Friday, November 04, 2005

JARHEAD

If you are looking for a war movie with a lot of action, don't go see Jarhead. The most war action in the film comes from a scene where the soldiers are watching Apocalypse Now. The movie follows the tour of duty of Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) during the Gulf War. It shows the everyday life of a marine, the fun times, the pressures, the stresses, basically as Swofford's comrade puts it, "The Suck".

I thought the film covered everything well, but it failed to really draw me in and give me a sense of bonding with the characters or even the main character. I was just along for the ride. Jamie Foxx does another superb acting job playing the role of their staff sgt. He continues to demonstrate his versatility in a number of different characters.

Swofford is teamed with another grunt, Troy (Peter Sarsgaard). Peter looks a great deal like Ewan McGregor and also had an excellent supporting role. Overall I give it a thumbs up, but don't see me adding it to my DVD collection alongside We Were Soldiers, Black Hawk Down, Saving Private Ryan, or even Three Kings.

Hurah!

2 comments:

"Jet" said...

Wow... thanks for the review!! I really wanted to see this movie and love all of the other war films you have in your collection. Maybe I will wait to see it on video!

-Bill said...

As an interesting aside...Chris Cooper plays Lt. Col. Kazinski in Jarhead. He and Jake Gyllenhaal both starred together in October Sky. Which was originally titled "Rocket Boys" using all the same letters. Weird huh?