It's war Jim...but not as we know it

Rating: 8/10 (13 February 2006)

It's war, Jim...but not as we know it. At least, not as we know it from Hollywood war movies of past. Except that Jarhead cannot help but draw on predecessors, of which the two that spring to mind while watching it are Apocalypse Now (which gets more than just a namecheck here, in a way which may surprise who thought Coppola's Vietnam epic was universally considered anti-war) and All Quiet On The Western Front. It's about the ennui of war - those yawning moments of boredom between sheer-terror action. But boredom generates its own moments of action, as would expected with a load of hyped-up, testosterone-fuelled young men stuck in the desert with no women, no booze and no idea of what the politicos are doing (and what they're going to do to them). It's beautifully filmed and wonderfully acted with many riveting moments, but it's definitely down-beat rather than gung-ho. Don't go expecting shock-and-awe: this is more Journey's End set in late 20th- century. Best moment: Sarge telling Jake why he's a marine, even though he could be pocketing a cool 100,000 comfortably working back home, and saying something along the lines of "In what other job could you see something like this?" And they gaze across the desert nightscape where the oil wells are blazing fiercely into the sky. Reminiscent of Apoc Now's "I love the smell of napalm in the morning", but equably memorable nonetheless.