Jarhead
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard
Rated: R for pervasive language, some violent images and strong sexual content.
Parental Notes: This film definitely deserves its R rating. The language is crude, there are lots of violent images (both physical and mental violence), and there is plenty of sexual content as well. This is not a movie for kids, and it’s not designed to appeal to bloodthirsty teens either. This is a movie for adults and mature teenagers.
“Jarhead,” the latest film from Director Sam Mendes (“Road to Perdition,” “American Beauty”), is based on the memoir of the same title by Anthony Swofford. It’s a look at the first Gulf War through the eyes of a Marine sniper who was one of the first deployed to the area and one of the last to go into combat. It’s not a gung-ho, ooh-rah war movie, although there are characters in it who are that way. It gives us an inside look at the life of one Marine and his comrades, both the good and the bad.
Anthony “Swoff” Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal, “Donnie Darko,” “Proof”) is not an enthusiastic Marine. In fact, shortly after meeting his drill instructor in boot camp during the opening of the film, he realizes that maybe joining the Marines was a mistake. Still, he excels, and manages to impress Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx, “Ray,” “Collateral”) so much that he’s offered an opportunity to become a scout sniper, one of an elite squad tasked with sneaking into enemy areas and taking out one or two top people at a time. Sykes is a hardened Marine Corps lifer, passionately in love the job and not willing to put up with any unnecessary nonsense. He’s harsh on his trainees because their jobs will be even harsher and he wants them to be prepared.
Swoff makes it through the rigorous — and at times fatally dangerous — training and winds up assigned to be the shooting half of a sniper team. His spotter is Troy (Peter Sarsgaard, “The Skeleton Key,” “Kinsey”), a dour Marine he knows from boot camp. They become friends of a sort; although they’re very different, they compliment each other well. When Iraq invades Kuwait, they are both excited at the prospect of finally getting to use all their training.
The battalion arrives in the Gulf expecting to attack Iraq within days, but they wind up stuck in Saudi Arabia protecting the oil fields and waiting in the relentless desert heat and patrolling the endless, empty sand. Months go by and the Marines become increasingly edgy. Swoff sees the photos of cheating wives and girlfriends on the battalion’s Wall of Shame and becomes increasingly worried about his girl back home. Between the physical stresses of the environment and his internal fears about his girlfriend, he comes perilously close to a nervous breakdown.
Once Operation Desert Storm is announced and they are sent into combat, their hopes rise again. They’re on foot, though, much slower than the pace of the war around them, and they spend more time trying to catch up to the action than they do actually fighting. Still, as Sykes points out, he loves the job. Sure, they have to slog through a rain of oil after someone sets the oil fields ablaze, but who else gets to see fountains of flame against a dark sky? Sure, there are movies, like this one, but to actually be there is another thing entirely.
Gyllenhaal brings the same acting skill to Swoff as he did to the title role in “Donnie Darko.” Swoff is a good sniper but not really cut out for the Marines, and Gyllenhaal portrays that with a performance finely tuned to each scene’s events. This is a role that would incite plenty of actors to go over the top, but Gyllenhaal manages to avoid that temptation and just plays Swoff like the everyman he is. He draws us into the film by being so open and in the moment that he seems to be less acting than living the part.
The supporting cast are just as good. Foxx and Sarsgaard are fantastic character actors — Sarsgaard in particular is so good at vanishing into his roles that this reviewer didn’t remember he’d been in the recent “The Skeleton Key” until looking up his filmography.
“Jarhead” isn’t for everyone. It’s vulgar, violent, and packed with the unpleasant reality and occasional glory of military life. It isn’t pro-war, but it’s not relentlessly anti-war either, so fanatics on both sides will likely be disappointed by it. Fans of good acting and involving, gritty films should find it to be right up their alley.