Some Good, Some Bad, Definitely Deserves to be seen nonetheless

Rating: 6/10 (14 January 2006)

I had high hopes when I entered Jarhead, despite his short career, Sam Mendes has proved to be a reliable and effective director, a future master in the works, both American Beauty and Road to Perdition have a proud space in my home video collection.
After Jarhead, I still think he is a great director, but Jarhead sadly does not match up to the perfection he achieved in his previous works. However, not perfect is not the same as terrible, and Jarhead is far from being terrible, and I think it's mainly to Mendes direction, hence, his work should be commended.
The main flaw in Jarhead is the structure of the screenplay, particularly in the opening minutes, which in this particular film, were critical and sadly diminish the movie a great deal. For those who have seen it, you will know what I mean, the obvious replication of Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket. Watching Full Metal Jacket could be considered a spoiler move regarding Jarhead. It has been mentioned before, that Jarhead is the Full Metal Jacket of our generation. In some cases that affirmation is a poignant reflection, but for a particular case, it's a sad reality. A critical scene becomes almost a spoof of Full Metal Jacket, making the movie fail to establish itself strong from the beginning.
Most war movies that can be compared to Jarhead(I'm talking about The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket) established themselves from the start as being unique, special, emotionally shocking, and a commitment to be movies made out for a reason, Deer Hunter was mythic and metaphoric interpretations about the nature of war, and the tragedy of Vietnam, Platoon as a more personal and realistic approach to the struggles of individual soldiers, and Full Metal Jacket to the tragedy of the concept of soldier, all important films with impeccable craft.
As for Jarhead, although the craft is very much as intense as in all of the previous mentions, with memorable scenes and sequences, the film's narrative seems to go, or try to go everywhere, and nowhere. For instances the film tries to emulate the personal drama of the individual soldier pretty much like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket did, then it changes to metaphoric and mythic films like Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, then changes to a sort of more politically oriented film, and finally, plays with all those 3, and the it's concluded with extreme haste.
The film tries to cover too much ground, using mixed methods of narrative and approach to the subject matter, giving the feeling that the screenplay did not have a clear intention of what it wanted to achieve.
Personally, the film would have been enormously benefited by a narrative more a lá Deer Hunter meets Platoon, omitting the mythic aspects of the film(Russian Rullete). A lesser Full Metal Jacket approach to the First Act would have immensely helped the film by establishing a more serious focus, and a more realistic focus, kinda what Cimino did with Deer Hunter, and the whole First Act with the Wedding and such. And extended on the finale, just like Cimino did for Deer Hunter and Oliver Stone did for the post Vietnam Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July.
The obvious ode paid to Full Metal Jacket which backfires at the first act is a huge detriment to the film's result, the writer could have invented a better way to show how the film paid homage to Kubrick, one that would seem less copy/paste if you know what I mean.
Aside from that, the film works, with it's impressive cinematography that makes all of the Irak sequence a memorable cinematic experience, on a par with Apocalypse Now, and even Lawrence of Arabia for that matter. The acting was also worthy of recognition, Jamie Foxx proofs you can have a good post Oscar movie, Peter Sarsgaard was brilliant as usual, and Jake Gyllenhall managed to make the jump DiCaprio had when he fell under the command of Master Scorsese.
Mendes did a great job with the main body of the movie, one that deserves huge merit. My only advice to him is that he should have had at least two more re-writes in order to make the story(Beginning and End) a little better, more engaging I think qualifies as a good term, both the opening and the conclusion of the film feel a little too sophomore film making, very unusual to to what the rest of the film offers.
Aside from that, a very good addition to the war drama genre, despite my complaint, I do recommend it.