Jarhead (film)

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Jarhead

Promotional poster for Jarhead
Directed by Sam Mendes
Produced by Douglas Wick
Lucy Fisher
Bobby Cohen
Sam Mercer
Written by William Broyles Jr. (screenplay)
Anthony Swofford (book)
Starring Jake Gyllenhaal
Peter Sarsgaard
Jamie Foxx
Lucas Black
Chris Cooper
Music by Thomas Newman
Editing by Walter Murch
Distributed by Universal Pictures
Release date(s) November 4, 2005 (USA)
Running time 123 minutes
Language English, Arabic
Budget $72,000,000
IMDb profile

Jarhead is a 2005 film based on U.S. Marine Anthony Swofford's 2003 Gulf War memoir Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as Swofford. The title comes from the slang term used to refer to Marines (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

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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. Swofford is then shown in a U.S. Marine Corps boot camp, being brutalized by a drill instructor in a scene reminiscent of Full Metal Jacket. After finishing boot, "Swoff" is dispatched to Camp Pendleton in 1989, where he is subjected to a cruel joke by the senior Marines and faints. After regaining consciousness, he is greeted coolly by Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), who says to him, "Welcome to the Suck."

Swofford comes across the charismatic 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 playfully miming sex acts. Sykes, embarrassed by his platoon's rude manners and poor discipline, removes the cameras and crew from the area; the Marines are later punished by being forced to build and take down a massive pyramid of sandbags in a rainy night.

During the long wait, some of the Marines fear their wives and girlfriends at home will be unfaithful. A public board displays the photos of women who have ended their relationships with members of the unit. Swofford himself begins to suspect that his girlfriend is, or will soon be, unfaithful. The most public and humiliating of these befalls Dettman (Marty Papazian), who discovers an innocent looking copy of The Deer Hunter on VHS sent from his wife, which the men are all seated to watch, is actually a homemade pornographic movie tape of her having sex with their neighbor, apparently made as revenge for Dettman's own promiscuity.

During an impromptu Christmas party, Fergus (Brian Geraghty), a member of Swofford's unit, accidentally sets fire to a tent and a crate of 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, the heat and the boredom, combined with suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity and feelings of isolation, 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 air attack 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.

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. Moments later the airport is 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 falling, 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 "You can do it now". He then fires a round in the air from his sniper rifle and the other Marines, who also never had a chance to fire their weapons, follow suit, emptying magazines into the night sky.

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 their return home, Swofford and his comrades are discharged and go on with their separate lives. Swofford returns home to his girlfriend, but discovers her with a new boyfriend. Fowler (Evan Jones) is seen to be spending time with a girl at a bar, very likely a prostitute, Kruger (Lucas Black) is seen in a corporate boardroom, Escobar (Laz Alonso) as a supermarket employee, Cortez (Jacob Vargas) as a father of three kids, and Sykes continuing his service as a Marine in Operation Iraqi Freedom. An unspecified amount of time later, Swofford learns of Troy's death during a surprise visit from Fergus. He attends the funeral, meets some of his old friends, and afterwards he reminisces about the effects of the war.

[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 3½ 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, such as David Denby in The New Yorker, cited an unstructured plot. 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, gave the film a mixed review (and panned the book on which it is based) in Slate.[1]

[edit] Awards

[edit] Wins

[edit] Nominations

[edit] Characters

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Lance Corporal 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 in an insane asylum for an unknown reason. He joins the Marine Corps and after going through a lengthy training process, he becomes an STA scout sniper and Troy is his spotter. When they become part of Operation Desert Shield, Swoff struggles with boredom and the uncertainty of his girlfriend cheating on him. He receives a letter confirming his suspicions. He often has Fergus take his watch for him, which leads to an explosive accident on Christmas, resulting in Swoff's demotion. When the war begins, Swoff and the others taunt Troy upon 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 Iraqi Army officers they were assigned to kill during a mission towards the end of their unit's deployment, but an airstrike takes them out instead. At the film's end he learns from Fergus his friend Troy is dead. He attends Troy's funeral where he reminisces about the war.

Corporal Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) - A model, textbook Marine who joined The Corps illegally. He joined 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. Right before the invasion, Sykes tells Swoff that Troy will be unable to reenlist after the invasion because he lied about a criminal record on his first enlistment forms. He melts down when they are not allowed to shoot an Iraqi colonel, as this may be his first and last chance to get a kill. The penultimate scenes of the film show Fergus informing Swoff about Troy's death, and Troy's funeral. The movie does not say that Alan Troy was a drug dealer; however the character implies this after the meltdown scene (A deleted scene on the DVD confirms this plotline; He was a convicted, one-time dealer who needed to rescue his car from impound). The real-life Marine upon whom the character was based was Troy Collier from Greenville, MI and he was killed in a car accident just two months after returning from the Gulf War in December 1991. He was 22 years old. In reality he was not a drug dealer, but was not allowed to reenlist due to a failed drug test.

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 causes 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. At one moment he explains to Swoff that he could have a better paying job and a family, but he loves being a Marine, and he thanks God for every day that he has in the Corps. He is the only character that stays in the Marine Corps and fights in the next conflict in Iraq. In the book, his name is Siek, not Sykes.

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 business executive.

Fowler (Evan Jones) - A Marine and gun enthusiast. Fowler is clearly ignorant, possessing a level of intelligence that is clearly below that of the average human being; he also harbors a dark, sardonic sense of humor. He loves describing what a bullet does to a camel's head (and this seems to indicate that he did actually kill some Saudi civilians' camels), and he also teases Swoff about his girlfriend back home. He captures a white scorpion, citing it as 'the master race' for a future scorpion fight and mistreats Iraqis, harassing the civilians; later he is found playing with dead Iraqis. Sykes tells Swoff that Fowler will be 'passing out shit paper' when they return from the war, indicating Fowler's punishment; and after the war he is shown in a bar with what appears to be a prostitute. However, at corporal Troy's funeral, Fowler is seen wearing his uniform leaving open the idea he is still actively with the Marines or that he just wore the uniform for appearance purposes.

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 two additional children, apparently twins, 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 fighting to protect the rights he was given as a United States citizen, although he is proud of his Cuban heritage. He is religious and often prays over a picture of the Virgin Mary. After the war, he is a super market worker and does not appear happy with his life.

Private Fergus O'Donnell (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 day while on Swoff's watch, he does not pay attention to "Christmas sausages" (possibly sent by his parents) being cooked by him on a truck bed loaded with flare munitions and accidentally causes an explosion. Swoff breaks down in front of him and aims a 'locked and loaded' M16A2 at him, saying he could kill him and it would 'only be an accident'. Troy rebukes Swoff for this incident leading Swoff to an emotional apology and Fergus and Swoff have a better relationship by the war's end. During civilian life he is shown as being a hippie type and he tells Swoff about Troy's death.

Pinko (Iván Fenyö) - A Marine from Hungary, which is where 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 their neighbor. This only deepens Swoff's concerns over his girlfriend's faithfulness.

Lt. Colonel Kazinski (Chris Cooper) - The Battalion Commander, 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 American football in College where he received 'bad knees'. He has an apparent disdain for Scout Snipers, calling in an air strike instead of letting Swoff and Troy shoot the Iraqi officers. This causes Troy to break down, the Major almost seeming to take a sadistic amusement in Troy's despair, calling him and Swoff 'weird motherfuckers.'

[edit] Differences from the book

  • In the book, Staff Sergeant Sykes is actually pronounced "Sikes", spelled "Siek", and he has a very small role in the book.
  • The sniper tower scene didn't actually happen as it did. In the book, Swofford and Johnny were supporting some Marine Infantry taking the airfield; they were not interrupted by anyone. They were only ordered not to take the shot.
  • Troy was not a drug dealer in reality; he died in a car accident on the way to work after he left the Marine Corps apparently being drunk and struck a tree on black ice. The book claimed that that Troy was not able to re-enlist in the Marines because of a positive drug urine test.
  • The book goes somewhat into Swofford's childhood up until he joined the Marines; however, in the film, his upbringing is only explained in brief detail.
  • The entire oil scene when they dig in the oil wells did not happen in the book, and has led to sharp rebutes from others who had served in the Gulf at the time.
  • In the book, Anthony Swofford wasn't demoted from lance corporal to private first class. In the book Swofford was reprimanded and forced to burn toilet waste for a week because he was in charge of his platoon, at a time when Sykes was absent, because Dettman failed to wake up at 0400. As a result, Dettman did not wake up the rest of his platoon for planned range time, with Swofford later detailing an incident in the book where he stuck a M-16 rifle to Dettman's head and threatened to kill Dettman because of this. Furthermore, Swofford claims in his book that he only burned the waste for one day and paid another Marine to burn the waste for the remaining six days. Later, after his return to the United States, LCpl Swofford was promoted to full Corporal, a rank of E-4.
  • The book does not attribute Dettman's wife as inserting her unfaithfulness in a movie that was played for other Marines. While this incident apparently did happen, the affected Marine was unnamed in the book and was never a part of Swofford's unit.

[edit] DVD release date

Released on March 7, 2006, the movie is available as a single disc standard version (in both fullscreen 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. While there has been no official word as to why, the second disc does contain a lot of political content which may be considered as controversial.

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 word "Jarhead" written on it. Stores to have given this goodie away include HMV and FYE.

Jarhead is also available on HD DVD.

[edit] See also

[edit] Footnotes

  1. ^ Fick, Nathaniel (2005-11-09). How Accurate Is Jarhead?. Slate. Retrieved on 2007-10-19.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
Films directed by Sam Mendes
American Beauty (1999) • Road to Perdition (2002) • Jarhead (2005) • Revolutionary Road (2008)