Rent Jarhead on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: William Broyles Jr. (screenplay), Anthony Swofford (book)
Directed by: Sam Mendes
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Lucas Black, Peter Sarsgaard
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
A psychological study of U.S. Marine sniper who struggles to cope with boredom, a sense of isolation, and other issues back home during the Gulf War.
Verdict
It's a modern war movie that portrays the endless training and boredom during deployment. They signed up to fight on the front lines, but they don't do any fighting. This depicts how soldiers fill their time while serving a political war. Media portrayals told them they'd have the chance to be heroes and earn medals. Reality is quite a bit different. It's demoralizing to train for one thing, but never get the opportunity to enact that training.
Watch It.
Review
This starts in basic training with a few scenes of Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) yelled at by a drill sergeant as he wonders if enlisting was a smart choice. It's the stereotypical boot camp scenes, but it's just a brief introduction. Swofford gets the chance to attend sniper school. Sixty recruits try, only eight make the cut, and Swofford is one of them.
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| Jake Gyllenhaal plays Anthony Swafford |
The comparison is that the soldiers were recruited or enlisted to fight a war and fire weapons. They're trained and conditioned to fight. When the Iraq war starts, they're deployed and then wait. They're riled up to finally see action, but they have to wait as politicians must talk and reason. In the desert their time is filled with drills, training, and distractions. The most action they see is two scorpion fighting. We see Swofford's boredom. He has plenty of time to worry about his girlfriend back home, fueled by the adverse experiences of everyone else. He's told girlfriends back home always find someone new. He reaches a breaking point after a Christmas party that got him in trouble. He has too much time and not enough to do. Boredom and the lack of a mission breed weariness.
They came to fight, but this is war. It's political maneuvering of troops and a loss of humanity. While they don't fight, they do see death and destruction. After all of the monotony and boredom, Swofford and Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) finally get a mission. They're in position, ready for the one thing they came to Iraq to do, and on the brink the mission is aborted. Troy breaks, arguing with the ranking officer. It's more that he's upset he won't get re-enlisted. He just wanted one shot. He wanted to fulfill his purpose.
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| Peter Sarsgaard, Jake Gyllenhaal plays Alan Troy, Anthony Swafford |
I can't help but think of Full Metal Jacket. That examined boot camp and the perception of war versus what it's actually like. It was the duality of training and reality. Training was rigid and harsh, pushing you to the breaking point. Combat was more relaxed, but horrible in its own way. These were guys drafted into a war they didn't want to fight. With Jarhead, this moves to Irag and the duality of how war is depicted in media versus what it's actually like. These guys wanted to fight but don't get the chance. Soldiers hurry only to wait as the only thing they fight is boredom. They get in position while generals and presidents broker peace. With both movies expectations didn't match the reality.
Swofford trained for war, studied it. During his deployment he didn't fire his gun. That wasn't war nor was it what he was promised or expected.
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