Review of Jarhead (2005) by James S — 29 Jun 2009

Ironically this film suffers as a victim of it's own moniker. Jarhead is the term used to describe U.S. marines as their haircuts resemble jars and their heads are empty jars to be filled. Unfortunately this film comes up feeling empty too.

Jake Gyllenhall is the fresh faced marine sniper, a quite desperation to see some action burning inside him who is dispatched to Desert Storm in the early 90s to await action in the desert.

The film centres on the relentless boredom that a marine suffers day in, day out waiting for action. Sam Mendes has produced a visually excellent film. Towards the end we are treated to many a stunning shot of burning oil fields and silhouetted marines but scratching beneath the surface there is little substance.

Much of the rest of the film is taken up with Jake and co merely larking about in santa hats and watching their buddies home made porn tapes. Rather than focus on the loneliness of a marines existence, the film goes for a gratuitous helping of crude behaviour which may well be true to what life was like in these situations but makes the characters seem stereotyped and detached from reality. That could well be what Mendes is aiming for but in doing so he alienates his audience badly.

Jarhead starts well enough but the lack of understanding and sympathy the film is able to generate severely hamper this disappointing movie.