"There's a story..."

Rating: 7/10 (16 August 2007)

There were moments in "Jarhead" where I said: "What a great movie". I said the same thing during moments of "American Beauty" and "Road to perdition" but, as a whole, all of Sam Mendes' pictures are not great. They are three works of excellent cinematography and performances, that's for sure; but there's always something missing. I don't know how to explain it exactly; maybe it's like "Munich"That it looks too perfect to be perfect.
But I believe that in Mendes' films there's an emotion problem. So many characters in all of his works, so many moving moments, but no emotion passed on to the one who's watching the film. Nothing the viewer can feel (or at least I can't), just an amount of coldness in a very beautiful world, just good-looking characters that go through very bad thing that normally you wouldn't expect them to experience.
"Jarhead" the word, as Anthony Swofford explains in a typical Mendes' piece narration, is a name people use to talk of a Marine. "Jarhead" the film is, apparently, Swofford's (a Marine) true-life experiences in the war in Kuwait. In a precisely adapted script by William Broyles Jr. that involves more and more narration, this Marine goes back on his life and tells us there are things he can show us and think he can.
Played by Jake Gyllenhaal in his best portrayal, Swofford reveals his persona through his talking, and instantly appears as a sardonic and unpredictable guy, usually positive and disinterested. "We'll be back before you can get those nuts out of your system", he tells another soldier on the plane going to the desert; they stayed there for a long time.
In war Swofford meets the soldier friends: some 'latinos', a cowboy (Lucas Black), some outcasts, some sentimentalists and Troy, an unsettling man played naturally by Peter Sarsgaard. They all discuss about the girls they left home and about the family they want to haveSwofford also meets Sergeant Sykes who, for our fortune, is not the typical life- changing that usually appears in these films and that will change the life of the soldiers; and he's played by an ineffable Jamie Foxx.
The days come and go as Swofford describes every activity carried out in the camp, and then as it must be, soldiers fight. You know what always happens in war movies, well "Jarhead" stands in the middle; without too many action sequences and without too much character and relationship development. The cinematography however, as I said, is superb. There's one moment of complete silence and contemplation where after staring at a disturbing view, Gyllenhaal walks in the desertHis footprints on the sand and the sight of him are pure photographic poetry; and I said "what a great movie".
The reason why this is Gyllenhaal's best performance is because he gives "Jarhead" what it lacks the most: emotion. He tries so hard in bringing a little bit of true feeling to a plate that doesn't contain it; and he succeeds. And so did Kevin Spacey in "American Beauty", and Tom Hanks in "Road to perdition"; and they succeeded too. It's contradictory that Mendes has directed these actors in this way and hasn't been able to give the same direction to his movies.