Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Peter Saarsgard
Director: Sam Mendes
Category: III
Half way through Jarhead, a platoon of marines travelling to the frontline argues about why they've been sent to the Middle East. One talks about spreading Pax Americana, another shouts that it's because of the oil. Eventually, the usually subdued Troy (Peter Saarsgard) pipes up: 'F*** politics. We're here. The rest is bulls***.'
It's a line that sums up perfectly Sam Mendes' film about the trials and tribulations of a group of soldiers during the first Gulf war in 1991. Jarhead is hardly an analysis about why that war - or its more controversial offspring in 2003 - happened. It's an attempt to look at what happened to the masses of young soldiers as they live out and contemplate their mundane existence in the middle of nowhere.
Based on Anthony Swofford's memoirs about Operation Desert Storm, Jarhead stands out from other contemporary war movies because it's neither a cheerleader nor a cynic. Indeed, warfare is never explicitly shown - the soldiers never fired a shot in combat, and the only on-screen fatality happens during training.