Jarhead

At the beginning heavy-duty boredom that you’ve seen a hundred times in a hundred movies. But later Mendes starts to show us different, more interesting things. Gyllenhaal’s dream-like visions when he pukes up sand, burning oil wells (definite climax of the movie) and soldiers who would do anything to be able to shoot at a live target. Jarhead really is an extraordinary film. It shows the US Army in a different, and maybe finally perhaps a true light. By the way Newman’s soundtrack is just outstanding. (04/26/2007)

I’m thrilled. A slightly different, but no less interesting view of military conflict, which goes the way of depicting the feelings and frustrations that must be experienced by guys trained in elite units only to cover the backs of their colleagues deployed directly in the heat of war. We see their eagerness to fight in the scene where they chant and scream with enthusiasm during a screening of the bombing of a Vietnamese village in Coppola's Apocalypse Now, just as I felt first-hand the frustration of one of the characters at not being able to take part in "it". The impressive scene when, with desperation in his eyes, he begs his superior to shoot at least one soldier, has more power and meaning than half an hour of uninterrupted action. When the protagonist vomits among the charred bodies, the more perceptive viewer will shudder. The apocalyptic image with a horse, greasy with oil all over its body, and the burning oil wells glowing into the darkness in the distance, takes on a kind of mystical beauty thanks to the evocative cinematography. Jake Gyllenhaal continues to grow as an actor and delivers a terrific performance (an Oscar nomination would be fitting), with the reliable Jamie Fox backing him up. Not since Russell's Three Kings has there been such a cool war-themed movie. (03/02/2006)

I wasn’t expecting much from Mendes, but I really liked Jarhead. I know I'm not the first or the last to write this in a review, but after making a war drama with a penchant for expert psychology, a minimum of real action and a premise seemingly glued together by pathos in such an open, unobtrusive and uncomfortably real way, Mendes deserves, if not outright respect, then certainly deep compliments. It's a chilling account of the horrors of war, easygoing and low-key on the surface, but so powerful and believable inside that it has earned a place in my eyes among the thought-provoking masterpieces that are dominated by Coppola's Apocalypse Now (which also comes to mind quite strongly here). Jarhead may not be the best shot, funniest or most emotionally gripping war story made in Hollywood, and we've seen all of its basic themes in many other films, including some that we now call classics, but it’s one of the few American films that had me believing everything in it. This is where the awkward "based on a true story" caption would work quite nicely:-) 80% (08/26/2013)

An entertaining and, in its own way, very cool account of war without chilling battle scenes? Yes! Sam Mendes is at the top of his game, creating the dense atmosphere of the desert in an original way and, without sentimentality or emotional swings, documenting the depression of the Marines who experience life’s losses instead of fulfilling their American boyish dreams. Jarhead is a remarkably laid-back film about uncomfortable issues. (01/13/2006)

Unconventional war and anti-war film, not unlike Platoon, but unfortunately quite difficult for the average viewer, and I admit, even for me. Total boredom in the desert is not completely boring on the screen, but I couldn't fully immerse myself in the rising traumas of the soldiers. And a war film without gunfire simply isn't suspenseful. (08/14/2006)