Jarhead
   
“Jarhead” is a factual story that has been adapted from an autobiographical book of the same name written by disgruntled Gulf War veteran Anthony Swofford. That sadly, however, does not stop it, for the first hour of its two-hour running time at least, from feeling like a “Full Metal Jacket” remake to being a Gulf War version of “Platoon”.
 
Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) is a regular character who joins the marines where soon a chance transfer brings him into an elite sniper's unit. Once there, the training, psychotic company and mind-numbing control quickly alter a group of forty trainees into a squad of eight expert snipers. The marines finally are green lighted for deployment to the Gulf and you experience what marine life must have been like over there, which involved much waiting and not much action. Therefore, while there has hardly ever been any lack of people claiming that war, and in particular the war in Iraq, is meaningless, this movie brings a fresh new angle to that point of view.
 
However, perhaps the biggest surprise of all is that “Jarhead” is not, in the strictest sense, a political protest movie, but is rather a depressing, autobiographical character analysis. Now why the performances are fine, and there is nothing amiss with the detail of the script, other than the sporadic loss of momentum, the basic idea of the movie is problematical to carry off. What, after all, is the point of a war movie that has as its message the pointlessness it all? It is hard to make a point about pointlessness, to keep the movie running within its parameters, and make the audience walk away and feel either entertained or enlightened.
 
Director Sam Mendes would argue, in all likelihood, that what he has shown in this film is the harsh, human portrayal of young people forced into insane conditions under shadowy pretences. Others would argue that he has not been subtle enough in presenting Jarhead's themes; a lot of what happens here is greeted with a pronouncement of how strange things are, and how nothing is turning out, as a soldier would hope it would.
 
This film shows an ironic side to war. Being forced to fight can kill a man, but not being able to fight has its effects also. This movie portrays that every war is different but even if you do not fire one bullet, war is war and it sticks with you forever. As Swofford says, "Every war is different, every war is the same." So, if you are looking for an action-packed war film, do not go to Jarhead. However, if you are looking for a stunningly different portrait of human beings in the military, this one is for you.
 
 
Paul Elliott