A war movie...without the war?

Rating: 6/10 (11 April 2006)

Jarhead is a 'behind the scenes' war movie, if ever there was one. We follow the military career of Swofford, who progresses through boot camp and scout/sniper school and eventually winds up in Iraq serving in Desert Shield.
If you're looking for action packed scenes and lots of special effects, then you may want to pass on this film. This is more about the life of a soldier in the Corps than actual firefights and explosions. There are relatively few battle scenes in the film, and it spends more time in the barracks and in camp than on patrol. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind you, but it may not be what some people expect when they see this movie.
I enjoyed the look at life behind the front lines perspective in the film. Watching this without reading anything about it, I didn't know what to expect. Honestly, I was hoping for more action; it is based on the Gulf War and everything I remembered seeing (trailers, etc) showed a platoon on patrol in the war zone. That's not the way the movie played out, at all.
It's 123 minutes long, a bit stretched out, in my opinion. There are parts of the movie that drag on longer than they need to. All in all, though, it's a movie worth watching. Just don't go into it expecting a shoot-em-up thriller, and you won't be disappointed.