Jarhead (2005)

For his third feature film, British director Sam Mendes (AMERICAN BEAUTY) turns to the pages of Anthony Swofford's 2003 book on his experiences in the first Gulf War, and enlists William Broyles Jr.--a former Lieutenant who fought in Vietnam--to convert it into a screenplay. Mendes's film strays into FULL METAL JACKET territory as it opens, with young recruit Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) undertaking some rigorous basic training under the steely, watchful eye of Staff Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx). Impressed, Sykes invites Swofford to join his team, and partners him with Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), ultimately taking them to S...
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audi Arabia to fight in the first Gulf War. But once they arrive in the punishing heat of the desert, the long wait for battle sends many of the Marines dangerously close to the brink of insanity.

Drawing on the experience of acclaimed cinematographer Roger Deakins (THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION) to help viewers get a close-up taste of the Marines' punishing life in the desert, Mendes's film enters into deeply unsettling territory, the likes of which many cinemagoers won't have experienced since Martin Sheen lost his tenuous grip on reality in APOCALYPSE NOW. Indeed, Mendes deploys a few similar tactics to those that made Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 film so effective: a hip soundtrack that uses songs from artists as varied as Public Enemy and the Rolling Stones, and a feeling of disillusionment and futility among the troops that really digs in when the battle finally blackens the desert skies. Avoiding any overt antiwar sentiments, Mendes instead provides a thoughtful account of life as a modern day soldier, demonstrating how technology has made the average Marine's job all but redundant, and created disaffected troops who are as much a threat to each other as the enemies they wait to face in the trenches.
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A young man gets a crash course in the madness of war in this fact-based drama from director Sam Mendes. Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) decides to join the Marines, just like his father and his father before him, and signs on just in time to be sent to Iraq to fight in the Gulf War in 1991. After experiencing the rigors of boot camp, Swofford and his pal Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) are trained to be snipers, and under the leadership of Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx) and Lt. Col. Kazinski (Chris Cooper), the two land in the middle of a desert where they're up against an enemy they can't always see under a blazing ...
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sun with hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Swofford, Troy, and their fellow soldiers rely on the wits, their sense of humor, and their friendship of their brothers in arms to deal with a situation that doesn't much resemble what they saw on television at home. Jarhead was based on the memoirs of the real-life Anthony Swofford, who did serve as a sniper in the 1991 Gulf War; the title comes from military slang for a Marine enlistee.
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Anthony Swofford, kortweg Swoff (Jake Gyllenhaal), wordt na zijn training als scherpschutter bij de mariniers uitgezonden naar het Midden-Oosten. De Eerste Golfoorlog is net begonnen en Swoff en zijn maten kunnen niet wachten om in de praktijk te brengen waar ze jaren op getraind hebben en te strijden tegen de grote vijand in de woestijn. Maar de werkelijkheid blijkt anders. Maandenlang moeten de mannen wachten totdat er iets gebeurt, terwijl de vijand in principe om elke hoek kan liggen en op ieder moment toe kan slaan. Swoff en z'n maten houden zich op de gloeiende zandvlaktes staande met sardonische kameraadsc...
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hap en boosaardige humor, en dit allemaal in een land waar ze niks van weten, tegen een vijand waar ze niks van zien en voor een zaak waar ze weinig van snappen.
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