Full Metal Jarhead

Rating: 7/10 (5 November 2005)

For both better and for worse Jarhead, the new film based on a 2003 best-selling book by former marine Anthony Swofford, is not just another war film.
That is not to say it doesn't share any similarities.
Like many recent films about war Jarhead tries its best to become immersed in the feeling of military life. From the locations to the sounds, everything is authentic. Important is the acting which never becomes theatrical as the performances strive to echo true marines.
Jake Gyllenhaal especially shines as Swoff, able to give a surprisingly subtle performance that never really cries out, "look how brilliant and intense I am!" The entire film is really quite subtle in this way and this lends to an overall uneasy feel that Jarhead lets unquestionably sink deep.
Also, director Sam Mendes crafts stunning images in only his third film (he previously made the award winning American Beauty and then Road to Perdition with Tom Hanks), as burning oil fields and sun-bleached sand dunes are displayed in full glory.
Jarhead even strays into narrative territory that has already been explored before. It begins much like Full Metal Jacket with a yelling and almost comically abusive drill sergeant proving the horrors of boot camp. In turn, the marines slowly become more and more eager to shoot something.
However, such similarities in turn compliment the ways Jarhead is actually a commentary on these perceptions of war. It is, ultimately, quite unique.
Unlike "classic war films," such as Saving Private Ryan or Apocalypse Now, Jarhead is more about what happens when the intensity of battle never really comes. All the marines in the film are pumped up for battle, at one point actually watching Apocalypse Now and cheering as helicopters blow up targets.
Yet they never get this same opportunity.
As an audience member I found myself waiting for that big battle scene but it never really comes. And it never should.
You see, this is not a film for those seeking mindless action. Jarhead isn't afraid to scrutinize the bloodlust that can fill both war and people and it shows the need for this bloodlust to be quenched, whatever the cost.
It questions the perceptions of war that have pervaded our culture, asking if it is death and destruction that truly defines what war is.
With this said, some problems do arise with the film.
There is always a distance kept from the characters. We see that they are bored and that problems such as endless waiting and cheating spouses are their greatest adversaries.
Yet the characters never grow or change. Simply showing them as anxious to fight is not enough to fill up two hours.
Especially as some horrors of war finally begin to trickle in, such as the aftermath of a massacre in the desert, we never see the effect on the battle-ready mentality of the soldiers beyond some immediate outward emotions.
At the end of the war are the marines any different than when they went into it and why? What happens to all the anxiety built up within them? Jarhead never really attempts to answer any of these questions.
It is also somewhat ironic that this is a film released in the midst of the second war in Iraq because the war of today is a much different beast than the Gulf War. In this current war there isn't a problem of not having enough "action." Likely this new Iraq war is the battle that the soldiers of Jarhead yearned for while waiting in that desert.
The makers of Jarhead claim that they do not have any direct commentary on the new Iraq war and the film echoes this. This stress for objectivity sadly cripples some of the lasting power, though.
By delving into the ultimate results of the Gulf War on its restless troops perhaps certain truths of today could have become illuminated.
Jarhead mentions that, "All wars are different, all wars are the same." It is this simple yet paradoxically complicated message that best defines Jarhead while also keeping it from becoming all that it could have been.
Critic's Conclusion: Don't expect much action from Jarhead, a movie that focuses on how boredom and tedium can be dangerous weapons in warfare as well. Overall it is a fairly unique and thought-provoking film full of unforgettable images, though at the end there is a sense that Jarhead doesn't reach the full potential of its themes and images.