There's something happening here, what it is ain't exactly clear

Rating: 6/10 (7 December 2005)

It is impossible to watch "Jarhead" and not think about the current Gulf War. I realize the film takes place solely in the context of the first Gulf War, but you can't help but think about what's going on now.
One of the most salient points this film makes - and I don't know if it was intentional - is a rather subtle one. Throughout "Jarhead," director Sam Mendes and screenwriter William Broyles Jr. point out how many days these soldiers have spent in the desert and how many of them there are. For much of the film - as we very well know from facts from the first war - they readied themselves for the invasion of Iraq. When it finally comes, there's a title imposed on the screen telling us there are 575,000 troops on the ground.
I'm not a fan of President George H.W. Bush, but, at least, he knew how to properly carry out an invasion. He listened to his military commanders. Cut to Gulf War: Part Deux, run by his not-too-smart and incompetent kid, and you realize how incredibly botched and poorly planned this Iraq War was and is. We went in with fewer than 200,000 troops. Thanks, Dubya.
The point of "Jarhead" seems to be not that war is hell so much as that war can be downright boring, too. These are guys who are just itching to see some action, to blow some crap up. Instead, they're forced to wait, causing much frustration. In hindsight, of course, the waiting game seemed to make us better prepared. We, at least, seemed to have a plan then. And we didn't manufacture false WMD evidence or say that we needed regime change to oust a brutal dictator who, true, killed thousands, but was also one of our biggest allies and buddies when he did most of those killings, something no one in this administration or in the media ever points out.
The trouble with "Jarhead" is the soldiers' frustration can't really carry the whole film. Jake Gyllenhaal is awfully good as Anthony Swofford, waiting for his first sniper kill, and Peter Sarsgaard, again, turns in a wonderful low-key performance. This chap truly is fast becoming one of our finest film actors. But the rest of the cast, including Jamie Foxx and Dennis Haysbert, wind up in mostly throwaway roles. And many of the supporting characters seem cookie-cutter.
The film delves into the daily grind of the soldiers and their commanders' plans to keep the boys busy while awaiting the invasion. It's all about doing something to prevent from going stir crazy. But I really don't know if it makes for captivating cinema.
As beautifully shot, well acted and competently directed as "Jarhead" is, there were many times I wondered why exactly Mendes wanted to make this movie. If his point, indeed, was that war is boring, that is made abundantly clear early on. But there needs to be something more to a movie, too, and this one just didn't have it.
I'm glad I saw this movie, but I wanted more. I didn't want to be as bored as the soldiers were and, often, that's exactly how I found myself.