When the going gets tough...

Rating: 8/10 (15 January 2006)

It's true to say that Brit director Sam Mendes has dazzled us, over the years with some truly fabulous pieces of cinema and with Jarhead, he doesn't fail to wow his audience... again.
As practically the only female in the cinema, I was in awe of the darkly humorous script and great breakdown-of-sanity acting by the fabulous Jake Gyllenhaal.
Jarhead is helped along by a great cast of actors, including Jamie Foxx as the ever-so enthusiastic Staff Sgt. Sykes, and a brilliantly mellow Peter Sarsgaard as the one who flips out at the end.
This film tells of the boredom of the Gulf War. The American troops are in the desert for almost six months and not-so slowly we see our main character, Swoff (Gyllenhaal) losing his marbles.
I truly believe that Gyllenhaal is one of American's most promising and talented young actors and I certainly hope that his very different roles in Brokeback Mountain and Jarhead take this fabulous actor on to much bigger and better things.
The film offers some unusual insight into the sheer boredom the Marines experience whilst awaiting some field action. There's a fabulous scene between nerdy Fergus and Swoff, in which Gyllenhaal again shows his amazing credibility as an actor and we get some real emotion from the two guys. Perhaps the best breakdown of the mental state in a while.
All in all a great little war film, an unusual take on what most directors cloud with politics is in fact an unpolitical, brazen and interesting movie, littered from beginning to end with real, dark humour that even the most intelligent of you will be sniggering along with.