Sam Mendes is a virtuosity film technician. "Jarhead" has an unique, slightly muted but shimmering visual flair that is quite stunning to look at. There is a sequence near the end where the Marines are running toward burning oil fields in Kuwait/Iraq, that is simply breathtaking. It is very unfortunate that all the visual excitement is in the service of a very pointless exercise.
For I have no idea what this film is trying to say.
"Jarhead" is set in the first Iraq War, which was a rather anti-climatic war to base a film on anyway. It follows the protagnist Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) as he joins the Marine (not sure why) and gets sent to Kuwait/Iraq. Once there, he befriends a fellow Marine Troy (Peter Saarsgard) who is obssessed about killing the enemies and seeing some action. Jamie Foxx shows up as a staff sargeant to spice up the film. At one point, Foxx says that he loves this job. However, the film never shows that he enjoys anything that is going on. The film shows lots of exercises, boredom and more boredom before they are sent to a mission that is noticeably without much ado.
Is "Jarhead" an anti-war film? Is it making a commentary about wars and marines in general. In the film, there are references to two great anti-war films, where all the Marines seem to know and love them. "Apocalypse Now" and "The Deer Hunter".
I find it really hard to believe that a group of thrill seeking gung ho Marines would love these two films as they are both rather unflattering portraits of the military. I think it has more to do with Mendes paying homage to them and "Full Metal Jacket" as well, as the beginning sequence is clearly inspired by it. All three films were much more successful in getting their points across.
I really believe Sam Mendes is trying to say something with this film. It maybe that I simply missed the boat on this one.
However, I find "Jarhead" a rather pointless exercise in mega budget filmmaking.
Those burning oil fields sure looked really cool though.
Rated R for nudity, strong sexual content, language, violence and war images
Aspect Ratio: 2.35
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2 comments:
Hi there! Great blog you have here. :) Didn't notice you drop me a message till now. I like it when you sai you are a film lover. Not a film snob or anything but simply a film lover. Same here too. There are so many beautiful films are not and even those that are not good are worthy of appreciation because so much tears and sweat and dreams go along with it.
I love your blog too.
Keep it up.
From Seattle to Singapore!
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