Brilliant and Stunning

Rating: 9/10 (23 January 2019)

19 November 2005. Lost in Translation meets Iraq - this mesmerizing beautiful war movie is a big version of a serious M.A.S.H. television series mini-event, an "Apocalypse Now" (1979) without the eerily weird stuff. This is a war movie that cuts away the action and guts for a much richer, inner sense of war, the humanity or inhumanity of war, the underbelly of war that appears away from the typical blood and guts of war. No other war movie has presented war in this fashion - the inner turmoil and craziness of war without the overt political overtones. This is major series of slices of war life - from the discipline, the foul language, to the apparent inane, insanity of some of it. "Jarhead" avoids the stereotypes. Jamie Foxx portrays a platoon leader that is so devoid of show casing, that it's easily one of the best supporting roles in years, unless he is presented with a best actor nomination. Jarhead is an epic experience of the scenes not usually focused on in war movies. With surprisingly little blood and guts, it still has haunting, tension filled scenes that recall "The Blair Witch Project" (1999) shot making. This is a brilliant piece of movie-making.