Given the current collective revulsion toward the clusterfuck that is our involvement in Iraq right now, it’s hard to imagine people banging down the doors to see Jarhead, which is a shame. Based on Portlander Anthony Swofford’s experience in Desert Storm v. 1.0, director Sam Mendes’ (American Beauty) Gulf War flick is a highly worthy, if flawed, addition to the war film genre.
Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaall), for reasons never fully explained, joined the Marines in 1991 and discovered an aptitude for marksmanship. He also discovered an aptitude for putting up with the brutish ways of Sgt. Siek (Jamie Foxx). Swofford’s unit was called up on the eve of Desert Storm to protect Saudi oil fields and spent the next four months in the oppressive heat, coiled and trigger-happy for an enemy that never appeared.
Using a fast-paced, high-energy style occasionally reminiscent of Fernando Meirelles’ City of God, Mendes paints a vivid portrait of both everyday bunker life and of the adrenaline- and testosterone-fueled soldier mindset. Besides being at the ready for a vilified foreign enemy, the jarheads are bored out of their minds, wasting days fighting scorpions that they find in the desert, creating absurd theatricalities for the media, and swapping sex stories. This banal, carnival-esque atmosphere in the face of a global catastrophe is driven home powerfully by the film’s solid acting and manic direction.
In portraying the soldier mentality, Mendes relies heavily on pounding music to capture the adrenaline-rush mindset of the soldiers as they prepare for war. But the film’s kicking soundtrack becomes problematic when the soldiers fall into real combat, Mendes cues the same jock-rock music, and actual war scenes are thus portrayed as fun, kickass games.
Aside from this quibble, Jarhead is a powerful, entertaining movie—even if you think George Bush is a war criminal.