Jarhead

Rating: 8/10 (6 November 2005)

Jarhead, is based on the book of the same name by Anthony Swofford. The film tells about Anthony's experience as a young man as he was a lance corporal in the United States Marine Corps. He was in the scout/sniper position and was in Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait during the Gulf War. The film shows Anthony's relationship with the other Marines and the sergeants and what they do while they are stationed out there and what they do before they can finally come home. Jarhead, has good direction, a good script, great performances by the entire cast, good original music, good cinematography and good film editing. The film is well made in just about every possible way and it is a very engrossing and compelling film. The film has some very powerful moments, is bold and one of the strongest things about the film are it's characters. The film focuses on several different characters through the film and I found that the characters were all very interesting and we got to get some personality traits here and they were all well played by the actors. Jake Gyllenhall, who plays Anthony Swofford, does a very good job of playing his character through different emotions and situations and one this film's strongest points is it's different characters. The film is about a war but there is no real combat or fighting scenes in this film. Instead of that it's how these characters react to the war, the training and each other. I found this to be more interesting and powerful than if it had long epic battles in the movie. This reminded me of the film The Deer Hunter, because in that film it shows more about the characters than the war also. The other thing that is really good about this movie is it's look and feel from it's great director Sam Mendes. I immediately knew Sam Mendes, would be a great director after I first saw American Beauty, in 1999. It was one of my favourite films of that year and it left quite an impact on me. I then saw his second film Road To Perdition, which I did not like as much as American Beauty, but I thought it was great too. Now, Sam Mendes comes to us with Jarhead, and it is quite a great achievement and I think after only three films so far in his career that he will win many more awards and he is on the path to becoming one of today's best directors. I think some may be disappointed in Jarhead, for not being more faster paced or having the battle scenes but for a powerful film about characters and how they react to war and these situations this is a film for you.