Jarhead (Probable SPOILERS)

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
9,817
Location
, Washington DC
Watched this tonight after looking forward to it for the past few months. Wow. Simply amazing movie. Kind of falls somewhere between FMJ, Platoon and Tigerland for how it approaches the war film, with a fair bit of time in basic training, moving on to the war zone and then in combat.

Jake Gyllenhaal is unbelievable. I'd always really rated him as an actor but this is without doubt his best performance to date. Peter Saarsgard is also outstanding, and Jamie Foxx is totally believable as a staff sargeant.

It shows a lot of the Iraq war that hasn't really been shown much (Three Kings wasn't really even a war movie) - the oil cleanup, the boredom, the tension and the comedown when coming home.

The pacing of the movie was fantastic, and even though it clocks in at over two hours I was sitting tensely on the edge of my seat for all of that.

Don't go in expecting an all action blockbuster, as that's not what this movie is like (there are very few deaths during the film) - it's more of a thoughtful film about war and what the soldiers go through (very much like Tigerland).

I highly recommend this movie to anyone remotely interested in the war genre :D

9/10
 
My favourite shot in the movie (and boy were there lots) was the one of Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal silhouetted at the top of the sand dune with the sunset in the background. The oil fires were a close second too - it looked unbelievably hellish. I thought the horse scene was good as well, again it just added further depth and didn't need explained away, much like Troy's death etc.

I don't think Oscar nominations are an exaggeration either - Gyllenhaal and Saarsgard were absolutely superb imo.

I want to see Brokeback Mountain now, if Jake's performance is anything like that good in that it could be another awesome movie.
 
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