"F*cking kill ME!!" A+

Rating: 10/10 (10 July 2012)

One of the strangest war films ever, and I gladly say one of the best. Directed by Sam Mendes, the film wreaks of his visual feats. It's not often in this genre we are treated to such dream-like moments, but that is Mendes' specialty and he sneaks them in with great subtlety so it doesn't distract. The first thing you'll realize after watching the movie is that it's one of the few war films that depicts very little actual combat. This movie depicts the Gulf War, and manages to be quite clever in its theme, masterfully subtle. After so much training, so much hammer-like conditioning, these Marines find themselves having this programming denied to them.
Jake Gyllenhaal's character represents the non-conformist who can see the string he's being lead on and he suffers internally for it. That is the sum of his beautifully played character. Some people watch the movie walking away with the simple assumption it's portraying a day in the life of a Marine, but it's really doing more if you look deeper. With great visuals, like the burning oil fields, and the spectacular performance of Jamie Fox, this is definitely not one to miss.