They Said Field Fun!

Rating: 6/10 (8 November 2005)

Greetings again from the darkness. The kiss of death for a movie is walking into the theater expecting to see a great film. Director Sam Mendes is putting together a good resume with the solid "The Road to Perdition" and the great "American Beauty". What he has is an eye for is the shot. What he is missing is the gift of storytelling.
Based around Desert Shield/Storm, "Jarhead" focuses on Marine Swofford played to the fullest by Jake Gyllenhaal. The frustration, isolation and periodic bouts of lost sanity are explored as soldiers are trained and then shipped off to sit around in the blazing desert. "When do we get to kill somebody?" is a recurring theme and is one of many political left wing propaganda statements attempted by the film (others include faulty equipment, protection drugs, staged interviews, etc). Sadly, the film is neither a true anti-war picture or a real psycho-probe of soldiers. It toys with both and fails with both.
Peter Sarsgaard is the most effective of the actors although his relationship with Gyllenhaal is a pinball that is impossible to follow. Are they friends or rivals? I would like to know when and how they supposedly got so close.
The true magic in this film is at the hand of the marvelous cinematographer, Roger Deakins ("A Beautiful Mind", "Shawshank Redemption" and most every Cohen Brothers film). The visuals in the battlefields and desert as well as the claustrophobia of cramped quarters and protective suits are the only reasons the film works at all. We can feel the heat from the burning oil wells and smell the nastiness of latrine duty as well as the sliminess of crude oil rain on the face. Masterful.
Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper and Dennis Haysbert are all effective in their roles, but overall the film just is missing a soul. Very disappointing that there is no clear direction or story or plot so the film never reaches the great level it obviously aspires to.