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Jarhead

Jake Gyllenhaal's bare naked ass. Do I really have to say more? I don't think so but I will for those of you whiners who want "substance" for your ten bucks. I'm just kidding. I didn't even know they were going to show him as scantly clad as they did, or that he was going to be in the amazing shape that he was, but suffice it to say, he looked incredible.

Like most others I was sold the first time I saw the Jarhead trailer: the perfect song accompanied key scenes. It was a perfect "Hu-Rah" blend. So I badgered, begged, and asked every single day about when I could see Jarhead and finally a couple of days ago, I got my wish.

Right from the first scene the movie draws you in. Marine recruit Tony Swofford, or Swoff (Jake Gyllenhaal), starts his narration while the screen is still black and the audience is immediately sold. Swofford recalls in clips his time in basic training; the highs, lows, and the ass-kicking's he receives. Picture Full Metal Jacket twenty years later. Sawford quickly assesses that perhaps following the family tradition of enlistment might not have been the smartest move he ever made but once you're in, you're in. Knowing he has zero chance of taking his decision back he survives basic training and becomes a true jarhead. There are a number of different definitions for jarhead but what initially came to mind was the shape of the head with the classic Marine haircut. That is one of the definitions, the most common one to civilians. The others, well, I'm not giving it all away. What seems like many pushups and concussions later the first phase of hell is over for him and his term of service really begins.

Staff Sergeant Siek (Jamie Foxx) gives Swoff his first chance of actually doing something of merit that doesn't immediately send Swoff to the nurse. He lets him tryout to be a scout/sniper. Tryout isn't the right word; he has to earn his place as a coveted scout/sniper. Four two man teams are to be selected for this honor; one a sniper and the other his scout. This is the first time Swoff even entertains the thought maybe joining up wasn't a bad idea after all. A crack shot Swoff proves himself one of the worthy sniper halves and repeats after Siek his first incantation of the snipers proverb "This is my rifle".

Not too long after that the United States gets involved in the situation in the Middle East.
Swoff's unit is one of the first of the five thousand troops to arrive in the desert when before engagement when it was still only Desert Shield. All gung-ho to get out there,

see some action, and win the war the war has yet to begin. Their instructions are to sit patiently on their hands and wait for an escalation that may never come. Boredom and monotony overtakes him and his fellow STA (Surveillance Target Acquisition) brethren while they "hydrate, train, hydrate some more." Like the others Swoff thought the problem would be resolved in less than a month or by Christmas at the latest. One hundred and twenty two days later Christmas has come, gone and still nothing. Passing the time becomes more and more difficult, even masturbation is almost a chore, and Dear John letters become more and more common. Restlessness leads to laziness leads to rebellion leads to the brink of insanity and every so often a step too far. Who was it that first said "We all go a little mad sometimes"?

Finally the enemy engages and Swoff and his team can't wait to get out there and kill Sadam. One member of his unit is a tad overzealous to get out there and start killing. The farther into enemy territory they venture the more excited he gets and the more he's just begging to get his ass kicked by Swoff or his scout half Troy (Peter Sarsgaard). Troy is the soldier the military was made for or the other way around. Either way this man lives for the lifestyle the Marines provide. As Swoff says all he (Swoff) wants is to get out and all Troy wants is to stay in. The scout/sniper relationship is an important part of the training but Swoff and Troy create a repore that even some people who've been close friends for years don't come to have. And in every group there seems to be one who's been given the option to join the military or go to jail. This story is no different. The contrast here is that this reluctant soldier pretty much hates everything the American government stands for and has no qualms voicing his opinion. For these men the war came and ended almost as quickly compared to the all the waiting they endured. They got close but for some of them it wasn't close enough.

American Beauty director Sam Mendes takes Swoff's story and turns it into a cinematic marvel, even when the most he had to work with was a landscape of sand and a backdrop of sky. The beginning scenes are picked not only to exhibit the harshness of training but to introduce the viewer to exactly who Swoff is. The next ninety minutes explain who he feels he's become and the iceberg pace of how he got there. Screenplay writer William Broyles Jr. (Apollo 13) took Swoff's autobiographical account of his personal Gulf experience to a certain level of reality that everyone knows is there but no one really wants to acknowledge.

Maybe Swoff intentionally never got close to most of the members in his unit, or there was already too much material to work with to properly showcase them, because in this film there are basically only three who matter. Of course star Jake Gyllenhaal (Swoff) is the most important, the story is about him after all. All that can be said of Gyllenhaal's performance is that it was good but not as impressive as the hype would indicate. (Ohh yeah, and that he has a cute ass.) It is impossible for Swoff to tell his story without exhibiting how intertwined it becomes the man at his side when the shit goes down. Peter Sarsgaard who plays his scout Troy would be the second billed star if he was as famous as Jaime Foxx. His face is familiar enough for it to be recognizable from somewhere but not enough for it to be immediately place able. Last in the trio of important characters is Sergeant Siek better known as Oscar winner Jaime Foxx. His dialogue is delivered with right amount of humor and authority it makes him seem brilliant. That's not to dismiss his skills, or Sarsgaard's or Gyllenhaal's, but the story (and direction) is what makes the movie stand out as memorable, not the acting.

Right now you're really annoyed with my vagueness but Jarhead is a really hard movie to describe without disclosing too much. It's a movie you just have to see and then we can discuss. I don't think there is anything I can say that would make it more appealing than the trailer already does. If you didn't like the trailer I can assure you that this is not your type of movie.

Movie Grade: A-

The soundtrack (being released in December) is notable too.

Synopsis:

When a young man joins the Marines and trains to be a sniper, he finds himself plunged into the chaotic swirl of sand, oil, fire and death that was the Gulf War.