Imensly underrated!

Rating: Null/10 (20 December 2005)

Probably the most underrated film of the year. Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Road to Perdition). Scores his third straight knockout, with this gripping Desert Storm manifesto. The best film since Three Kings to tackle the subject and definitely the most realistic. The film is taken from the true fist-person account of Private Anthony Swafford, who ever so poetically admits he joined the Marines because he "got lost on the way to college." Swofford (played sharply by "I'm having the best year of my career" Jake Gyllenhaal) is like so many other Marines, in the sense that he just wants to live up to the aspirations of his Viet Nam veteran forefathers and make his mark in history. Like all Marines, he becomes desensitized and lethal during basic training, and jumps at the opportunity to go to war. When he gets to Iraq, he finds that things are much different than he had imagined, and what unfolds is a gripping account of one man's torment as he slowly begins to lose his mind. People's major gripe with the film was that it didn't have enough action, obviously they missed the point. The boys didn't get to see any action either, and they long for that one kill. When they finally encounter death in the form of charred bodies, it's far less glamorous than they had anticipated. The film does an excellent job of keeping the focus on the first Gulf War and not the current debacle, and Jamie Foxx also gives another Oscar worthy supporting turn as a tough-as nails drill sergeant. One of the greatest wartime films of all time.