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By CityJarhead
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JarheadWelcome to the Suck!
2005-11-10
Article Written by: Sami Jo
Jarhead ( 'jär-"hed ) noun A slang term for a Marine.
In the eye-opening military flick, Jarhead, Academy Award winning director Sam Mendes ( American Beauty ) takes us to the Iraqi desert during the Gulf War. Screenwriter William Broyles, Jr. ( Cast Away ) adapted the film from a 2003 Gulf War memoir of the same title, which was written by Anthony Swofford. In the movie, Swofford, who served as a third generation enlistee in the United States Marine Corps during Desert Shield in 1990, is portrayed brilliantly by Jake Gyllenhaal ( The Day After Tomorrow ). His extraordinary performance shows Swofford as an intelligent yet anxious twenty year-old heading into combat for the first time.
Jarhead intellectually weaves through politics and the daily life of American soldiers at war, showing that the soldiers spend much of their days going through vigorous training and hydrating only to return home without having fired their weapons. It is more of a glimpse into the life of a soldier than an actual story. The film brings to life many aspects of a soldier's life in a new and thought-provoking manner. For example, in one eerie yet empowering scene, the Jarheads watch an attack sequence from Apocalypse Now to pump themselves up for war. It's obvious that each soldier has seen the film many times before, and it is almost disturbing (but understandable) that the soldiers get such stamina from watching such horrific scenes from war.
Jarhead even shows women in a different light than most war films. Women are not shown as inspiration to bring soldiers home safely from war. Instead, they are deserters and adulterers whose pictures, which once brought the men such ecstasy, now get posted on the platoon's Wall of Shame. One soldier puts in a movie only to find that his wife recorded over the film with a home video of herself with their neighbor. The wife was clearly seeking revenge for something, but the entire platoon got to see her infidelity and the soldier's pain and rage as he saw it.
Gyllenhaal gives the performance of his career as he puts a face on the many Marines who have served the country. Jamie Foxx (Academy Award winning actor from Ray ) once again brings his charm to the big screen as he plays Sergeant Sykes, a Marine lifer who does things by the book. Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey) plays a die-hard Marine who would do anything to stay in the Corps. Character actor Chris Cooper (who won an Academy Award for his performance in Adaptation ) even has a small role as Lt. Col. Kazinski, a leader that provides his troops with confidence.
It's hard to think of Jarhead as just another movie when our country currently has thousands of soldiers deployed in Iraq . A person can't help but wonder how realistic the film is compared what current soldiers are experiencing in the desert. One might even argue that this is what great filmmaking is all about: suspending one's mind so that the line between reality and film is hard to see. Before you run off to the theater, let's get rid of some of those preconceived notions: Jarhead is not overly political and it's not an explosive war film. It's a film about the life of a Marine.
Final Thought: To make the most of this movie-going experience, I suggest you buff up on your Marine lingo at http://www.jarheadmovie.com/welcometothesuck.html. After all, while a tie is still a tie, a shirt becomes a blouse once you enter boot camp.
