A third triumph for Sam Mendes

Rating: 8/10 (7 November 2005)

Anthony Swoofford(Jake Gyllenhaal) tells the story of his experience while fighting in Desert Storm, beginning with boot camp to his training to be scout sniper to his experiences throughout the war and ending with his life after war.
Jarhead probably stuck many as a heat-pounding war-action film and probably left many disappointed. Jarhead is about Desert Storm, a war that had very little action and Mendes stresses this constantly. The movie shows it's share of violence although the movie is more of a war drama such as The Deer Hunter, not Saving Private Ryan. I'm not saying that Jarhead was not entertaining, because it was extremely entertaining witch constant comic relief from Gyllenhaal and Foxx, but it was not the same kind of entertaining that is found in other war movies.
With such an amazing cast of Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsagard, and Chris Cooper, I was not disappointed with the quality of acting. Jake Gyllenhaal proves to be a great actor more and more with every movie he makes and the same goes for Jamie Foxx. The acting was convincing and flawless whereas the movie held one major flaw. It is only one flaw but it just bothered me intensely. The film was gigantically similar to Full Metal Jacket. It could easily be mistaken for a remake to some. The boot camp scene in the beginning was excessively similar and twice they used the same little chant used in Full Metal Jacket where the troops said "This is my rifle, there are many like it..." The themes of Jarhead and Full Metal Jacket were also similar, both saying that "War takes average men and changes them into heartless killing machines." Mendes stressed the idea of a marine never being able to change, even after the war.
Besides a similarity flaw, the movie was flawless. For what Jarhead was meant to be, it was perfect. Jarhead will surely be considered one of the best movies of the year and also help bring the war genre back to where it was before The Great Raid. Overall, Jarhead is a great anti-war movie that is quite entertaining but a exceedingly intense at times. Besides being very closely related to Full Metal Jacket, the story is quite clever and original.
I highly recommend this film.