Gulf War Frustrations Vividly Captured Even Though Characters Remain Distant

Rating: 7/10 (9 April 2006)

Some films work more effectively on a visceral level than a logical one, and this 2005 film adaptation of U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 biting memoir is one of them. Chronicling the author's time from boot camp through the brief 1991 Gulf War, director Sam Mendes fills his sometimes blackly comic film with brutalizing images that give it a consistently propulsive urgency. Written by William Broyles Jr. (who had wartime duty in Vietnam as a pilot), it is not really a combat film as the focus of the story is the incessant waiting that the ground troops endured before realizing the conflict was over almost as soon as it began. Mendes and Broyles have us look at the preparation for the ground war within an episodic structure that keeps everything at arm's length emotionally. Moreover, they borrow liberally from previous military-themed films  not only obvious references to scenes from Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" and Brian DePalma's "Casualties of War" but also paeans to the group dynamics in WWII-era movies with each of the Marines representing familiar wartime archetypes.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars as the fresh-faced Swofford and does an admirable job here as he outwardly expresses his enthusiasm, especially when he gets chosen to be a surveillance sniper, but inwardly has gnawing misgivings about his tour of duty. His becalmed voice-over is what ties the loose connective tissue of the story, as well as the constant punishment Swofford receives from his superiors, including a humiliating demotion from lance corporal to private for covering an act of false bravado by a fellow recruit. Peter Sarsgaard plays Swofford's scouting partner Troy in his trademark elliptical manner given that his character's motivations remain suspect until revelations come to light toward the end. Due to the nature of the film, other characters are not as fully realized, including Jamie Foxx doing commendable work in a relatively small role as the unyielding Staff Sgt. Sykes (his one personal scene when he discusses his life at home seems shoehorned in), Dennis Haysbert in a couple of scenes as the arrogant Major Lincoln, Chris Cooper effectively Schwartzkopf-like as Lt Colonel Kazinski, and the young actors portraying Swofford's fellow recruits. It took me a while to recognize Lucas Black, who plays the horny redneck Kruger, as the young boy in Billy Bob Thornton's "Sling Blade".
Performances aside, the standout work is Roger Deakins' cinematography, which captures the surreal atmosphere of the deserts with the mirage-inducing heat during the day and the burning oil wells at night. There are few scenes more painfully evocative of the war than the one where the Marines come upon the charred remains of locals frozen as if caught in an A-bomb attack. The overall realism of the movie is what makes this noteworthy, and to the filmmakers' credit, it has no political agenda beyond showing the agonies of serving in prospect of a war. The soundtrack has period-appropriate music that runs the gamut from Nirvana to Naughty by Nature to C+C Music Factory. The obvious comparison the film engenders is with David O. Russell's 1999 "Three Kings", which shares the same setting and a similar orientation toward black comedy, though I have to say that Russell's film is more inventive. Still, Mendes is an individualistic director whose work is always worth experiencing.
The DVD has several solid extras, including two separate commentary tracks. Interestingly, the one with Swofford and Broyles, both familiar with military service firsthand, is more informative than the one provided by Mendes, who focuses more on the themes and his inspirations. There are a handful of deleted scenes which were understandably excised, including one with Sam Rockwell playing Swofford's gung-ho military uncle talking to the camera (actually to Swofford in a flashback), a seeming rip-off of a Christopher Walken's scene in "Pulp Fiction". There is another set of scenes under the umbrella of Swofford's fantasies, also deleted, but intriguing for the black comedy aspect that they seemed to serve. Also included is a longer version of the interview sequence where the media volleys questions to the recruits in documentary style. Veteran film editor Walter Murch adds his commentary to Mendes' on all the deleted scenes.