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Jarhead

Review By: Freddie LaFemina
FreddieLaFemina @TheCinemaSource.com

When I took my 13-year-old brother to see Jarhead last November, we both expected to see an action movie, he rather eagerly, me somewhat grudgingly. Jarhead, it turns out, is the opposite of an action movie, yet neither of us liked it. Of the three principals whose stars are rising or have been on the rise in the past several years, director Sam Mendes disappoints, Jake Gyllenhaal turns in a modest though competent performance, and Peter Sarsgaard exhibits his Oscar-caliber chops yet again as the bright point in this dark, muddy film that doesn’t know what it wants to be.

Jarhead, based on the memoir of the same name written by former Marine Anthony Swofford (played by Gyllenhaal in the film), is a meditation on what makes an army, and what makes the soldiers that populate that army, exploring such themes as conformity, individualism, and indoctrination. Don’t get me wrong - Jarhead is no Full Metal Jacket. It is not an iconic film in any sense, but it at least touches on these issues as they relate to the question of what it means to be a soldier, or more specifically, a modern soldier. We see the psychological toll that being a soldier takes on Swofford by way of his monologues (many of which sound like he’s reading out of an instructional manual) and his fantasies. We see these effects on many other soldiers who we get to know to varying degrees, but none as intimately as Swofford.

The film begins with Swofford in boot camp, not quite knowing what he’s doing there and not doing much of anything until he is recruited to be a sniper by Jamie Foxx, who is another bright point in this film. Foxx’s performance as Staff Sergeant Sykes is both believable and far from hokey, though some of his lines could have easily gone that way. Chris Cooper, billed as one of the main actors in the film, is barely in it as Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski, though he manages to give an amusing pep talk to the troops.

Once the action moves to the Middle East, the film becomes a study of inaction and the frustration and madness that result from it. And still the Marines manage to have a ton of fun. The generals and higher-ups commanding the Marines don’t seem to care much about them, though the Marines themselves are able to come together and bond quite often. They do so in scenes set to music that are more often found in chick flicks like Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood. And maybe I shouldn’t be pissed off about this but I am – the boys party in their desert camp during Christmas 1990 while lip-syncing every word ...