Jarhead (2005)

A relatively new conflict, the Gulf War has only recently begun to be looked studied. So in 2003 when Anthony Swofford released his autobiographical book Jarhead it became an immediate world-wide sensation. Recounting his time as a member of STA (pronounced stay), Swofford gave a largely ignorant audience an angry, sexual, apathetic view of a largely irrelevant war. What makes his book so fascinating (I am in the process of reading it, and it is terrific) is that it is not some left-wing civilian blowing smoke and teasing us with statistics, but is a defamatory account from a man who dreamed of being a marine from a very young age who had his heart broken.

It is no surprise then that the opportunity to adapt the book for the screen was jumped at. Playing Swofford is Jake Gyllenhaal, acted the same year as "Brokeback Mountain", the year that made him a household name. Swofford is a part of an elite fighting force of snipers and scouts, highly trained and highly deadly. But this is no film about great battles and blood and explosions; it is rather a grim portrait of the endless drudgery and boredom that faces a jarhead, or anyone serving in the armed forces I suspect, and the humorous, idiotic, dangerous ways that these men keep themselves entertained.

Swofford's story is remarkable, but largely only because it is so novel to me as Joe Schmoe. His anecdotes of burning tubs of human feces, homoerotic games like "field-fuck", cock fights where deadly scorpions are substituted for roosters are probably all rather routine for the normal grunt. To me, however, it is a whole new world. Pervading their jokes and brawls and false machismo there is a deep, engulfing sadness that runs concurrent to the episodic nature of the story. For every drunken party there is a wife at home screwing the neighbor; for every baby born a man is becoming a hollow, nervous shell of his former self.

As a story the film is great. As a movie the film is not. I think most of this can be attributed to Gyllenhaal. Well, maybe that's a bit unforgiving. It can be attributed to the casting director, rather. Gyllenhaal is a fine actor and some of the work he produces, here and elsewhere, is very beautiful. From Swofford's book, though, I got the distinct sense that Swofford is both an aggressive man and highly intelligent, which makes him especially dangerous. He reads Albert Camus, he comes close to killing his platoon mate. Gyllenhaal's baby face isn't the least bit frightening, nor does he seem particularly smart. In the end, although his performance was good, it felt watered down from what it could have been.

Sure, an argument can be made that director Sam Mendes was trying to present the life of an ordinary grunt, but STA members are not ordinary. They are extraordinary, and that requires an extraordinary leading man acting an extraordinary character, of which we had neither. The backbone of the movie is Jamie Foxx as Staff Sgt. Sykes and Peter Sarsgaard who gives a bravura performance as Alan Troy, a politically aware, humane drug-dealer who helped lead Swofford. They are extraordinary characters yet they remained supporting roles.

It is a crisp, clear, stark film with some tightly directed scenes and some good FX. The climax is particularly impactful. Swofford's one perfect shot going up in the flames of millions of taxpayers' dollars is a great irony. If the whole film could have been as strong or edgy as that scene or a handful of standout others then the movie could have been the "The Hurt Locker" before Kathryn Bigelow was even a thing.

2.5/4