"Welcome To The Suck...OORAH"

Rating: 8/10 (12 November 2005)

Jarhead (the self-imposed moniker of the Marines) follows Swoff, a third-generation enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound ruck on his back through Middle East deserts with no cover from intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand against an enemy they can't see for a cause they don't fully fathom.
Jarhead is a war movie that actually doesn't have that much war shown in the film. Without any political statements to make, Jarhead simply tells the story of a solider in the war, who desperately wants to kill someone, something, anything. In order to let the madness go away from the unsettling nervousness one would have in a situation like this. So don't see this movie to see some politics because Sarsgaard said it best. "F*ck politics...it's all bull****, it doesn't matter. We're here now." The opening of the film is brings us back to the day when we first saw a film titled "Full Metal Jacket" and while the rest of the film also makes a comparison to it, it is able to distinguish itself as refreshing.
What makes Jarhead so interesting to watch is not the fact that they have to battle an enemy, but rather themselves when they have no one to kill. When your sent to war with all the training and skills to kill an individual and are not able to, it will make you go crazy. So when the opportunity finally comes up for Swoff he jumps at the chance, although when that opportunity is taken away from him at the last second, the sniper scouter, Troy, literally breaks down. This is the stress that the soldiers must constantly go through every day out there. For the soldiers there are only a few outlets for this stress.
Gyllenhaal has the usual soldier goes crazy scene, but here it is compelling and not clichéd. You do not know what the outcome will be, which surprisingly is unique. Then again it could be the fact that Gyllenhaal plays crazy so well...Donnie Darko anyone? From here till the Oscars, I'll wear my Sarsgaard for Supporting Actor Pin. For a character who says welcome to the suck every ten minutes, Sarsgaard is able to give a charismatic and electric performance. Foxx plays the prick drill Sargent, he's rough and crude and plays it to a tee. While Foxx has the flashier supporting part, it's Sarsgaard who is more gripping and will ultimately get the recognition.
Mendes has a few "artistic" shots, that are pleasing to the eye. Like the shadows of two soldiers sitting in front of a red/orange sunset, or a soldier standing, while the oil burns behind him.
Powerful and humorous is what Jarhead is, and it can join fight club on the list of guy movies. When every soldier watches the most famous scene from Apocalypse Now, you get pumped up yourself. You get attached to these soldiers and when the one soldier watches "Deer Hunter", you can't help but feel the sorrow that he feels. Or even when Gyllenhaal gets the unexpected 'welcome home' from his girlfriend.
With the final 10 minutes of the film, it tries to throw an emotional punch at you, but misses. It would have hit, if it were not in a montage, but centred more on the topic at hand. If it does punch you, it's a light one because it comes and goes so fast. With no explanation at all. Jarhead is a movie with powerful performances and a great eye behind the camera. It's raw realism owes itself to the book that it was based on. Jarhead goes into the category as one of the few movies that makes me want to read the material that it was made from.