Jarhead

“Every war is different, every war is the same.”

Currently in movie world, there seem to be two men who can do no wrong, one of them is actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who, after shooting to fame as Donnie Darko has continued to perform consistently and watch his star rise in several films. The other man who can do no wrong is Britain’s very own Sam Mendes; Sam is apparently a lovely bloke. But he is also a pretty amazing director. With only two previous films (American Beauty and Road to Perdition) to his name he has rapidly become one of the most admired directors of the past 50 years.
So what happens when you take one of America’s hottest actor and team him with one of Britain’s hottest director?

You get Jarhead.
One of the best films of the year by a long way, and we’re only in January. Released on the 13th of January, Jarhead is the film version of Anthony Swofford’s autobiography of the same name. Which tells the personal story of a rookie sniper during the 1990 Gulf War. Gyllenhaal plays Swofford in the film, and brings to the role the same loveable yet conflicted character that we’ve seen before in his performances, most notably, Donnie Darko. Joining “Swoff” on the battlegrounds of the Gulf are a troop of fellow marines including spotter Troy (Played wonderfully by Peter Sarsgaard) and Staff Sgt. Sykes (Portrayed by last years Oscar winner Jamie Foxx)

The thing that makes Jarhead different from other films out there, especially war films is that Jarhead doesn’t have a political stance; it’s not for, or against war. It shows that war’s actually a bit of a waste of time as “Swoff” only actually gets what he counts as a war for 4 hours, the rest of the 386 days he’s preparing for war, while in the desert. The film shows the training of the snipers and how anxious they are to have their own Vietnam, where they can kill lots and return home as heroes. However, when they get to Iraq, they spend most of their time training, partying, and getting paranoid about what their wives and girlfriends are doing back home.

Jarhead is fascinating, as it never sags at any point of the film, the cinematography alone making your eyes widen with amazement. The script switches constantly from moments of comedy, to moments of drama, to moments of action, much like you imagine a real war would be like.

If you see one film this year it should be Jarhead, not only is it that good, not only do the troops originally go to war to “Protect oil fields” but also I really couldn’t find any negatives about it. It’s rare to say in any field that someone has the ‘Midas Touch’ but I’m starting to think that maybe Sam Mendes does. As Jarhead is his best film yet.