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Jarhead |
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By : Suzanne Philips |
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| A young man named Anthony Swofford
(Jake Gyllenhaal) makes a decision to join the Marines instead of attending
college. There he is recruited into an elite sniper squad run by a demanding
Staff Sergeant (Jamie Foxx) and is sent to Saudi Arabia with his squad to
fight in Desert Storm. Based on the best-selling book by Swofford, JARHEAD is directed by Sam Mendes of AMERICAN BEAUTY fame. While I am not a big "war-film", I did quite like JARHEAD. Mendes does a wonderful job, as he did in AMERICAN BEAUTY of finding the humor that truly in inherent in daily life. There are some wonderfully funny scenes and a lot of laughter in this film. None of this felt forced and was quite believable in this film. For example, when the Marines are first sent to the Middle East, they spend a lot of time waiting to do something instead of actually doing something. This makes them all a bit "stir-crazy" and they invent ways to keep themselves from going insane. This is demonstrated well in a scene where a TV crew has come to film some of the soldiers and Foxx's character instructs the Marines to play a football game in the 112 degree heat wearing their full protective clothing and masks. This quickly disintegrates into a situation that the Military would not want filmed! Mendes does a nice job of using silence in many of the scenes to show a kind of inner-thought process of some of the actors. This then enables him to contrast with the extreme volume of the sounds of war. While this is a war film and there is some violence, I really appreciated that Mendes took the high road and didn't make it a big blood-and-guts-fest. When he does choose to show the violence or the aftermath, it makes a much bigger impact that it would if he had constantly bombarded you with graphic violent images. The acting in the film is really topnotch. Jamie Foxx is outstanding as the gruff Staff Sergeant who actually has a heart of gold. He can be both funny and demanding and it just seems really natural. You never get the sense that he is acting. Jake Gyllenhaal really shines as Swofford. His character has an amazing emotional arc and you can really see him grow and change right before your eyes. Not to give too much away, but he has some great emotional scenes where he just "looses" it and it is amazing to watch. Also of note are Peter Sarsgaard (Flightplan, Kinsey) and Chris Cooper (Time to Kill, Bourne Supremacy) who are both excellent in this film - but really when are they not?!?!?! Please note if you are going to check this film out, there is some nudity and some disturbing images so it is probably not one for small kids, but I think it is worth checking out for the performances and direction alone. 3 1/2 out of 5 p.s. Also saw a trailer for the new Eric Bana (Troy) film MUNICH directed by Steven Spielberg which looks INCREDIBLE. Waiting for this one! |