A True Demonstration of Human Emotion

Rating: 9/10 (3 October 2006)

First and foremost, Jarhead is a war movie, but not a combat movie. There is, after all, more than one aspect to war and this movie is a whole new kind of war movie. Rather than concentrating on killing, your friends dying, and other things often related to war movies, this movie concentrates on the relationships within the army and the pure nothingness of The Gulf War.
The story closely follows the book (Although in a more compact form; it mostly shows the middle of the book rather than the start and finish). Starting from boot camp and finishing up at the end of the war, throughout the plot the tensions between the men climb and fall, and the catches of being a jarhead reveal themselves. In addition, it shows the confusion and flurry of emotions that run through soldiers in war.
Instead of a scene climaxing with a squad mate dying (Such as in Saving Private Ryan), it might climax with an unintended accident or a fight between the men. Each scene provides another glimpse between the men and is kind of like a mini story in itself. But war is oddly absent most of the time, in fact, it's more of a sub-plot within the film, saving the last few scenes where the men's need to do something war-like sums up to one moment near the end of the movie (They did after all, join the Marines to fight).
The music is all what you've heard before, Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", Nirvana's "Something in the Way", and Kanye West, among many others. As for the acting, it's quite well done particularly Jake Gyllenhaal's character. The scene's are kept fresh even though most of it's in the desert, the oil field fire scenes have a creepy reminiscence of hell.
You should know that the first and last couple scenes go by pretty quick and seem a little rushed, mostly likely because they would've wanted to get to the important parts quickly as the movie's final run time is a little over 2 hours.
There are distinct parts to the movie and each one keeps the movie fresh and that's pretty much it. Well worth it.