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Jarhead (film)

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Jarhead
Theatrical release poster
Directed bySam Mendes
Screenplay byWilliam Broyles, Jr.
Produced byDouglas Wick
Lucy Fisher
StarringJake Gyllenhaal
Peter Sarsgaard
Chris Cooper
Jamie Foxx
CinematographyRoger Deakins
Edited byWalter Murch
Music byThomas Newman
Distributed byUniversal Pictures
Release dates
  • November 4, 2005 (2005-11-04) (United States)
  • November 5, 2005 (2005-11-05) (Germany)
Running time
123 minutes
CountriesUnited States
Germany
LanguagesEnglish
Arabic
Budget$72 million
Box office$96,889,998[1]

Jarhead is a 2005 biographical drama war film based on U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's 1991 Gulf War memoir of the same name, directed by Sam Mendes, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford with co-stars Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard, and Chris Cooper. The title comes from the slang term used to refer to U.S. Marines (sometimes by Marines themselves).

Plot

In 1989, Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) is being trained in a U.S. Marine Corps boot camp by the choleric, hard-boiled Drill Instructor Fitch (Scott MacDonald). After finishing boot camp, "Swoff" is dispatched to Camp Pendleton.

Swoff then explains how he tried to fit into civilian life. He thought about going to college but he instead joins 'shows' some highlights of his life including taking a 'dump' and 'studying' (having sexual intercourse) with his girlfriend; who later cheats on him.

Swofford finds boot camp tough as he struggles through making friends and living day to day. He then writes "fuck it" on a light billboard with large letters before the movie cuts to him sitting in the head. In the head trying to be "sick" (by drinking a whole bottle of liquid laxative), is slipped food under the door before he is approached by Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), a Marine "lifer" who invites Swofford to his Scout Sniper course. After arduous training sessions that claim the life of one candidate, Swofford is one of the 8 remaining from the original 60 candidates and is selected to be trained as a sniper and paired with his roommate Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), who becomes Swofford's spotter. During all of this Swoff is put through his paces and learns a variety of sniper techniques. Although he first thinks of it as a joke, he starts to fall in love with the idea of getting to kill someone. Shortly after, Kuwait is invaded by Iraq and Swofford's unit is dispatched to the Persian Gulf as a part of Operation Desert Shield. Although the Marines are very eager to see combat action, they are forced to hydrate, wait, patrol the nearby area and adjust themselves to the arid environment. A main technique suggested for boredom and loneliness is masturbation. During the waiting period the "wall of shame" is shown and as Swoff is looking at it a fellow Marine (Fowler) teases Swoff that its only a matter of time before Swoff's girl is up there. this majorly plays on Swoff's mind throughout his deployment.

During an impromptu Christmas party thrown by Swofford, who has obtained unauthorized alcohol, Fergus (Brian Geraghty), a member of Swofford's unit, accidentally sets fire to a tent and a crate of flares. Swofford gets the blame because he was supposed to be on watch but had Fergus sit in for him. As a consequence, Swofford is demoted from Lance Corporal (E-3) to Private (E-1) and is forced to undertake the degrading task of burning "diesel fuel" (excrement). The punishments, the heat and the boredom, combined with suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity and feelings of isolation, temporarily drive Swofford to the point of mental breakdown. He threatens and nearly shoots fellow Marine Fergus then turns the weapon on himself and demands the traumatized Fergus to shoot him. When Fergus refuses Swofford leaves the tent.

After the long stand in the desert, Operation Desert Storm, the coalition force's ground campaign, begins. The Marines are dispatched to the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. Briefly before the action begins, Swofford learns from Sykes that Troy concealed his criminal record when enlisting and will be discharged after the end of hostilities. Troy begins to keep distant from his fellow Marines. Knowing that Troy will never be allowed to re-enlist, the Marines brand him with a hot USMC iron, marking him as one of their own. Following an accidental air attack from friendly forces, the Marines advance through the desert, facing no enemies on the ground. The troops march through the Highway of Death, strewn with the burnt vehicles and charred bodies of retreating Iraqi soldiers, the aftermath of a U.S. bombing campaign. Later, the Marines suddenly catch sight of distant burning oil wells, lit only moments before by the retreating Iraqis, and they attempt to dig sleeping holes as a rain of crude oil falls from the sky. Before they can finish them, Sykes orders the squad to move to where the wind prevents the oil from raining on them.

Swofford and Troy are finally given a combat mission. Their order is to shoot two high-ranking officers in Saddam's Republican Guard, holed up at a nearby airfield. At the last second before Swofford takes the shot, a high-ranking US officer interrupts them to call in an air strike. Swofford and Troy vehemently protest but they are overruled and later watch as the planes destroy the Iraqi airfield.

On returning home the troops parade through the towns in a jovial celebration of victory. Swofford returns home to his family and girlfriend, but discovers her with a new boyfriend. Fowler is seen to be with a prostitute in a bar, Kruger (Lucas Black) in a corporate boardroom, Escobar (Laz Alonso) as a supermarket employee, Cortez (Jacob Vargas) as a father of three kids, and Sykes continuing his service as a First Sergeant in Operation Iraqi Freedom. An unspecified amount of time later Swofford learns of Troy's death (the cause of which is never specified) during a surprise visit from Fergus. He attends the funeral, meets some of his old friends, and afterwards he reminisces about the effects of the war.

Cast

Release

Critical response

The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics, registering a 61% rating (54% Cream of the Crop) on Rotten Tomatoes.[2] Roger Ebert gave the movie three-and-a-half out of four stars, crediting it for its unique portrayal of Gulf War Marines who battled boredom and a sense of isolation rather than enemy combatants.[3] Entertainment Weekly magazine gave the film a "B+" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote:

Jarhead isn't overtly political, yet by evoking the almost surreal futility of men whose lust for victory through action is dashed, at every turn, by the tactics, terrain, and morality of the war they're in, it sets up a powerfully resonant echo of the one we're in today".[4]

In his review for the Washington Post, Stephen Hunter praised Jake Gyllenhaal's performance: "What's so good about the movie is Gyllenhaal's refusal to show off; he doesn't seem jealous of the camera's attention when it goes to others and is content, for long stretches, to serve simply as a prism through which other young men can be observed".[5] Sight and Sound magazine's Leslie Felperin wrote, "If nothing else, Jarhead provides some kind of reportage of a war whose consequences we haven't yet begun to understand, a war now elbowed into history by its still-raging sequel".[6] USA Today gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "What we're left with is solid if not exceptional, though it's good to see Mendes expanding as a filmmaker".[7] Time magazine's Richard Schickel wrote, "But the best war movies—and this one, despite its being overlong and repetitive, is among them—hold that men fight (or in this case, are ready to fight) not for causes, but to survive and to help their comrades do the same".[8]

However, in his review for The New York Times, A. O. Scott felt that the film was "full of intensity with almost no real visceral impact", and called it "a minor movie about a minor war, and a film that feels, at the moment, remarkably irrelevant".[9] Kenneth Turan in his review for the Los Angeles Times wrote:

Its polished surfaces and professional style can't compete with the gritty reality conveyed by documentaries like Gunner Palace and Occupation: Dreamland — or, for that matter, by the surreal black comedy of David O. Russell's Three Kings — that show in no uncertain terms what it's like to be a soldier in Iraq".[10]

In his review for the Village Voice, J. Hoberman wrote, "A master of the monotone, Mendes prompts his performers to hit a note and sustain it. Although Jarhead is more visually accomplished and less empty than American Beauty or Road to Perdition, it still feels oppressively hermetic".[11]

Nathaniel Fick, another author who is a Marine, gave the film a mixed review (and panned the book on which it is based) in Slate. He wrote, "Jarhead also presents wild scenes that probably could happen in combat units, but strips them of the context that might explain how they're more than sheer lunacy".[12] James Meek, who reported from the battlefields of Iraq, reviewed the film in the pages of The Guardian. He wrote, "The key to a film about war is how it ends, and if the young man at the film's centre is lifted out of the battlefield uninjured and sane, if his family and home life before and after aren't prominent in the picture, the movie is diminished as a film which says something about war and becomes a simpler story of growing up, of jeopardy overcome".[13]

Controversy

It has been suggested that parts of the Jarhead plot were taken from Joel Turnipseed's 2002 Gulf War memoir, Baghdad Express without the author's consent. Jarhead screenwriter William Broyles Jr. has claimed that many similarities arise from the retelling of common Marine experiences.[14]

Accolades

Wins

Nominations

Home media

Released on March 7, 2006, the film is available as a single disc standard version (in both fullscreen and widescreen) and a 2-disc Collector's Edition. Some DVDs came with a pair of dog tags that say "Jarhead" on one side and on the other side, "Welcome to the suck."

The single disc standard version has been included with a protective silver casing, engraved on the front is the shape of a dog tag with the word "Jarhead" written on it.

References

  1. ^ "Jarhead (2005)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  2. ^ "Jarhead". Rotten Tomatoes. Flixter. Retrieved 2011-10-30.
  3. ^ Ebert, Roger (2005-11-04). "Jarhead :: rogerebert.com :: Reviews". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  4. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (2005-11-02). "'Jarhead' Review". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  5. ^ Hunter, Stephen (2005-11-04). "'Jarhead': A Platoon Full of Sand And Grit". Washington Post. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  6. ^ Felperin, Leslie (January 2006). "The Longest Days". Sight and Sound. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  7. ^ Clark, Mike (2005-11-04). "A few good men give 'Jarhead' a solid feel". USA Today. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  8. ^ Schickel, Richard (2005-11-02). "In the Eye of Desert Storm". Time. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  9. ^ Scott, A.O. (2005-11-04). "Soldiers in the Desert, Antsy and Apolitical". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  10. ^ Turan, Kenneth (2005-11-04). "'Jarhead'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2009-05-29. [dead link]
  11. ^ Hoberman, J (2005-10-25). "Weathering the Storm". Village Voice. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  12. ^ Fick, Nathaniel (2005-11-09). "How Accurate Is 'Jarhead'?". Slate. Retrieved 2009-09-24.
  13. ^ Meek, James (2005-12-16). "Visions of hell". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 2009-05-29.
  14. ^ Carr, David (2005-11-09). "'Jarhead': Whose Stories Are They?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
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