2005's Best Film

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2020)

The trailer was too good, drew too much anticipation. Following the startling debut that was American Beauty, and following it up with the elegiac Road To Perdition (which almost all admired but not all loved), a trailer as booming as this left many expecting a more ostensibly explosive and confrontational film.
This plays like a meditation, yet volatile examination on the essence of what war is: war is unnatural. Gyllenhaal carries his innate innocence and plays a deeply disturbed soldier, whose possible masochism led to his entlistment. He plays on the edge of explosion throughout the film, culminating in an astonishing scene with his friend and (incoming) superior.
Sarsgaard follows with another Oscar-calibre performance, and a cast that swells with vibrance. Mendes directs a crossway of violence and impotence, maximising the incredible camerawork by the amazing Roger Deakins (the celebration scene is some of the best cinematography you'll see), editing with precision and tension, and scored with another beautiful composition, Jarhead should rank as one of the great war films, as well as one of the greatest films of the aughts.