Jarhead (US - DVD R1)
Are you listening to me, soldier? Read the review of this war movie, ricky tick!
Jarhead failed to set the box office alight and fell foul of the critics upon its release. Now that we can revisit it on DVD, is Sam Mendes’ third film a failure or a misunderstood masterpiece?

Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name, Jarhead tells the story of Anthony Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhall), a young man who was born to join the Marines, and did so in 1989. Shortly after joining, he realises he may have made a bad decision and makes some unsuccessful attempts to leave. We follow his journey from new recruit, through his training as a sniper and his eventual tour of duty in the first Gulf war.
Swoff’s deployment to the Middle East does not follow the typical war movie path: it takes six months from leaving the USA to actually seeing some action. I don’t consider it a spoiler to tell you that Swoff doesn’t use his weapon because in reality this is a story about the effects not being in a war has on a young, eager soldier.
The movie starts with a very light-hearted atmosphere. Following Swoff’s initial bullying by his squad mates, he eventually bonds with his fellow recruits and forms a friendship with Alan Troy (played by Peter Sarsgaard). The tone goes downhill slowly from here. Upon arrival in the Middle East, the recruits are still full of banter and practical jokes but they think they are going off to war. They actually find themselves on permanent standby, constantly training and waiting to go into battle and a large part of the film consists of the Marines trying to occupy their time before they finally get to go into battle.

Jarhead is a departure for Sam Mendes, in the sense that he leaves behind the family theme of his previous films and instead chooses to focus mainly on a group of men with nothing to do but play jokes on each other, bet on fights between scorpions they find in the desert and do the things that lonely men do when the only female company they have is pictures of their girlfriends and wives.
‘F*** politics. We’re here. All the rest is bulls***.’
Sam Mendes is not the most prolific director and Jarhead was hotly anticipated as an anti-war opus that would open our eyes to the reality of the current war in Iraq and to spark political debate. Unfortunately for the critics, this was not the case. There is political commentary, but it’s not thrust in your face and the main drive of the story is always the exploits of Swofford and his descent into near-madness through boredom and the constant fear that his girlfriend back home is cheating on him.

Some subtle points are made that are relevant though. For example, a lot of the soldiers’ equipment is faulty and it is obvious to the viewer that many of the problems the Marines had in the first Gulf War still need to be addressed today and the US Army hasn’t learned the lesson. These scenes are incidental to the main narrative and never seem preachy but the occurrences of friendly fire, experimental drugs and oil-well fires (and the almost complete lack of date-stamping within the film) suggest that this could easily have been filmed in the current war in Iraq.
Sam Mendes is a director with a flair for visual devices and uses his directorial bag of tricks that will be familiar to fans of American Beauty and The Road To Perdition. He is a director that wants to remind us that we’re watching a fabrication through the use of freeze-frame, narration, different styles (e.g. interviews, POV shots) and fantasy sequences. It is the fantasy sequences that caused the most difficulty for Mendes (as he mentions on the commentary). The novel has many fantasy sequences and he admits that it was difficult to translate all of them to the screen and keep them in a style that matches the rest of the film. This is probably my biggest gripe with the film. In my opinion, it would have been a more consistent viewing experience as a purely reality-based movie or a Terry Gilliam style out-and-out fantasy/reality melting pot.

The performances of the leads are strong, although Peter Sarsgaard has been purposely edited down to a mysterious character. This has both a positive and negative effect. You’re not quite sure what motivates his character and you feel like you want to find out more but it also takes a lot of the emotion that we’re supposed to feel away from the relationship between him and Jake Gyllenhaal, who convincingly plays an uneasy ex-civilian and his physique could not be more different to the slight Donnie Darko.
Jarhead is a mixed bag and has many relevant and funny moments but I felt that the film was worth less than the sum of its parts. It is not a grandstanding political film but if you approach it as a study of one man’s journey through the Marine Corps to the Middle East and back again, you can still have a positive viewing experience.
Jarhead is a good looking film. Some early training scenes feature high-contrast sunlight that becomes familiar when the story moves to the desert. These scenes have been transferred to DVD well and the brightness does not cause outline or edge problems with the characters on-screen. The later scenes set in the burning oil fields are much darker but also work well, with no obvious compression in the large black shadows.

The soundtrack is adequate for a war movie without ever being showy. There are occasional scenes with helicopters and planes buzzing around from one channel to another but large parts of the film are filled with young men either talking or shouting, sometimes with contemporary music over the top. That said, there are no problems with the sound quality and it does the job.
Commentaries are available on all extra features, and by the time you make it through all of them you have a real understanding of the original book and the film-making process (although any kind of ‘Making of’ is quite notable by its absence). The commentaries from Sam Mendes on both the feature and the deleted scenes are quite revealing, and I would say from his point of view the points he makes are possibly too revealing. He discusses his own difficulties with translating some parts of the book to film and integrating the fantasy scenes, which made me think more about his limitations as a director, rather than increasing my appreciation of the film. The feature commentary from the screenwriter (a Vietnam vet) and Swoff himself is valuable to the viewer in helping us to understand the realism of the film. Jamie Foxx in particular receives plaudits from Swoff for his believable portrayal of a drill sergeant.
The deleted scenes are a mixture of whole scenes and extended versions of scenes that made it into the film. They are all worth watching because they develop the characters more and highlight the skills of the actors when you know (from the commentary) that some scenes are almost completely improvised. One of the most interesting deleted scenes is the original opening, with Sam Rockwell as Swoff’s uncle who talks to him about war and being in the Marines.

Having made it through the movie and all the features, I feel it was a dry experience and it is apparent to me that Sam Mendes did his best to bring a thought-provoking story to the screen but the end result in somewhat lacking. There are a number of genuinely funny moments and the cinematography is impressive—particularly the shots of burning oil fields and while the extras add to the understanding of the film—but I can’t bring myself to recommend buying Jarhead because I don’t think there’s enough in the feature to warrant repeated viewings. You should probably put it somewhere in your rental list, just not at the top.

Feature
Based on the autobiographical novel of the same name, Jarhead tells the story of Anthony Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhall), a young man who was born to join the Marines, and did so in 1989. Shortly after joining, he realises he may have made a bad decision and makes some unsuccessful attempts to leave. We follow his journey from new recruit, through his training as a sniper and his eventual tour of duty in the first Gulf war.
Swoff’s deployment to the Middle East does not follow the typical war movie path: it takes six months from leaving the USA to actually seeing some action. I don’t consider it a spoiler to tell you that Swoff doesn’t use his weapon because in reality this is a story about the effects not being in a war has on a young, eager soldier.
The movie starts with a very light-hearted atmosphere. Following Swoff’s initial bullying by his squad mates, he eventually bonds with his fellow recruits and forms a friendship with Alan Troy (played by Peter Sarsgaard). The tone goes downhill slowly from here. Upon arrival in the Middle East, the recruits are still full of banter and practical jokes but they think they are going off to war. They actually find themselves on permanent standby, constantly training and waiting to go into battle and a large part of the film consists of the Marines trying to occupy their time before they finally get to go into battle.

Jarhead is a departure for Sam Mendes, in the sense that he leaves behind the family theme of his previous films and instead chooses to focus mainly on a group of men with nothing to do but play jokes on each other, bet on fights between scorpions they find in the desert and do the things that lonely men do when the only female company they have is pictures of their girlfriends and wives.
‘F*** politics. We’re here. All the rest is bulls***.’
Sam Mendes is not the most prolific director and Jarhead was hotly anticipated as an anti-war opus that would open our eyes to the reality of the current war in Iraq and to spark political debate. Unfortunately for the critics, this was not the case. There is political commentary, but it’s not thrust in your face and the main drive of the story is always the exploits of Swofford and his descent into near-madness through boredom and the constant fear that his girlfriend back home is cheating on him.

Some subtle points are made that are relevant though. For example, a lot of the soldiers’ equipment is faulty and it is obvious to the viewer that many of the problems the Marines had in the first Gulf War still need to be addressed today and the US Army hasn’t learned the lesson. These scenes are incidental to the main narrative and never seem preachy but the occurrences of friendly fire, experimental drugs and oil-well fires (and the almost complete lack of date-stamping within the film) suggest that this could easily have been filmed in the current war in Iraq.
Sam Mendes is a director with a flair for visual devices and uses his directorial bag of tricks that will be familiar to fans of American Beauty and The Road To Perdition. He is a director that wants to remind us that we’re watching a fabrication through the use of freeze-frame, narration, different styles (e.g. interviews, POV shots) and fantasy sequences. It is the fantasy sequences that caused the most difficulty for Mendes (as he mentions on the commentary). The novel has many fantasy sequences and he admits that it was difficult to translate all of them to the screen and keep them in a style that matches the rest of the film. This is probably my biggest gripe with the film. In my opinion, it would have been a more consistent viewing experience as a purely reality-based movie or a Terry Gilliam style out-and-out fantasy/reality melting pot.

The performances of the leads are strong, although Peter Sarsgaard has been purposely edited down to a mysterious character. This has both a positive and negative effect. You’re not quite sure what motivates his character and you feel like you want to find out more but it also takes a lot of the emotion that we’re supposed to feel away from the relationship between him and Jake Gyllenhaal, who convincingly plays an uneasy ex-civilian and his physique could not be more different to the slight Donnie Darko.
Jarhead is a mixed bag and has many relevant and funny moments but I felt that the film was worth less than the sum of its parts. It is not a grandstanding political film but if you approach it as a study of one man’s journey through the Marine Corps to the Middle East and back again, you can still have a positive viewing experience.
Video
Jarhead is a good looking film. Some early training scenes feature high-contrast sunlight that becomes familiar when the story moves to the desert. These scenes have been transferred to DVD well and the brightness does not cause outline or edge problems with the characters on-screen. The later scenes set in the burning oil fields are much darker but also work well, with no obvious compression in the large black shadows.

Audio
The soundtrack is adequate for a war movie without ever being showy. There are occasional scenes with helicopters and planes buzzing around from one channel to another but large parts of the film are filled with young men either talking or shouting, sometimes with contemporary music over the top. That said, there are no problems with the sound quality and it does the job.
Extras
Commentaries are available on all extra features, and by the time you make it through all of them you have a real understanding of the original book and the film-making process (although any kind of ‘Making of’ is quite notable by its absence). The commentaries from Sam Mendes on both the feature and the deleted scenes are quite revealing, and I would say from his point of view the points he makes are possibly too revealing. He discusses his own difficulties with translating some parts of the book to film and integrating the fantasy scenes, which made me think more about his limitations as a director, rather than increasing my appreciation of the film. The feature commentary from the screenwriter (a Vietnam vet) and Swoff himself is valuable to the viewer in helping us to understand the realism of the film. Jamie Foxx in particular receives plaudits from Swoff for his believable portrayal of a drill sergeant.
The deleted scenes are a mixture of whole scenes and extended versions of scenes that made it into the film. They are all worth watching because they develop the characters more and highlight the skills of the actors when you know (from the commentary) that some scenes are almost completely improvised. One of the most interesting deleted scenes is the original opening, with Sam Rockwell as Swoff’s uncle who talks to him about war and being in the Marines.

Overall
Having made it through the movie and all the features, I feel it was a dry experience and it is apparent to me that Sam Mendes did his best to bring a thought-provoking story to the screen but the end result in somewhat lacking. There are a number of genuinely funny moments and the cinematography is impressive—particularly the shots of burning oil fields and while the extras add to the understanding of the film—but I can’t bring myself to recommend buying Jarhead because I don’t think there’s enough in the feature to warrant repeated viewings. You should probably put it somewhere in your rental list, just not at the top.
Review by Scott McKenzie
Advertisements
Existing Posts
Why don't people understand the difference between calling someone a name because they have a differing opinion and simply stating that they happen to disagree?
I loved this movie.....a different take on the Gulf War. I thought the picture quality was superb.
Eliason A. wrote: Modern masterpiece. Loved the ride.
right on!
right on!
Theodore Bell wrote: LMAO! The irony of course is that you're threatening to ban me for having an opinion different to your own - the exact reason WHY you're threatening to ban me. Oh dear...
You called Scott a moron, that's a personal attack designed to antagonize. There are more positive ways of expressing opinion that do not involve potentially offending others.
You called Scott a moron, that's a personal attack designed to antagonize. There are more positive ways of expressing opinion that do not involve potentially offending others.
Chris wrote: Any more comments like that and you'll receive a ban. I won't tolerate personal attacks on contributors just because you don't have the maturity to accept that others may have opinions that differ from your own.
LMAO! The irony of course is that you're threatening to ban me for having an opinion different to your own - the exact reason WHY you're threatening to ban me. Oh dear...
LMAO! The irony of course is that you're threatening to ban me for having an opinion different to your own - the exact reason WHY you're threatening to ban me. Oh dear...
I completely agree with this review. The movie ended and I was like.. "sooo whaaaat?!". Nothing happens at all.
I thought it fell flat on whatever message it was trying to deliver.
I thought it fell flat on whatever message it was trying to deliver.
Modern masterpiece. Loved the ride.
Theodore Bell wrote: Here, here. I guess the perfect example would be morons like this Scott who reviewed it.
Any more comments like that and you'll receive a ban. I won't tolerate personal attacks on contributors just because you don't have the maturity to accept that others may have opinions that differ from your own.
Any more comments like that and you'll receive a ban. I won't tolerate personal attacks on contributors just because you don't have the maturity to accept that others may have opinions that differ from your own.
Theodore Bell wrote: Here, here. I guess the perfect example would be morons like this Scott who reviewed it.
Oi. No need for that, Theodore. Opinions are like assholes though, everyone's got one
Oi. No need for that, Theodore. Opinions are like assholes though, everyone's got one

I skipped this in favor of the FX series Over*There. Much better story.
The last thing I wanna do is watch a whole "war" movie that mirrors the first half of Full Metal Jacket. I watch war movies for the "hours of shear terror". Not for the "hours of shear boredom".
----------------
The whole problem with the Gulf War was that there was no journalist coverage. The Coalition did engage in several impressive battles, but there was no one there (read: imbedded journalists) to cover the action. Basically there was no combat footage to show the world what transpired over those 100 hours. The Battle of Medina Ridge was a major tank engagement between a battalion of M1A1 tanks and a bunch of Republican Guard T-72s and there was no combat footage of any of it. However the film, Courage Under Fire sort of alludes to this battle with one of its scenes.
The last thing I wanna do is watch a whole "war" movie that mirrors the first half of Full Metal Jacket. I watch war movies for the "hours of shear terror". Not for the "hours of shear boredom".
----------------
The whole problem with the Gulf War was that there was no journalist coverage. The Coalition did engage in several impressive battles, but there was no one there (read: imbedded journalists) to cover the action. Basically there was no combat footage to show the world what transpired over those 100 hours. The Battle of Medina Ridge was a major tank engagement between a battalion of M1A1 tanks and a bunch of Republican Guard T-72s and there was no combat footage of any of it. However the film, Courage Under Fire sort of alludes to this battle with one of its scenes.
rebel-scum wrote: The deleted scenes show what this film could have been, but a lot of the humour has been sucked out. Shame.
Yeah, I thought the film would have been even greater if they had incorporated the Swoff Fantasies into it. To bad they weren`t.
Yeah, I thought the film would have been even greater if they had incorporated the Swoff Fantasies into it. To bad they weren`t.
CryptsKeeper wrote: This is one of the most misunderstood movies ever. I saw it and thought it was fantastic.
Here, here. I guess the perfect example would be morons like this Scott who reviewed it.
Here, here. I guess the perfect example would be morons like this Scott who reviewed it.
Dustin wrote: Great review, Scott.
Respect
Respect
Great movie, I was in the Marine Corp about the same time this guy was and I understood it perfectly..I did NOT say I AGREE with the message, but, I understood where the dude was coming from...
Not to mention Jake G. is on hot dude with those muscles...LOL
Not to mention Jake G. is on hot dude with those muscles...LOL
This has been lingering on my Netflix que for ages. I'll get to it one of these days. I just finally saw Brokeback and Nobody Knows.
I think it's one of best war films since Buffalo Soldiers and Black Hawk Down
"Jarhead" was good but not the great movie it could have been. There were some very intresting things going on but some of them felt underdeveloped. My rating is a 6.5/10.
Great review, Scott.
I watched it once, saw what it was trying to accomplish, but will never watch it again. The deleted scenes show what this film could have been, but a lot of the humour has been sucked out. Shame.
This is one of the most misunderstood movies ever. I saw it and thought it was fantastic.
I personally disagree with you`re review scott, but I`m not going to bash it because I know exactly where you are coming from. Jarhead is a love or hate type film IMO, and even though I consider it to be a masterpiece, I can see why people would be annoyed or disappointed in the film. It`s all a matter of taste. Good review.


Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian
Disc Details
Release Date:
7th March 2006
Discs:
1
Disc Type:
Single side, dual layer
RCE:
No
Video:
NTSC
Aspect:
2.35:1
Anamorphic:
Yes
Colour:
Yes
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 English
Subtitles:
English, Spanish, French
Extras:
Swoff's Fantasies, News Interviews In Full, Deleted Scenes, Feature Commentary With Sam Mendes, Feature Commentary With Screenwriter William J Broyles and Author Anthony J Swofford
Easter Egg:
No
Feature Details
Director:
Sam Mendes
Cast:
Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper
Genre:
Comedy, Drama and War
Length:
123 minutes
Ratings
Amazon.com
FOLLOW DVDACTIVE
Follow our updates
OTHER INTERESTING STUFF
Award Winning





Latest News





Unseen Reviews





Most Talked About




