My first Jake Gylenhall movie since "The Day After Tomorrow"

Rating: 7/10 (9 September 2006)

Wasn't super keen on seeing this, but wifey thought it was worth a look.
The movie is an adaption of a novel written by Anthony Swofford,a soldier who served in Desert Storm. We follow Anthony's entry into the Marines and then his deployment to Iraq to be involved in Desert Storm, a mission to basically guard the Oilfields and watch for attackers.
The movie shows us a bit of what life in the Marines is like, plus shows the great depth of emotions soldiers go through, from monotony to sheer horror. I was not overly impressed by the actual story, which seemed to be a bit shallow and, bar a few scenes, didn't go into great detail about the emotions and feelings of the characters. Maybe this was purely because of how the writer put his feelings to paper, but the director should have been able to portray this for him. There were a few powerful scenes, but I feel the actors, particularly Pete Sarsgaard and Jamie Foxx, were wasted. Maybe I was just confused, but I felt there was stuff there Swofford felt, but couldn't portray except done through visual, over the top scenes. Some may argue his feelings were sincere and honest and were portrayed in that manner and the director chose not to go down the usual Hollywood route of lots of unrealistic crying/great speech moments, but I'd argue then the movie should have been done in a totally different manner than as a "Blockbuster".