Jarhead

Jarhead (Director: Sam Mendes)













Mendes kicked off his film career with the awesome American Beauty, which won Best Picture and Mendes Best Director. His next film Road to Perdition was good but annoyingly flawed. Jarhead is based on the book by Anthony Swofford and adapted by William Broyles, Jr. (Apollo 13, Cast Away, Unfaithful, Polar Express, among others).

The 1991 Gulf "Conflict" has produced some good films like Courage Under Fire and especially Three Kings. In this age of anti-war and hippies, stinking hippies! I was glad to hear that this movie would be a politics-free telling of a true story. The slightest bit of politics seeps through and then Peter Sarsgaard says, "Fuck politics." Damn right. In many ways, you'll see some parallels with Full Metal Jacket, which is decidedly anti-war, but refer to Sarsgaard's comment to erase at least one parallel.

Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) enters the Marine Corps and going into it, gets completely hooked on the incredible technological weaponry available to him. As a training sniper, he finds a niche and becomes hungry to kill scum, Iraqi scum! While there, he meets Troy (Sarsgaard), Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski (Chris Cooper), and Staff Sergeant Siek (Jamie Foxx), among others, such as the scene-stealing Lucas Black (Sling Blade, Friday Night Lights). If anyone here remembers the 1991 version of the Gulf conflict, they will remember it took absolutely no time to do whatever business needed to get done (to some criticism, obviously). This film focuses on the speedy ground attack, where hundreds of thousands of soldiers waited in the hot desert for months to kill only for it to end in a blink. Some soldiers, like Swofford, who were greased up to be killing machines, never got a chance to do anything...hence his frustration and the subsequent book.

Frustration is tied to all bodily functions in this. The lack of need of firing your weapon is like being unable to climax, or take a crap. Of course, with no action at all over the horizon, a soldier will try to find anything to make the situation less boring, and much to the chagrin of the armed forces, usually through bad avenues. It's a bit episodic, but that's not a bad thing. Jake Gyllenhaal turns in a performance that escalates him to a new level, and Peter Sarsgaard, after dwelling in some rather uninteresting characters this year, pulls off another legend-in-the-making turn. Everything about this movie is good. And I'll mention the thing that is furthest from bad, and that is Roger Deakins's gorgeous cinematography. Go ahead and give it an Oscar nomination. It will not be denied. Legendary film professional Walter Murch (Apocalypse Now) does the editing.

Here's a top 10 release, at least. One of my favorites so far. Go ahead and see for yourself.