over Binding: DVD EAN: 5050582425437 Format: PAL Label: Universal Pictures Video Manufacturer: Universal Pictures Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Universal Pictures Video Region Code: 2 Release Date: 2006-05-15 Running Time: 118 Studio: Universal Pictures Video Theatrical Release Date: 2005
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Editorial Reviews: Based 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’ 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
Spotlight customer reviews: Customer Rating: Summary: Deja vu Comment: For two-thirds of this movie I had feelings of deja vu. "Full Metal Jacket", "Apocalypse Now"... you can probably add your own, you know the territory. The performances are fine, especially Gyllenhaal and Foxx, but the script rehashes many war movie cliches (such as the scene where the Sergeant talks intimately to the Private for no very good reason except that the movie maker wants to show the martinet's humanity). The difference is that this is a war movie without a war. We get captions showing the build-up (300 days in the desert and 590,000 troops) and then the war lasts precisely 4 days and 4 hours. The trained killers kill no-one. Instead the central character discovers a napalmed convoy of Iraqis who were trying to escape at the moment they were hit. Does he learn from this? Not really. At the end of the movie, all he can say is he will always be a Marine, a Jarhead. Others have called this even-handed; I call it morally confused at best, opportunistic at worst. Where the movie does lift off, is in the sequence when the Marine Platoon is advancing on the Iraq border. Colour drains out of the film, the sepia tones reflecting the drained emotions and moral bankruptcy of the enterprise. Then Saddam's troops fire the oil wells, and we are plunged into a red-drenched nightmare of oil like rain; into this comes a wonderful Arab stallion drenched in oil, and all Swofford can do is try hopelessly to calm it. It is a wonderful haunting sequence, but it comes from nowhere and it goes nowhere. Sam Mendes is hugely talented, and came to movies with an enviable 10-picture contract on the back of a great stage CV. But you still get the feeling, 3 movies in, that he is learning on the job. One day no doubt it will all come together. We can only wait. Customer Rating: Summary: War Movie with a difference Comment: Jarhead starts out in boot camp with new recruits and a sadistic drill instructor - and you think you know what is coming next. Bonding, heroism and death in the heat of battle. But that is not how Jarhead goes. Instead what we get is a realistic(ish) view of the experience a youg marine in the period leading up to and including the first gulf war. We see young men driven half crazy with boredom and frustration as they wait for the war to start. It is an unjudgemental film that is uncomfortable viewing at times. I lags a bit a points - difficult to make boredom interesting - and while I haven't read the autobiography this is based on it is clear some events have have been changed to increase the drama. Not a brilliant film - but one well worth your time Customer Rating: Summary: The "intelligent" war film Comment: "Gripping, intelligent and amazing" is the pull quote on the back of the DVD sleeve and it's the closest opinion to my own. If you want an all action war film, this won't be at the top of your lift. Jarhead is one of the only (in my brief viewing of the many war films out there) 'intelligent' war films out there thanks to it being based on the main character's personal experience in the Gulf. The casting is spot on with Jake Gyllenhaal in the role of Swoff, whose face looks every part a seasoned Marine the moment it appears. Jamie Foxx plays Staff Sgt. Sykes, who I can't help but feel rings of Samuel L Jackson at points... The film, though, feels disjointed. The intro of the film begins with a salute (no pun!) to Full Metal Jacket's intro. Swoff's narration of how he became a sniper reminds me of Jack's storytelling in Fight Club. And 35mm bordered shots are spliced in for no reason other than to add to the cinematographic quality. There's nothing wrong with that, but the conventions and themes don't run all the way to the end. So how did they help out in the first place? See my point? Nevertheless, you stick with it. Although there are filming conventions randomly thrown in for good measure, the screenplay is good; there's a great feeling of camaraderie you feel when watching war films, and the message of "why are we even fighting this war?" is clear throughout. War - what is it good for? There is also really nice cinematography provided by Industrial Light and Magic, and looks great on the widescreen. Gung-ho war film fans - sorry, it may not be your cup of tea. Those that like films based on novels, go for it. Customer Rating: Summary: intertresting Comment: decent film that is boring and slow moving in places but overall is decent entertainment and is worth watching Customer Rating: Summary: Conventional anti-war flick Comment: Read the book. That was great. This film didn't work. I knew what to expect. I wasn't expecting an action movie. So it wasn't that. I think this film was doomed to failure because its raison d'etre is to depict the life of a soldier to be an uneventful slog, mostly boring. In that sense it is too ambitious. The thing is, you can have an uneventful book because you can get right into the minds of the characters, you have the author's internal monologue, but a movie is visual. Things have to happen to compensate for the lack of narration. Only this is a film about nothing happening, about soldiers training in base camp, walking through a desert, digging holes, arguing, fighting (each other) and generally being bored. Then there's the cliché of the troubled warrior brooding and holding his head in his hands to sad music. If you like that sort of thing then you'll love this film. It has lots of that sort of stuff in it. Only it doesn't really say anything new, it just sticks to the conventional mantra: "You'll never really know what war's like unless you've been there and then you still won't be able to understand it." Which is a bit self-effacing, but there you go. My advice would be to buy the book and forget the film. More Reviews