Very Confused Terrible Movie

Rating: Null/10 (11 November 2005)

I had high expectations going into Jarhead, and I found it very disappointing. Considering that it's one of the few American movies to come out on a topic close to America's current involvement in the Middle East, I expected it to have at least a rigorously argued message, even though it would perhaps not be in agreement with my own personal views.
Jarhead is really not very deep at all in fact, it has very little message, and is more like a collage of army clichés, strewn together with potent performances by Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx. They both do a great job, and so do the rest of the cast. It seems to me that Sam Mendes' number one objective in this movie was not to hurt any audience member, and to basically be all things to all people. Though I have not read the novel on which this movie is based, and Mendes could argue that he was only doing the book justice, by putting on reel its lack of clear conviction, he clearly could have chosen one of the book's key dimensions and stuck to it. In any case, the failure of this movie lies squarely in the lap of the director and/or screenwriter. The story goes nowhere. I did find especially annoying some wannabe-artistic-deep scenes that fall totally flat and seem to come out of a cinema-student's scrapbook/study camera reel.
I regret having seen Jarhead at the theater. I must admit having been, once again, totally suckered into a half-baked movie by a good trailer and surrounding marketing efforts. I would barely recommend a DVD rental to anyone on this one, unless you have never been un/fortunate to see any war movie. This is the type of movie, where I really wish the theater would provide the disgruntled unhappy viewer, such as myself, with a refund, or at least a credit. Jarhead is the best demonstration of the reasons behind's Hollywood's current slump.
Jake Gyllenhaal (Swoff) - 9/10 - Very strong performance, even more deserving considering that his director clearly had no idea who Swoff was.
Jamie Foxx (Staff Sgt. Sykes) - 8/10 - Good performance, but somewhere down the line, you feel that either Foxx realizes that he's wandering in useless cinema territory or that the tough sergeant role, he's portraying has been done to the bone, and that as a result, his input can be at best marginal.
Sam Mendes - 2/10 - The good news about his direction in this movie, is that you could probably cut this movie up into 5-10 superior short movies.
William Broyles Jr - Should just stop writing scripts, or return to his day job. Having checked his portfolio, I can now better understand all my prior comments, we are talking about the genius, who brought us Entrapment and the appalling Planet of the Apes. Plea to the studios: please do not give this gentleman any work, and if so, provide a clear advisory in the trailer or poster.