Jarhead on DVD (2005)

American

Gideon Wellins from Manchester, England , 12/01/2006

After running out of life options, Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhall) has just joined the Marines. Under the tutelage of his commanding officers (including a pronounced Jamie Foxx), hazing from his fellow enlistees, and the promise of eventual freedom from the armed forces, Swofford loses himself in the experience of being a soldier. As Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait in 1990, Swofford and his squad are shipped over to the Middle East to await activation. Baffled by his new surroundings and unable to experience the violence of a soldier's life like he was promised, Swofford wanders though the first Gulf War disillusioned, bored, and angry as he waits for the meaning behind the madness to sink in.

'Jarhead' is a competent war film, detailing the era when computers and precision wrestled away the fighting from the grunts. Mendes is after the impotency (often literally) of the modern soldier, not the bigger political parallel of war in Iraq (though he does slip into speechifying and underlining here and there). In book form, Swofford's pathway was personal and focused. Regardless of how lush and fully realized the imagery is, 'Jarhead' as a movie is stuck permanently in basic training.

Good, watchable movie.

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Dull, thats all

barnetti from London , 26/08/2006

Having just watched this film I find myself needing to write my first ever review.

This film is seriously boring, almost nothing happens during the entire film. The acting is good, but one cannot escape the fact that the script writers give the main actors very little room to do anything.

All in all the film does address Iraq from a fresh pespective, there are no ridiculous Arnie style explosions, I just wish that there was a bit more to it.

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Every war is different, every war is the same

JediSi , 23/09/2007

Jarhead is based upon marine Anthony Swofford's best selling novel that resembles about his pre-Desert Storm experiences and his experiences fighting in Kuwait. The movie is excellent and it shows a terrific view on Swofford's war experiences, including his training and boot camp experiences.

Technically, this movie is flawless. Beautifully shot, great contrasts and use of colour. The acting is great too, with no weak links. It was refreshing to see a war film not actually based on the battle, but on the mental struggle these marine officers had to go through day and night and not actually being able to see any of the action or use any of the skills they have learnt from their intense training. There's no hidden agenda in the film...there's no political stance. Just don’t watch this expecting Full Metal Jacket or Saving Private Ryan. This is different, and…….special.

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Brilliant

butters787 from Salford [Highly rated reviewer] , 28/02/2006

Another great film from Sam Mendes. After "American Beauty" and "Road to Perdition" (all very good films), I was keen to see his latest creation.

The whole idea of the film, that the American soldiers head off to Iraq in search of some action and instead do sweet FA, is cleverly done (and probably true, definatly more so than any of the pro-American war movies that we often see today).

Great performance from Jake Gyllenhaal (as per usual), well direced shot and scripted.

I also found it very funny, far more than I thought it would be.

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This should have been so much better

McClennan from St Helens , 01/03/2006

Sam Mendes' Gulf War film that falls somewhere inbetween Three Kings and Full Metal Jacket without catching either of them up. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Anthony Swofford (on whose memoirs the film is based), telling a story of soldiers trained to be the meanest mofos around, sat on their booty, waiting for war to begin and what happens during that time. Predictable war film references don't deliver what Mendes probably wanted to suggest, instead serving more to remind me that this film isn't this film or that one. It didn't help to be presented with soldiers who, unlike Vietnam/WWII films, are there because they are professional soldiers and I'm not sure if this was because of who they were or their character development (my feeling is the latter), but too many of them were one-dimensional who really didn't evoke much sympathy. However because of the lack of amiability of some of the characters the fact that some understanding is illicited demonstrates that in parts the film does work well. Although the style and look of the film are excellent it couldn't hide the fact that in such a tense political climate the film fails to say anything of note. Not only was it disappointing in its originality of message it's even worse when it's basically just repeating the same message that other films have said previously. Maybe that message is a true message, however time to me has moved on and I have to put this film down to a wasted opportunity. One thing though, the soundtrack is great.

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Customer Review

A customer from UK , 23/06/2008

This is seriously one of the worst films I have ever seen. I am usually a person that likes some action, and I am certainly interested in the reality of war (whether there is any action or not)... But this film was, badly acted, scripted and the story line was so poor it made a B-movie look good.

This is bad people, stay away....

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