Jarhead
Written by William Broyles Jr.
Directed by Sam Mendes
Universal
2005
Rating:


"Jarhead" is an anomaly: this is an apolitical war film with barely any scenes of combat, a movie that manages to dehumanize the soldier while barely presenting an anti-war message.

Mendes' film, which was adapted by Vietnam veteran William Broyles Jr., is based on the 1991 Persian Gulf War memoir by Anthony Swofford, played here by Jake Gyllenhaal. Gyllenhall's Swof has signed up for the Marines for barely defined reasons — glimpses into a poor family life that apparently prevented him from attending college literally have doors closed on them, keeping the audience out of Swof's inner turmoil — and endures sadistic, R. Lee Ermey-style training before transferring to the Surveillance and Target Acquisition sniper unit of Staff Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx).

The "war is hell" tableaux of post-Vietnam films is replaced by an extended ejaculation metaphor and homoeroticism. There's something courageous about the filmmakers willingness to address the homosocial bond between men who so relish their machismo, yet there's also an obliviousness to the logical follow through of such actions. The way Swof forms a connection with his new company — including Peter Sarsgaard's troubled Troy — is through a mimicry of sexual assault that almost ends with Swof being branded like a cow. If this is the way American soldiers treat each other, the film implies, Abu Ghraib shouldn't have been such a surprise.

The men take breaks from their training by watching war movies like "Apocalypse Now." Swof says the intended anti-war message of the Francis Ford Coppola film doesn't matter to soldiers because its depiction of bloodshed is still like porn. In a recurring theme of ejaculate interruptus, "Apocalypse Now's" napalm scene is cut short by the announcement that the U.S. is going to war to defend Kuwait from Saddam Hussein's invading Iraqi forces.

Cinematographer Roger Deakins, who has most famously brought his impressive lens to bear on the Coen Brothers films "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "The Man Who Wasn't There," rapturously captures the sands of Kuwait and the horrors of the Persian Gulf. Swof and his troops encounter a traffic jam turned into an ashy piece of installation art dedicated to the war's collateral damage, as well as the burning oil fields sending geysers of flames into the night sky. These moments are truly awe-inspiring. They would almost be enough to redeem Mendes' film except that Deakins is rather vigorously emulating the work done by director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel in "Three Kings."

Mendes' films are generally notable only for their artifice and not for their humanity. Depicting a bored surbanite struggling with whether to have sex with a minor without much compassion is one thing, but applying that same technique to soldiers, especially during a war, is a grave misstep. The refusal to present fully realized characters with a rationale behind their blood lust turns "Jarhead" into an anti-soldier film, which wasn't the intention of Swofford's subtle book.

"Jarhead" frequently references war films it doesn't want to have anything to do with, much to the film's detriment. By name-checking, paying homage to and even showing films like "Platoon," "Apocalypse Now," "Full Metal Jacket" and "The Deer Hunter," "Jarhead" only manages to reveal its deep fallacies.

The one that stands out the most is that the film lacks a character that serves as the audience's entry point. There's no Robert De Niro, Martin Sheen, Matthew Modine or Charlie Sheen character. The soldiers of "Jarhead" are all Christopher Walken, Robert Duvall, R. Lee Ermey and Tom Berenger. That's not to say that "Jarhead" needed a flawless character to constantly comment on the FUBAR nature of the war — Sheen's Capt. Willard was pretty FUBAR himself — but the film desperately needs a character with some sliver of sanity to begin with before finally descending into madness.

This failure to bring a psychology to any of the characters undermines great scenes like the anti-climax where Troy begs a commanding officer to let him kill someone. Because Mendes doesn't delve into what drives a man to this point, the CO's decision to bomb the enemy rather than allow a sniper shot seems like little more than a cock block. Swof and Troy are only allowed release when, during an end-of-war celebration, they're allowed to fire their useless guns into the air in an act of full metal masturbation. With a film that refuses to connect with its audience, the biggest act of masturbation belongs to Mendes.

Posted Friday, December 2, 2005

Link to this review:
http://filmzeus.pressbin.com/film/jarhead