Jarhead Reviews

A lo largo de la historia siempre han habido diversos contextos bélicos que han inspirado numerosas cantidades de obras ya sea romantizando bandos según su conveniencia o criticando los aspectos de la guerra que más sonaban en los corazones de la población, y acá tenemos ese mismo caso pero llevado a la actualidad.

Jarhead toma la visión crítica de la guerra moderna, agarrando el contexto de la guerra del Golfo de la mano de un director que, seré sincero, nunca me cautivó, pero que al menos no exagera en la presentación del escenario de esta película.

La historia comienza presentando a Anthony Swofford, un joven que se sumó al servicio militar al no tener realmente muchas cosas de qué enorgullecerse en la vida y que, en el ejército, ve la oportunidad de destacarse queriendo salir a hacer algo de lo que estaba seguro que no podría fallar: combatir con armas de fuego. Es acá en donde se genera el hilo principal de la trama siendo Swofford alguien quien de tanto idealizar la guerra como algo ‘’épico y cool’’ termina cayendo persuadido, teniendo que afrontar la amarga realidad al entrar verdaderamente en las situaciones de guerra.

Claro que esta idealización no sale de la nada, la película muestra cómo los entes de alto mando o directamente los medios venden a la guerra moderna como algo que cualquier chico soñaría en su vida, y si hay una característica en estos muchachos es específicamente su falta de propósito, siendo todos muy como Swofford, representando este último al soldado promedio, haciéndole pasar la película por todas las vivencias y situaciones particulares que en este se dan. Vemos en él la decepción y frustración de un soldado al sentir que desperdició su tiempo al nunca poder siquiera disparar un arma contra alguien, y teniendo que pasar por cosas que, de lo comunes que son, provocan un sentimiento de humillación en el personaje, puesto que él esperaba ser una fundamental pieza en el ataque y defensa de su bando, y no una simple herramienta a la que ponen esperando y esperando para usarla cuando convenga.

Los soldados deben tanto afrontar la falta de diversión en un lugar tan seco y alejado de la civilización como cualquier calentura o urgir de apetito sexual allí mismo, a veces sin soportarse entre ellos teniendo disputas o pleitos, y lo que parecía para el protagonista un lugar en donde finalmente encontraría un grupo al cual pertenecer y con ello sentirse lleno, terminó siendo un infierno en donde debe convivir con desconocidos que le tocan las bolas, alejado de su familia y de su novia la cual lo termina por dejar al ser tanto el tiempo en separación.

El sargento puede significar ya un contraste con esta visión, ya que es él la voz de la experiencia, en la que notamos lo que de verdad significa salir a combatir, y por qué gente como Swofford es aún inmadura en entender lo que en realidad significan estos conflictos, lo que lo hace tener un cuestionamiento al interactuar con Sykes acerca de qué está haciendo allí y qué es lo que lo lleva a estar en ese lugar.

Lo mejor de la película es esta parte en la que los soldados finalmente terminan cayendo en la desesperación de no poder alcanzar la satisfacción que esperaban con la guerra al no ser el épico enfrentamiento que esperaban, y luego de estar tanto tiempo viviendo de forma vacía en una constante lucha contra la monotonía, el cambio que sufre nuestro protagonista se hace bastante notorio, presentando así lo tocado que le dejó aquella experiencia al final de la película.

Con todo lo dicho la cinematografía aporta a muy buen modo. La coloración seca de los escenarios ayuda a pintarlos como aburridos y poco interesantes, e incluso el cómo las tomas lo hacen ver lo dejan como estresante, cosa que hace entender la constante búsqueda de los personajes por nuevas actividades. La música es bien básica pero al menos en momentos como en los que muestran los castigos por parte de los sargentos la película sabe quedarse callada en este aspecto, y todo sumado a actuaciones que dan la talla y tienen a Jake Gyllenhaal protagonizando, sinónimo de personaje canchero.

El drama y la tragedia quizás no sean de sus puntos más fuertes, y es que si bien se deja en claro lo que le puede pasar a los personajes, no es como que esto pase en primer lugar, y no hay cosas tan fuertes que sucedan durante una gran parte de la película. No es como en Das Boot, en donde los personajes están constantemente acechados por el enemigo y hasta se ven a la deriva y sin esperanzas dentro de ellos la mayor parte del tiempo, y en su lugar la película prefiere irse por un lado más ‘light’ sin optar mucho por la tensión.

Otro problema que podría encontrarle viene por los personajes, y es que si bien no solamente podríamos destacar como bueno al protagonista puesto que Sykes también mantiene cierto trasfondo y motivos para indagar, el resto nunca está realmente explorado teniendo tanto tiempo en pantalla y relevancia sobre la historia, es un cast que sirve más que nada para ser funcional y ya, lo que termina traduciéndose a simples puntos para detallar el setting. No son tan simples puesto que algo siempre vamos a saber de cada uno, pero realmente no poseen algo que los vuelva empatizables o siquiera carismáticos al conocer cómo es la conducta de varios de ellos.

Tampoco es que la obra se abra a muchas cuestiones bélicas como los dilemas morales, la consecuencias psicológicas, el sufrimiento del hombre al lidiar con su propia naturaleza o el sentido de pelear; es débil al intentar hacer preguntas sobre la necesidad de los muchachos de salir al campo de batalla, por lo que es evidente que terminará sí o sí un escalón más abajo.

A lo anterior también viene conectado el no proponer diferentes problemáticas con las preocupaciones personales de los personajes, cosa que Platoon 18 años antes supo manejar excelentemente al tenerlos con distintas agendas y formas de reaccionar en medio de todo el mambo en el que estaban metidos, humanizando más el contexto, y lamentablemente esta película lo pasa algo por alto al poner al cast como si sus necesidades fueran exactamente las mismas, sin tomar en cuenta de qué contexto vienen o cuál es su nivel de honor.

Así que bien, no es un producto perfecto después de todo, pero tampoco es que desagrade su existencia. Tira inteligentes críticas al contexto de la guerra que quieras o no son acertadas y necesarias de saber para la gente, elabora en un personaje realista y entendible, posee una dirección aceptable y ni es tan larga. Por todo esto, si lo que buscás una historia bélica sólida y bien desarrollada o simplemente querés ver a un Jake Gyllenhaal yendo a la guerra y siendo cuckeado estarías yendo por el lugar correcto. Nada más para decir.

7/10

This is one of my favorite war movies, oddly enough, it had no war, but it had everything you see in a war movie except the action, instead, it was a deep study into characters and it was written by a former marine, a movie that cuts the conventional Hollywood bullshit and show you the real side of 'war'.

Directed by Sam Mendes, the guy who brings suburban family movies that either hit or miss, this movie is very surprising coming from the same guy, it's a story about the marines in 'gulf war' or the 'Persian Gulf War', in which after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, and was building up to attack Saudi Arabia, a coalition forces from 34 nations led by the United States was formed against Iraq condemning it's invasion, so the U.S sends it's marines to the Iraqi Side of the Arabian Desert (the Desert between Iraq and Saudi Arabia) to protect the oil fields in case Saddam attack them, a 5 weeks in the desert in which you feel the marines frustration and craziness and it was one of the best character studies ever to see in a movie.

The movie starts with the marine corps training, a scene which pretty much looked like the drill instructor scene from 'full metal jacket', and it can never be as good as that seen from the Stanley Kubrick film, but i'd like to give this movie the benefit of the doubt, the reason is that we will always have the image of that movie in-mind, so every-time we see a cruel drill instructor yelling at the marines in the camp training, we would say that it's trying to duplicate 'full metal jacket', and it may not be true, because at the end of the day, this is a movie about marines, and it featured marines training so it can be a standard situation no more no less.

Jake Gyllenhaal in the leading role, playing as Anthony Swofford, a guy who feels like he made a mistake by enlisting in the marines and he want to get out of it as soon as possible, he embodies that character so well, it's one of his best performances ever, he brings the movie into actual reality, along side of him was Peter Sarsgaard playing as an ex-criminal who lied in his application and will get dismissed after going back home, and the overall performances were very good, Evan Jones play as weird freak, Jamie Foxx on the other hand was out of place, personally, i never liked him as an actor, but sometimes he brings a good performance, like in 'Django unchained', when he played as slave who didn't say much the entire movie, but here, he played as a tough Staff Sergeant, and he wasn't able to fulfill his role, i thought that he was really annoying, specially in the beginning at the training camp, but he got better as the movie continued.

This movie might sound like it's a war movie, but it's actually an anti-war movie, and that's what i liked about it, it was written by a former marine, and whose better to show you the marine corps in a war than a guy who lived it, because we've all seen war movies when they tried to sell us the idea that the marines or the army in general are fearless tough people, but at the end of the day, these people are humans with emotions, this movie doesn't shy away from anything, with Jake Gyllenhaal pissing himself when the bombing started, the whole 'wall of shame' of the girlfriends and/or wife's of the marines who dumped them, showing you screw ups and failures, degrading and humiliating soldiers who screwed up, freaky characters who loses their minds in the desert and starts messing with dead people, it's all very deep study into people at war and it's very unconventional and different from other movies, the movie mention masturbation numerous times, which might be kinda offensive to some people to see the marines represented that way, but it's all very real, many of wife's and girlfriends do dump their husband/boyfriend when they get sends to war, guys do masturbate to the photos of their girlfriends, girlfriends do send their sex tape to the boyfriends as a revenge, it's all real, and people might not like it.

The movie was visually stunning, it was beautiful, i actually had to pause few times just to look at the frames, specially the ones with the oil burring up in the night, that was one of the best visuals I've seen, and the music was fantastic, sound mixing and score were beautiful, the overall production was flawless.

The reason that this movie had no war, is that, the majority of 'Operation Desert Shield' was handled by the air force, the coalition forces used aerial and naval bombardment to kick the Iraqi army out of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, there were very few ground battles, and the marines had nothing to do with it, they were on the Saudi side of the desert when the battle were inside the Iraqi borders, and because i know that, i already knew that there are going to be no war, but people who don't know that might find it frustrating, the entire build up was ended by nothing, but i think that's the point, it goes to show you the frustration the marines felt never having to fire a pullet the entire war, and it achieved it's point very well.

As i mentioned before, the movie brings realism never before seen in a war movie, it's even shows you how the marines live after they go back home, they either get a regular job or go back to whatever shitty life they had before, shows you how for some of them, the marine corps destroyed their lives, left them in an empty house surrounded by walls in which no-one even remember that 'they served their country', so after all, this movie is very politically motivated and i loved every second of it.

I already saw this movie but since it was a while back, I was quite eager to check it out again. First of all, I really loved ‘American Beauty’, it is one of my favorite movies of all time, and every time Sam Mendes comes up with a new movie, I hope it will be again that good but, honestly, except maybe for ‘Revolutionary Road’, they all end up being rather disappointing. This movie was a good example. I mean, it was still pretty good but it never really fulfilled my expectations. The concept was all right, the subject was really interesting, the directing was solid, there was a very good cast (Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx), they all delivered some pretty good performances and, yet, the damned thing never really impressed me. I think the issue was with the story. I mean, it was definitely interesting but still nothing really mind-blowing though. Basically, back then, those soldiers were trained to become some emotionless and fearless killers but when they went to the first Gulf War, there wasn’t much fighting at all after all and most of them suffered from … boredom. Ok, some of those soldiers seemed to have had some psychological issues but I couldn’t help thinking that those soldiers got lucky compared to those guys who took part in the D day, the Vietnam war or any other blood bath. As a result, I'm afraid I never really cared about what they were going through. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a solid war drama though and it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.

Sam Mendes has made a precious movie about the war in Iraq showing the side that nobody had curiosity to deepen and that had everything be tedious and boring. The film has an absurd psychological strength, makes us think of as human enough to extremes when it comes to war, how the values change significantly and the life that never makes it all erased. Great movie and worth seeing.

"The Bible says "Thou shalt not kill." But hear this: FUCK THAT SHIT!"

Jarhead is the newest directorial feature from much-admired UK-born director Sam Mendes (a man who has helmed a number of outstandingly successful movies including American Beauty and Road to Perdition): this is an absorbing film regarding the dramas of war. Mendes' intricately made film is set in the harsh deserts of Kuwait scarcely preceding the first Gulf War.

Based on memoirs of a soldier who developed his own memories of the experience, Jarhead is centred on young Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Gyllenhaal) who has recently joined the Sniper Corps in the United States Marines. In the vein of Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, this film looks in-depth at the physically and mentally arduous boot camp training undertaken by the soldiers prior to being deployed to defend their country. Before being sent to the desert, the film delves into the personal life of Swofford; his relationship with his girlfriend, private habits, etc. The rest of the movie is concerned with the soldiers dealing with the boredom they endure in the middle of the scorching hot desert. Swoff befriends another sniper named Alan Troy (Sarsgaard) and his Staff Sergeant Sykes (Foxx).

Being told from the perspective of Swofford alone, the film chronicles several pivotal points in the war and always keeps the viewer up to date with the current situation: this includes the present number of soldiers in the country, and how long the protagonists have endured in the desert.
Mendes also has a prime focus on the aspects of war that are so rarely seen: the sheer boredom, the genuine camaraderie between the men, the list of things to do when bored, training incidents, wild parties, friendly fire incidents and disciplinary action.

If people approach this film with anticipations of a combat-driven, violent production you will be drastically disappointed. Instead of combat, the focus of Jarhead is to convey the frustrations of war from the perspective of a soldier deprived of the action and large-scale battles that so many other war movies have portrayed. In a sense it's a refreshing alteration on the conventional formula. In spite of being refreshing and original, the lack of action takes its toll on the film value. It contains all the elements of a great war movie: absorbing drama, realistic characters, a large arsenal, massive build up...but the build up is for absolutely nothing. I can appreciate the fact that Mendes focused on the drama and the experiences of one man who was frustrated because he never killed somebody; however in this case it's more that the source material let the movie down. After seeing the film, I felt somewhat unsatisfied because all the lead-up was for nothing but a wild party and a sudden ending. Like most of Sam Mendes' work he has us so captivated in his world that the ending is incredibly shocking and unforeseeable.

Due to Jarhead being a dialogue driven war drama, the actors are required to do a good job. In this case, both Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard are outstanding. Their portrayals are utterly flawless. They don't just play their characters, they actually become their characters. A quality that's rare in most contemporary movies.

Jarhead has been filmed beautifully. Especially towards the precious little combat that occurs towards the end I was enthralled by its gorgeous landscape and naturalistic colour palette.

All in all, Jarhead is a war film that certainly has room for improvement. Despite its shortcomings and minor flaws this film is still a great piece of entertainment. It's a bold move to make a war movie sans the combat and I believe that Sam Mendes masterfully handled the material.

Okay, I admit, I got bored half way through this. It was grueling, de-humanising, switching between the terribly bad and the terribly boring experiences that the marines face. It's a testiment to the soilders and what they went through. This doesn't make it entertaining viewing, however.

The trouble is, I've already seen Full Metal Jacket. So what's new? Maybe the ending had something worthwhile in it, but I never made it that far, so who knows?