Movie Review Jarhead

Jarhead (2005) 

Directed by Sam Mendes 

Written by William Broyles Jr 

Starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgard, Lucas Black, Chris Cooper, Jamie Foxx 

Release Date November 4th, 2005 

Published November 3rd, 2005 

Anthony Swofford's 2003 non-fiction account of fear and boredom in the Saudi desert during the first gulf war became an immediate bestseller even as American soldiers were on their way back to those same barren and sweltering lands. Swofford's raw prose drew comparisons to the great gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson but despite strong sales and critical plaudits Hollywood did not call as quickly as we might expect.

Cowed by the patriotic call to arms, studios attempting to avoid any hint of anti-war material avoided Swofford's book. Then someone actually read it. Jarhead is no anti-war treatise.  Rather, it is a highly intelligent, fiercely honest character study. A brilliant deconstruction of the mindset of the young men who choose to give up every comfort in the world to become not a mere human being but a true jarhead.

Anthony Swofford or Swoff (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a third generation Marine grunt whose reasons for joining up have little to do with family pride. In his own words Swoff joined the marines because he got lost on his way to college, a quip that earned him a slap on the back of the head from a severe drill sergeant. Swoff's wit and smarts (he reads Campus during breaks from basic training) are not the skills the marines recruited him for.

Marines must, as stated by Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), give up their individuality, freedom and their fears to become one with their weapon and fellow soldiers. It is Sykes who recruits Swoff into the elite sniper unit. Where most soldiers will live for the opportunity to engage thousands of enemies at close range, the sniper lives for one shot at one target at long range. The skill is valuable in classic warfare but as Swoff and his fellow snipers will soon learn, the next American conflict does not offer many opportunities for them to exercise their skills.

In 1990 Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny neighbor nation of Kuwait, a US ally. President George H. W. Bush vowed to defend the people of Kuwait and thousands of American soldiers were deployed into the Middle Eastern desert. Aching for the opportunity to engage the enemy, Swoff and his platoon, which include his rifle partner Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), Harris (Jacob Vargas), Escobar (Laz Alonzo), Kruger (Lucas Black) and others, will see no immediate combat as they protect oil fields in Saudi Arabia far from the front line action which is dominated by American air power.

Days pass endlessly one into another with no action and soon a combination of paranoia, fear, sexual frustration, near heat stroke and ungodly boredom begin to bore holes in each of the men's psyches. Stir crazy is one way to put it but imagine stir crazy with high powered rifles and you get the darker inclination of the frustration that builds.

Director Sam Mendes' Jarhead is the Seinfeld of war movies-- it's a war movie about nothing. Nothing that happens to very particular, very interesting characters. Gyllenhaal's Swoff is a fascinating portrait of a too-smart-for-his-own-good type guy who gets a serious dose of reality when he 'accidentally' ends up in the Marines. Swoff learns that a strong intellect, as sought after as it is, is not going to be enough to get you through the trials of being a Marine. In fact, it can be as much of a detriment as it can be a boon.

Swoff's fierce intelligence is what pushes him over the edge between sanity and insanity on more than one occasion. It is a testament to his training and ability to follow orders that he does not snap and just start killing anything in his path. Swoff likely owes a lot to his platoon brothers, especially Troy, a wannabe Marine life and Swift's best friend.  Troy is a calming influence for the most part, though late in the film circumstances bring even Troy nearly to insanity.

So what of the fear that Jarhead was some kind of anti-war allegory to our current Middle East quagmire? The belief that Jarhead is specifically political is a misread. Jarhead is neither anti-war or pro-war. The film is not, as some have said, a recruiting video for the Marines or an effective tool of deterring enlistment. Jarhead is about specific people in a specific situation and the ways that situation changes them forever.

There are moments of politics, particularly from Lucas Black's Kruger who is the only one who wants to talk about the reasons why highly trained Marines are guarding oil wells and not fighting the enemy. The moments of political speech however are cut off by other marines who hold the line that it doesn't matter why they're there and they have a job to do. Even Swoff, who prides himself on his smarts, is not interested in intellectualizing the war. He just wants to do what he was trained to do: kill, kill, kill.

Swofford and his fellow marines are not exactly sociopaths.  Well not all of them.  Fowler, played by Evan Jones, certainly is a sociopath as expressed in scenes where he enjoys playing with the  body of a dead Iraqi and he boasts of shooting camels for sport, but for the most part these are young men of conscience. It is the conflict of morals that makes these characters so fascinating. Kill or be killed is certainly a helpful justification for violence and killing in war, as is defending the defenseless. But, as the film demonstrates, not all violence in war can be justified and the conflicting emotions are powerfully rendered in Jarhead.

Sam Mendes directs Jarhead in a manner that is observant without being intrusive. With cinematographer Roger Deakins, Mendes gives Jarhead a washed out, barren look that enhances the desert setting by making it look even more vast and bleak than it may actually be. The filmmakers use handheld cameras to ground the action to the soldier's eye level, specifically Shroff's eye. We see only what he sees at times, which helps to further draw the audience into Swoff's mind.

The mantra of grunts on the ground in the first Gulf War was "hurry up and wait". Jarhead perfectly captures the essence of this oxymoronic statement as we watch the soldiers attempt to maintain a constant state of readiness as absolutely nothing happens. The lack of action is what makes Jarhead such a fascinating character study. The soldiers are like subjects in a bizarre experiment and the various paths their personal actions take are the scientific results of their exploitation.

Jarhead is dramatic but also quite humorous. The screenplay by Oscar nominee and Vietnam era Marine William Broyles Jr. runs the gamut from sophomoric and crude to sarcastic to absurd black humor. At times the troops in Jarhead resemble a frat house in the middle of the desert, as in an out of control late night Christmas party or some sexual shenanigans in front of visiting reporter observing a desert football game in full chemical warfare gear.

One of the elements of Jarhead that really fascinated me was the way in which sex and violence were linked. George Carlin long ago did a bit about how bombs and bullets all look like male sex organs, a vivid metaphor for the relationship between sex and violence. Jarhead takes a similar metaphoric approach as soldiers openly discuss masturbation in scenes that are crossed with scenes of bonding with their weapons as if that weapon were part of their body. Superior officers played by Chris Cooper and Dennis Haysbert, in minor cameos, talk about the sexual thrill they get from war.

The subtext of Jarhead can be parsed endlessly for many different meanings. One person I know felt the film was openly homoerotic. She felt that the images of shirtless muscular guys in the desert with no women, bonding with one another, masturbating freely without shame and discussing the sexual thrill they get from warfare was some kind of homosexual allegory. I think my friend is stretching a little but it's a testament to how richly metaphoric the script is that such an interpretation cannot be completely dismissed.

There really is a lot to like about Jarhead. The film is at once highly literate and just as often juvenile. The characters, especially Swoff, are vivid, realistic and well observed and Sam Mendes' direction is stronger than it was even in his Oscar winning effort American Beauty. The movie is not for all audiences, especially those easily offended and certainly not for young children, but for people who like complicated characters, metaphors and great all-around filmmaking Jarhead is a must see.