One of the best and true to life movies about the U.S. Marine Corps and war.

Rating: 10/10 (20 September 2006)

I rented the "Jarhead" video just to see what the movie industry had to offer these days about the U.S. Marine Corps (USMC), and war. (I am a retired Naval Officer with 27 years of service, several tours of which involved service with Marine Corps elements.) Boy, was I surprised! At first I had to work around the language, including the frequent use of the "F___" word. Because of that, I almost quit watching it about half way through. But, I stuck with it, and am very happy that I did. Subsequent to my first viewing, I purchase my own copy of the "Jarhead" DVD, as well as the book upon which the movie is based - "Jarhead" by Anthony Swofford ("Swoff"), available at Amazon.com.
The movie relates the USMC experiences of "Swoff", first in USMC Boot Camp, then in his training to become a 'sharpshooter with a STA ("Surveillance and Target Acquisition"), scout snipers platoon, and then his 6 months deployment in the 1990-1991 Gulf War against Iraq. Surprisingly, the movie script adheres to the real-life story in the book, with only slight variations. As I watched the movie, I became more and more entrenched in the unfolding life of a Marine "Jarhead". BTW, the term "Jarhead", is derived from a Marine's uniform haircut (very close on the sides and with about 1/4 - 1/2 inch on the top), which when viewed from the rear, literally looks like a jar with a lid on the top! The sometimes amusing events & occurrences in the Saudi & Kuwaiti desert are numerous, and very realistic, and do 'keep one on the edge of his seat', as they unfold.
I have seen this movie 4 times, and plan to view it often. Because of the exceptional portrayal of the movie's 'hero', by "Jake Gyllenhaal", I did a search on the internet and found that there is quite a large group of fans who have an ongoing conversation about Jake and his movie career. To my surprise, I discovered that he is one of the two co-stars in "Brokeback Mountain", the DVD of which I have also purchased, and watched. (I had originally chosen not to watch this movie because of its bad rap as a "Gay Cowboy movie".) I have since watched every movie in Jake's career, but still count his role as "Swoff" in "Jarhead" as still his best and most poingent.
If you are into realistic and gripping 'war' movies, with out all of the side 'crap' that Hollywood often includes in such movies (e.g., most of the movies about Vietnam), then I strongly recommend you rent or buy your own copy of "Jarhead" Believe me, it will stick with you for a long time.