For the first 30 minutes, "Jarhead" seems very similar to many war films that have come before it including "Biloxi Blues" and "Full Metal Jacket." But somewhere in its second or third reel, the film begins to emerge into its own, making us realize we are in for a much different experience than the films that have come before in this genre. The closest thing we have ever seen to this film, in a very minimal way, might be Sam Fuller's "The Big Red One."

The first Gulf War, dubbed "Desert Storm" at the time, was the first real American war since Vietnam. Everything changed for us in this war. For one thing, to a large degree, the war was supported by the American people and, for another, we all presumed it would be a very short war, which it was.

I remember when I was in high school in the 80's and the government decided that you had to register for the draft when you turned 18, no one believed there would ever be another war with soldiers on the ground. We assumed all future wars would be fought with bombs, airplanes and battle ships. To a large degree "Desert Storm" confirmed this idea. This theme is exposed in a very subtle way in "Jarhead."

But there were soldiers on the ground. And "Jarhead" is really about such a group of soldiers. The title of the film comes, as nearly everyone knows, from a slang term for a Marine, since their flattop haircuts tend to make their heads look similar to the shape of a jar. The main players here are Jake Gyllenhaal in the lead as Swofford, trained to be a sniper; Peter Sarsgaard as his teammate; Lucas Black as a recruit from Baytown, Texas; Jaime Foxx as their Staff Sergeant, a career military man, Evan Jones as a nutty recruit who consistently reminds us of a young Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Brian Geraghty as Fergus, the nerdy one of the bunch.

Gyllenhaal is simply amazing here. He has a scene where he begins to lose his mind that is simply jaw-dropping in its intensity. This is his best performance yet and Gyllenhaal really captures the essence of the soldier lost in the desert in a war he doesn't really understand. The difference here, in what makes the film the antithesis of the majority of the war films that have crossed our path in the latter half of the 20th century, is that Gyllenhaal's Swofford really doesn't seem scared. In fact, what he is looking for is a chance to shoot his gun, to engage in combat. Swofford isn't a gung-ho soldier addicted to violence and bloodshed, but he isn't a pacifist either. A couple of Vietnam films pop up here, including "The Deer Hunter" and "Apocalypse Now," to, in fact, remind us of just different this war is from what the wars of our past have been. Up until 1990, the national consciousness regarding war has been reflected in the "war is hell" mentality of anti-Vietnam protestors. It was also tempered with the psychological understanding of the evolution of thought towards war and its soldiers. Vietnam vets were welcomed home with spit and a middle finger. These vets were welcomed home with cheers and yellow ribbons.

But Swofford and his buddies are lost in a war that holds nothing but frustration and disillusionment for them. The climax of the film here is the ultimate situation of a sniper being cock-blocked, his target being denied him and his mission carried out not by his single well-placed bullet, but a barrage of aircraft bombing that takes the sublime art of killing and replaces it with the messy but effectual ease of the massive destruction of bombing. Swofford, the soldier, is negated and rendered ineffectual and useless by the massive machinery of war. The individual sentient human replaced by the unemotional and detached workings of a modernized, unthinking, robotic machines. The soldiers who will continue to be vital in this new era of warfare are those who, like Dennis Haybert's Major Lincoln, seem to emulate the machines.

So, Swofford and the other soldiers are left, victorious at film's end, yet rendered completely useless and ineffectual in their victory. The testosterone induced violent tendencies held in check by the systematic use of bombs and machines. Their release of violence and killing is denied them leaving them frustrated and ready to burst. The only way to empty their symbolic testicles of its aggravated, churning load is to blast their machine guns repeatedly into the air, discharging their symbolic semen in a allegorical masturbatory process of impotent violent release. They are the first generation in 30 years with a war but also the first generation with a war where they are not really allowed to fight. ### War is a masculine and testosterone driven mechanism. The young men here are propelled by nothing but testosterone and sinewy muscle. Stuck in the desert heat with no females near to help relieve the sexual tension and the boredom, they obsess about the girls left at home, they pick at one and other about these girls, about who is fucking them while they are gone and who would fuck them if the girls were there. The young, muscular, handsome and horny recruits end up in the most homoerotic of situations due to the lack of females. Gyllenhaal, whose masturbation has become frustrated and impotent without a real girl to inspire him, resorts to drinking and wearing the most flimsy of clothing while partying with his rough male counterparts. The boys engage in numerous episodes of rubbing off on one and other and verbally challenging one and other in sexual ways. This is the first modern American war movie to address the homosexual and erotically charged issues involving soldiers stranded together in the era just moments before "Don't ask, don't tell." And, as expected in a movie as faithful to the military experience as this one is, the issue is address not in a confrontational way, but rather in the most subtle and demure ways possible.

"Jarhead" is a masterpiece of modern American filmmaking. Director Sam Mendes actuates the most important issues facing American (and, in fact, all humanity) regarding war since 9/11. His film reminds us in a all too harrowing manner of just how complex and unrealistic war is in this modern age. The last half of the film, where the soldiers travel the burnt-out remnants of the desert, discovering charred bodies and the smudge of oil fires, is certainly the most surreal of war films reflecting the most surreal of war time experiences. Mendes marries the surrealism of modern war to the reality of it in ways that are both troubling and absurd, leaving the viewer, like the soldier, awe struck and amazed. Those who think they are looking at an artistic rendering of war in the last ten years are fooling themselves. This is exactly how ridiculous and sublime war has become.

With "Jarhead," Mendes becomes the most important war film director since Fuller. Like the late director, Mendes understands the reality of war and its importance in the cultural psyche. And, like his predecessor, he understands just how nonsensical and confounding the experience of war can be. Fuller's "The Big Red One" is a masterpiece of modern American filmmaking regarding soldiers in WWII. Mendes' film is its counterpart of modern times.

But unlike Fuller, Mendes does not have a war with honor and reason to act as the backdrop for all the insanity. Instead, Mendes' film is the juxtaposition of the absurdity of war time against the absurdity of modern warfare itself, and instead of imploding in the vortex of incomprehensibility, he somehow retains his focus and emerges with a story of immense meaning and emotion still cemented into the reality of war. His trick, as was Fuller's, is to concentrate on the humanity and the people and show their reactions to their predicament. His trick, as was Fuller's, is that he does nothing here but keep it real. His trick, as was Fuller's, is to show the little picture within the big picture allowing the viewer to connect, observe, partake, and break down. When the film is over, we have all become "Jarheads;" we are all lost in the aftermath of war. The soldiers we have just come to know are ourselves reflected back to us through the empty jar of modern war itself.

Notes:

Also with Chris Cooper.

Score by Thomas Newman. Cinematography by Roger Deakins.

Williams Broyles wrote the screenplay based on Anthony Swofford's book.

Filmed in California with Imperial Valley doubling for Iraq. Some U.S. soldiers actually trained in this area due to its similarities to Iraq. The mountains were CGI'ed out. Some shots also done in a soundstage with burning oil wells added by ILM.

Tobey Maguire and Leonardo DiCaprio vied for the role of Swofford.

Viewed in Austin in November, 2005.

Report Card

Script: A+

Acting: A+

Cinematography\Lighting: A+

Special Effects\Make Up: A+

Music: A+

Final Grade: A+