A unique look at training for war.

Rating: Null/10 (27 March 2006)

It was the Gulf War, the time Iraq invaded Kuwait, and our troops went in and quickly set things right. It was the epitome of a non-war. I remember it well because my daughter was in the Air Force, stationed in England, working in a military hospital, and preparing for all the casualties they inevitably would have to deal with. There were no casualties.
Marine recruits are called jarheads. This movie tells a story about a marine recruit who turns out to be the best sniper of his division. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Anthony Swofford, "Swoff", who also wrote the basis for this story. So I presume it is fairly fact based. Swoff enters the Marines without knowing what he's in for, and the movie shows the difficulty of basic training, but after he gets his gun, and his spotter Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), he really is psyched to get some enemy kills.
Much of the middle of the movie deals with the deployment of American troops in the desert, for about a half year, fighting hard to not let boredom get the best of them. And dealing with the inevitable letter that their wife or girlfriend had left them. The movie is not about the war, it is about the men who almost fought, and how it affected their lives once they returned to civilian life.
SPOILERS. The climax is during the only mission, when Swoff and Troy are sent to take out two officers in a control tower. They get there, Swoff gets the enemy in his sights, when an officer shows up with the news that they will do an air strike instead, to quickly dispose of the men and the tower. But Troy pleads with him, just let them pick off one of them, it won't hurt anything. Just one kill would validate all their training and waiting in the hot desert. But to no avail, the air strike came, the men went home and never fired one shot at the enemy.