Jarhead (film)

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Jarhead

Promotional poster for Jarhead
Directed by Sam Mendes
Produced by Bobby Cohen
Sam Mercer
Sam Mendes
Written by William Broyles Jr. (screenplay)
Anthony Swofford (book)
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal
Peter Sarsgaard
Jamie Foxx
Lucas Black
Chris Cooper
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) November 4, 2005 (USA)
Running time 123 minutes
Language English
Budget $70,000,000 (estimated)
IMDb profile

Jarhead is a 2005 film starring Jake Gyllenhaal as U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford, and is based on Swofford's 2003 Gulf War memoir Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles. The title is based on a semi-derogatory slang, jarhead, used for Marines, and sometimes by Marines themselves. The film was directed by Academy Award winner Sam Mendes, most famous for his 1999 film American Beauty.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

The film begins with voice-over narration on a black screen, as Jake Gyllenhaal, playing Anthony Swofford, waxes philosophical about a soldier whose hands forever remember the grip of a rifle, whatever else they do in life. We then find Swofford in a U.S. Marine Corps boot camp, being brutalized by a drill instructor in scene reminiscent of Full Metal Jacket. After finishing boot, "Swoff" is dispatched to Camp Pendleton, where he is subjected to a cruel joke by the senior Marines and faints. After regaining consciousness, he is greeted cooly by Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), who says to him, "Welcome to the Suck."

Swofford comes across Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), a Marine "lifer" who invites Swofford to his Scout Sniper (formally the Surveillance and Target Acquisition) course. After arduous training sessions that claim the life of one recruit, he becomes a sniper and is paired with Troy as his spotter. Shortly after, Kuwait is invaded by Iraq and Swofford's unit is dispatched to the Persian Gulf as a part of Operation Desert Shield. Although the Marines are very eager to see some combat action, they are forced to hydrate, wait, patrol the nearby area, hydrate some more and orient themselves to the arid environment. When some field reporters appear, Sykes forces his unit to demonstrate their NBC suits in a game of American football, even under the 112 degree heat. While the cameras roll, the game develops into a rowdy dogpile, with some Marines miming sex acts ("Field Fuck!"). Sykes, embarrassed by his squad's rude manners and poor discipline, removes the cameras and crew from the area; the Marines are later punished.

During the long wait some of the Marines' wives and lovers at home cheat on them, Swofford himself also infers from a letter that his girlfriend is being unfaithful. The most public and humiliating of these befalls Dettman, who discovers an innocent looking copy of "The Deer Hunter" sent from his wife, which the men are all seated to watch, is actually a homemade porno tape of her having sex with their neighbour Clancey apparently made as revenge for Dettman's own philandering.

During an impromptu Christmas party, Fergus, a member of Swofford's unit, accidentally sets fire to a tent housing flares. Swofford gets the blame because he was supposed to be on watch, but had Fergus sit in for him. As a consequence, Swofford is demoted from Lance Corporal to Private and is forced to undertake the degrading task of burning excrement. The punishments combined with suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity temporarily drive Swofford to the point of mental breakdown.

After the long stand in the desert, Operation Desert Storm, the coalition force's ground campaign, begins, and the Marines are dispatched to the Saudi-Kuwaiti border. Briefly before the action begins, Swofford learns from Sykes that Troy concealed his criminal record when enlisting and will be discharged after the end of hostilities. Following an accidental artillery barrage from friendly forces, the Marines advance through the desert, facing no enemies on the ground. Casualties are taken when friendly fire from an A-10 close air support aircraft hits U.S. vehicles. The troops march through the Highway of Death, strewn with burnt vehicles and remains of charred bodies, a product of the bombing campaign. Later, the Marines encounter burning oil wells, lit by the retreating Iraqis, and they attempt to dig sleeping holes as a rain of crude oil falls from the sky.

After the long advance, Swofford and Troy are finally given a combat mission. Their order is to shoot two Iraqi officers, supposedly located in a control tower at a battle-damaged airport. The two take up positions in a deserted building, but moments after Swofford pinpoints one of the officers in his sights, another team of Marines appears and calls in an air strike. Troy, desperate to make a kill, pleads with the officer in charge (Dennis Haysbert) to let them take the shot. When his pleas are denied, Troy breaks down in a fit of despair and weeps. The airport is eventually bombed by U.S. warplanes. Swofford and Troy linger at the site in a daze, losing track of time and missing their pick-up. With night fallen, they try to navigate the desert but get lost. Distant cries in the darkness frighten them, and as they begin to sense that the sounds are coming from beyond a ridge, they ready their weapons and prepare to descend. They see an encampment in the distance, but on closer look they recognize it as their base camp, and the sounds as Marine voices. The war is over, they learn, and scores of soldiers celebrate this amidst a bonfire. In a climactic scene Swofford tells Troy he never fired his rifle, getting a response of "Fire it now". He then fires a round in the air from his sniper rifle and the other Marines, who have never had a chance to fire their weapons, follow suit.

On returning home the troops parade through the towns in a jovial celebration of victory. The mood is disturbed when a disheveled Vietnam veteran, possibly suffering from the memories of the conflict, jumps into their bus, and congratulates them all. Soon after the returning home, Swofford and his comrades are discharged and go on with their separate lives. Fowler is seen to be spending time with his girlfriend at a bar, Kruger is seen to be an executive at a corporation, Escobar as a supermarket employee, Cortes as a father of three kids, and Sykes continuing his service as a Marine in the ongoing war in Iraq. An unspecified amount of time later, Swofford learns of Troy's death. He attends the funeral, meets some of his old friends, and afterwards he reminisces about the effects of the war.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Posters

[edit] Response

The film received mixed reviews from critics, registering a 60% Tomatometer rating (53% Cream of the Crop) on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the movie 3 1/2 out of 4 stars, crediting it for its unique portrayal of Gulf War Marines who battled more boredom and a sense of isolation rather than enemy combatants. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone and Richard Schickel of Time Magazine also filed positive reviews. Other critics, however, cited an unstructured plot (such as David Denby in The New Yorker). In an interview with the UK film magazine Empire Mendes stated he thought Jarhead would be his most misunderstood film. Nathaniel Fick, another author who served in the Marines, panned the film in Slate[1].

[edit] Characters

LCPL Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) - The protagonist. Swoff comes from an odd family: His father is a still-shellshocked Vietnam War veteran who may have PTSD, his mother seems to have a form of depression, and his sister is an insane asyluum for an unknown reason. He joins the Marine Corps and after going through a lengthy training process, he becomes a scout sniper and his spotter is Troy. When they are part of Operation Desert Shield, Swoff struggles with boredom and the fact that he does not know if his girlfriend is cheating on him. He often has Fergus take his watch for him, which leads to an explosives accident on Christmas, which gets Swoff demoted. When the war begins, Swoff and the others rile Troy up on learning that he is a drug dealer. While they are under heavy artillery barrage, Swoff has to run through a gauntlet of explosions twice for radio batteries. He and Troy desperately want to shoot the two colonels they were assigned to during a mission towards the end of the war, but an airstrike takes them out instead.Upon returning home, Swoff's girlfriend IS cheating on him. Swoff leads what appears to be a successful life until he goes to Troy's funeral, which makes him reminisce about the war.

Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) - A drug dealer who joined the corps illegally. He joined the marine corps so he could make something of himself. He is more sensitive than the other marines, as shown when he is the only marine to keep the others from watching the video Dettman's wife sent him. Troy is Swoff's spotter during the war. He melts down when they are not allowed to shoot an Iraqi colonel, leading to his being kicked out from the Marine Corps. After the war, he dies for unknown reasons. The movie does not say that Alan Troy was a drug dealer, however the character implies it in one small scene. His actual name was Troy Collier from Greenville, MI and he was killed in a car accident just 2 months after returning from the Gulf War in December 1991. He was 22 years old.

Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx) - A gung ho sergeant who leads the Scout Snipers. He disciplines the marines by drilling them randomly for things like gas attacks. Sykes demotes Swoff after he has Fergus take his guard duty and accidentally cause an explosion. He comforts Swoff several times over the conflict, including telling him about Troy's life before the war, when the troops are on the bombed highway, and when Fowler plays with a dead corpse. He is the only marine that stays in the Marine Corps and fights in the next conflict in Iraq.

Kruger (Lucas Black) - A marine who is vehement about his rights. He is the marine who questions their censorship in the reporter scene, and when they have to take pills that were not tested. He thinks that the war is only about oil and thinks more about the war's political side. After the war, he is shown to be a CEO of a successful company.

Fowler (Evan Jones) - A gun nut. Fowler loves describing what a bullet does to a camel's head, and he also teases Swoff about his girlfriend back home. He refers to whites as the "master race" and may be, from how he treats the Iraqis, a White supremacist. He harasses the civilians and later he is found playing with dead Iraqis. Sykes tells Swoff that Fowler will get kicked out of the marines when they return from the war, and after the war he is shown as having a spouse of Asian descent and the scene may imply that he has stopped his racist ways.

Cortez (Jacob Vargas) - Another marine. His wife is pregnant with a child when he goes to Iraq, and it turns out to be a boy. He joined the marines to protect the rights given to him. After the war, he is shown to have another child, a girl, and enjoying life. Fergus was one of his friends in boot camp.

Escobar (Laz Alonso) - A marine who is one of Cortez's friends. He is also fighting to protect the rights he was given as a United States citizen. He is religious and often parys over a picture of the Virgin Mary. After the war, he is a super market worker and does not appear happy with his life.

Fergus (Brian Geraghty) - A nerdy marine from a small town. He gets off to a bad start with Swoff. He is not very close to any of the marines until the end of the war. He is very passive so the marines usually have him take their guard duties while they party. On Christmas, he dozes off on Swoff's guard duty and accidentally causes an explosion. Swoff breaks down in front of him and aims a gun at him, saying he could kill him and it would "only be an accident". Troy rebukes Swoff for this incident and Fergus and Swoff have a better relationship by the war's end. During civilian life he is shown as being a hippy type and he tells Swoff about Troy's death.

Pinko (Iván Fenyö) - A marine from Hungary, which is why he got the nickname of Pinko. In deleted scenes, he is shown as enjoying being an American, but still reads and writes in Hungarian. Even though he is older, he enjoys the marines' shenanigans like scorpion fights. He is shown as getting particularly drunk in the Christmas party scenes. His life after the war is not shown. Most of his character is shown in deleted scenes on the DVD.

Bryan Dettman (Marty Papazian) - One of Troy and Swoff's friends. His wife sends him a copy of The Deer Hunter, but it is shown to be taped over with his wife having sex with his neighbor. This only deepens Swoff's concerns over his girlfriend's faithfulness.

Lt. Colonel Kazinski (Chris Cooper) - The leader of the Scout snipers' unit, he is optimistic about their mission and tells the Swoff and Troy "not to go Rambo" on their assassination mission.

Major Lincoln (Dennis Haysbert) - A Marine officer who played football in College. When he calls in an air strike instead of letting Swoff and Troy shoot the officers, he causes Troy to break down.

[edit] Trivia

  • During the scorpion-fighting scene, LCPL Cortez can be seen holding a new 5 dollar bill from the back side.
  • Filmed in the Imperial Valley in Southern California, which features conditions very similar to Iraq. Marines did use Brawley, California, for training purposes due to similarities to Iraq. Some of the scenes filmed in the Imperial Valley had the mountains in the background digitally removed. Additional desert scenes were also filmed in Mexico. Some of the desert scenes were also shot on a Universal sound stage with lights doubling as burning oil wells. The lights were digitally replaced with burning wells in the film by Industrial Light and Magic.
  • While shooting the scene where Swofford, having a breakdown, tells Fergus to shoot him in the face, the rifle bounced into actor Jake Gyllenhaal's mouth, chipping a tooth - A similar injury to what Anthony Swofford suffered during the event that inspired the scene, where Swofford is alone and has his gun in his own mouth whilst contemplating suicide.
  • The videogame Metroid is mentioned in the movie. A "ninth level" is erroneously referenced, as the game is comprised of a single expansive and cohesive world (as is every Metroid game to date, with the possible exception of Metroid Prime Hunters).
  • The quote "Yea, I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for I'm the baddest motherfucker in the god-damned fucking valley" is a homage to the movie Casualties of War which depicted a soldier's experiences in the Vietnam War. It is a profane parody of Psalm 23.
  • When the Marines are celebrating the end of the war firing their weapons, Troy is shown pulling down on the trigger of his M16A2 Rifle. This should produce a three round burst, however it is incorrectly firing fully automatically.
  • During the Christmas party sequence, the song "O.P.P." by Naughty By Nature was played. This track, however, was not released until late 1991 (this part of the film is set in 1990).
  • Jarhead flirts with the ideas of the illusionary gulf war from Jean Baudrillard.[citation needed]
  • During the sequence where the Marines see the oil wells have been lit (approx. 1hr 29min into the film), Swofford, Troy, and Kruger are being covered by oil falling from the sky. In the same frame, Staff Sgt. Sykes enters the scene, but his uniform is perfectly clean.
  • In the outtakes Swofford dreams of shooting the Iraqi officer in the control tower.
  • The Major who denies Swofford his shot at the Iraqi officer mentions an injury he suffered playing football in college, which establishes The Major as a composite character. In the book, this officer is unnamed and no details (about injuries or otherwise) are given, but there is another, similar Captain with a football injury who denies Swofford the privilege of calling in air support.

[edit] DVD release date

Enlarge

Released: March 7, 2006 The movie is available as a single disc standard version (In both Full Screen and Widescreen) and a 2-disc Collector's Edition. Oddly, the Collectors Edition was discontinued immediately following release, and is considered a rare item. It was available for only one week.

The single disc standard version has been included with a goodie protective silver casing, engraved on the front is the shape of a dog tag with the words "Jarhead" written on it. Stores to have given this goodie away include HMV and FYE.

[edit] Footnotes

    [edit] External links
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