Directed by: Sam Mendes
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Scott MacDonald, Peter Sarsgaard, & Jamie Foxx
Runtime: 123 min
Rating: R
Trailer

Finally, a war film that concerns itself with masculine posturing and inane characters! If this was Sam Mendes’s intention with his latest film, then I give him all the credit for accomplishing a work of such insignificance and shallowness, but I don’t think that was the point of Jarhead. The setting for the film, an expansive and bleached out Saudi Arabian Desert, encapsulates the boredom and futility of the war and, less surprisingly, the film itself. Detailing the journey of Anthony Swofford, a U.S. military sniper during the 1991 Gulf War, and his platoon of “jarheads” – a word used to describe the new soldier as an empty vessel – the film sticks to the basic war movie convention of basic training and deployment, except the story focuses on Swofford’s existential crisis as he prepares for a battle that never arrives. Trained and designed as a killing machine by the platoon’s charismatic leader Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx), the grunt’s irrelevance and day-to-day monotony conspire to reveal their frustrations (primarily sexual) and fears (primarily whether or not their significant other is cheating on them). I complement the filmmakers attempt in telling a different side of war, one of solitude and boredom, but watching Jarhead is an exercise in futility. Sam Mendes and the screenwriter, William Broyles Jr. (who based the screenplay on the real Anthony Swofford’s book) make no attempt to take a stand. Their apolitical film sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to other war films, specifically Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket and the Deer Hunter, which the soldiers watch in gleeful exuberance, completely ignoring the subtext and antiwar message. The film can be summed up with an apt comparison: Jarhead is a technically proficient and at times beautiful film to watch, the cinematography by Roger Deakins (a long time Coen Brothers collaborator) utilizes the widescreen aspect ratio to underscore the size of the desert and the isolation of its main characters, but because of its lack of conviction and point of view, the film is ultimately meaningless and weak minded. It has all the training to carry out its mission but suffers from having nothing to do.

Richard X
© Cinephile Magazine, 2006