A solid, but slightly derivative war song.

Rating: 5/10 (15 May 2013)

2005 was a very revelatory year for the actor Jake Gyllenhaal. Not only was he cast in a daring role as a gay cowboy in the Academy Award nominated 'Brokeback Mountain', but he also pulled off a very convincing portrayal of a hormonal, combat fueled jarhead that is swept up into the desert boredom of the early '90s Gulf War and Operation Desert Shield.
There is a lot to admire in this adaptation of former marine Anthony Swofford's reselling of his Desert Storm experience. Sam Mendes once again proves his visual acuteness that he demonstrated in American Beauty and Road to Perdition. He once again takes advantage of hand-held camcorders in key documentary scenes, although by now it starts a little bit to feel like he's retreading old ground. But the grain-filled picture and oil stricken, bombed out, barren landscape gives the desert a hypnotic and gritty beauty that adds a visual splendor to the affair.
More important is the casting, particularly Gyllenhaal in the main role. His frustration and existential angst as he battles insanity in the desert heat provides insight into the psyche of the marine corps, and what a defeating engine it is that swallows up these young men's lives. From what is portrayed here, fairly realistically I might add, it shows how their station in Kuwait and the Saudi oil fields is 99% boredom and 1% sheer terror, as the anticipation of the looming war advances. And when that war never materializes, the results are quietly devastating. These are people conditioned to kill and explicitly follow orders, and when their aggression goes un satisfied, they direct it at any other outlet they can as the pressure mounts. They truly do end up salivating like Pavlov Dogs.
While parts of the film feel derivative of previous war flicks, with the training ensemble and devastation of the country's infrastructure resembling 'Full Metal Jacket', and the voice over narration recounted by Swofford on marine life similar to 'Platoon', Jarhead is still a solid and engrossing psychological drama that shows a heartbreaking truth in how these men never really escaped the desert heat.