Interesting Psychological Study

Rating: 9/10 (3 November 2005)

"I was lucky enough to see an advanced screening of this film last night," says almost everyone who posts early comments. But I was lucky. The film was one of the most intense psychological depictions of soldiers during wartime that I have ever seen, and they only go to war for a very short period of time. Many people seem to get caught up in deciding whether or not this movie is anti-war or whether it bashes marines or agrees with oil conspiracy theories, but those kind of arguments draw away from the cinematic achievements here. During parts of this movie I was so drawn in to the psychological elements of a marine during wartime that I forgot who I was and sympathized with the characters more than I ever have in a war movie before. The acting was pretty amazing. Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard were brilliant in their portrayals of the sometimes humorous, sometimes wild, and sometimes on-the-edge of insanity young men who give up their time and, hopefully not, their lives after going through intense and nearly brainwashing training. *Spoiler?* When you see the two scenes where each of them completely breakdown you'll see what I mean. *End of Spoiler* Jamie Foxx also put on an amazing performance as the staff sergeant who has his times of near compassion as well as his times of being a dick. Aside from the acting, Mendes does a pretty great job of showing the intensity with the hand-held camera, although it gets kind of annoying in spots. He also uses lighting very well, as he usually does, to depict some beautiful yet quite disturbing scenes in the desert, especially *SPOILER* The scenes with the oil fields burning. Those scenes were so intense and hauntingly beautiful *END SPOILER* Overall, I'd say see it if you can stomach it, because the brutal reality was sometimes hard for me to deal with. It's not like watching a really bloody movie, it's way, way more real.