Feature Review: Jarhead
Written by: Susan Granger

MODA MAG.COM -- When you make a film about the tedium of war, you run the risk of making a boring film - and Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes ("American Beauty") falls into that trap. Part coming-of-age story, part male-bonding camaraderie, part meditation on the constant fear of annihilation, mixed with frustration, in an Arabian desert combat zone, it's a depressing outing, at best.
     
The story follows a confused, third-generation Marine, Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal), from boot camp in 1989 to the Gulf War and back home again. Because he's obviously more intelligent than the other oversexed grunts and he's able to hit a target with a rifle, "Swoff" is trained as a sniper. But in the abbreviated desert warfare against "Saddam Insane," he never gets to prove his worth. Instead, he fantasizes and masturbates with crude, graphic machismo.
     
Based on Anthony Swofford's memoir, William Broyles Jr.'s ambivalent "Jarhead" screenplay tries to be "Full Metal Jacket" but fails. Jake Gyllenhaal, who beat out both Leonardo Di Caprio and Tobey Maguire for the "everyman" role, hardly distinguishes himself, particularly when he romps nude with a Santa hat covering his privates. As the gung-ho Staff Sergeant, Jamie Foxx is far more poignant and note Peter Sarsgaard's subtlety as Swoff's conflicted scout-sniper partner.
     
Two scenes are most memorable. In one, the troops are exhilarated watching the helicopter attack in "Apocalypse Now," which, ironically, Francis Ford Coppola intended as anti-Vietnam War. In the second, they watch sabotaged Saudi oil wells burning on the horizon, emphasizing the subtext of why they were sent to the Persian Gulf in the first place. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Jarhead" is a surreal, sadistic 6. It's all about waiting for something to happen.

Rated: 6/10