Artivels Undescribable Perfection

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

Allison Davies The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Tymon Sutton The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

thomasjay-52277 One of the better war films you'll ever see this movie explores the mind of a soldier more than the setting and action (which do have emphasis payed upon them) and for those reasons is exceptional. Playing on the likes of 'Full Metal Jacket' which has come before and being truly unique there's more of a focus on what's not happening and how the characters pass time which is truly unique. The ending is heartbreaking and also satisfying in equal measure, a great surprise I highly recommend you watch

Tweekums Anthony "Swoff" Swofford could have gone to college; instead he enlisted in the US Marine Corps… he soon starts to wonder if he made the right choice. He isn't very enthusiastic but shows aptitude with a rifle and ends up a Sniper Scout. When Saddam Hussein's forces invade Kuwait in the summer of 1990 it looks as though Swoff and his comrades are about to see action. They deploy to Saudi Arabia and await their orders to cross the border. They wait and they wait and they wait; as the weeks and months pass they stew in the desert and boredom takes its toll. Tempers fray, discipline breaks down and Swoff starts to question his sanity. When the order is finally given the war moves so fast that the Marines are behind the action; all they see is the aftermath of air attacks and burning oil fields then just as it looks as if they are going to see action the war is over.This is unusual for a 'war' movie in that there is so little actual war. Before that we get training scenes that will be familiar to anybody who has seen 'Full Metal Jacket' and the bulk of the film that shows us the marines waiting to go into battle. These scenes impressively capture the boredom and frustration the men suffer. Some of the ill-discipline is rather surprising; one can only hope that it is exaggerated for dramatic effect… especially the scene where Swoff threatens a fellow Marine with a loaded rifle! The scenes showing what the squad see during the war are disturbing without being too upsetting; most notably the night scene amongst the burning oil wells. The cast is solid with Jake Gyllenhaal dominating as Swoff. Overall I'd recommend this to anybody wanting a war film that is somewhat different to most; importantly for a film that is largely about boredom I never found it boring.

zkonedog A few weeks prior to watching "Jarhead" in its entirety, I saw some clips of it on television and thought that perhaps it would be the "Rambo" of our generation. Unfortunately, I was severely disappointed.Basically (Spoiler Alert), the plot of Jarhead follows a Marine Unit (focusing on one solider played by Jake Gyllenhaal) that is called into active duty during Operation Desert Storm. However, "action" is the furthest thing from the minds of the Marines, as they (in the words of their commanding officer) do nothing but "train, hydrate, train, hydrate some more, and maintain a constant state of suspicious alertness". Even when the unit does get the opportunity to carry out a designated mission, they are quickly and easily booted aside by the ever-popular air attacks. As the Gulf War ends, the entire unit has not fired a single shot in aggression throughout the entire campaign.This film did one major thing right, but also seemed to generalize about a number of things that I did not appreciate:What works is the focus on Gyllenhaal's character and the mind-set the he embodies through the entire process. He is pretty much lost when he enters the Marines, but then goes (in stages) from being utterly confused, to angry for enlisting, to ready to fight, to confused once again about his role in the entire process. Though uncomfortable at times (as we prefer to think of our returning soldiers as no less than out and out heroes), it was interesting to see a sampling of the emotions that likely beset our young men and women serving abroad.The main reason the film turned me off a bit, though, is the generalization it made about the U.S. military. Sure, I understand that the ground troops may not have been as effective in a war fought out in the desert, but I cannot bring myself to believe that all military life (while not bombing the crap out of something from above) is boring and pointless. The Marines are still an elite combat unit that serves their country to the utmost, and I don't believe for a second that they find their task to be as boring or inane as director Sam Mendes portrays it. It almost seems as if Mendes (although not overly preachy about it, which was good) was using the example of the Gulf War to cast a pall over the entire current military structure/usefulness.Thus, while Jarhead is a decent film that touches on some uncomfortable social/personal issues surrounding enlistment in the U.S. military, it ultimately fails to live up to my "next Rambo" tag due to a few over-generalizations that could very easily be used to unfairly steer audiences into an anti-military frame of mind.

Ross622 Sam Mendes' Jarhead is the true story of what former marine Anthony Swofford went through before, during, and after the Persian Gulf War. The movie stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford a marine who fired his gun years before the gulf war happened but never got to fire a gun during a time of war. This is truly what I consider to be a great piece of movie making and with both Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx giving the best performances of their entire careers in one of 2005's best films. Director Sam Mendes took the time to create a war movie classic, which goes on a par with Platoon, Saving Private Ryan, Black Hawk Down, The Devil's Brigade, The Deer Hunter, and Patton. This move also shows what the marines have to go through constantly. As Gene Shalit of U.S.A Today "A Masterwork, Jarhead is more than a movie, It's an experience.". I truly agree with that because that is actually what Anthony Swofford went through during his time in the Marine Corps. For those people who are veterans in any military branch or are currently serving right now and if you get to watch this movie it will stay with you for a very long time.