I think this little monologue really sums up Sam Mendes’ latest film, Jarhead. The feature generally tires to avoid having any sort of political message, instead focuses on what it is like to be a marine, and explores the fundamental flaws found in creating a monster but not letting it do what you make it lust for.
Jarhead is interesting for many reasons. One of them is the interesting blend of atmospheres, as it is at times a very humour movie with amusing, dry and sarcastic dialogue. At other times it is darkly depressing and even scary, and sometimes surreal and dare I say terrifying. I think this on its own is an excellent mirror of what it is like to live your life as a marine. Albeit, I’ve never been one, or even ever seen one, but I sense that marines see a lot of bad, horrible things and they have to make up for it with humour, as crude as it may be with marines
What I find most interesting however, is the way Jarhead looks at the problem of creating a killing machine and training him repeatedly to kill, kill, kill, but ultimately denying him the opportunity to do so. It is like holding a slab of meat near a dog and then suddenly taking it away from him…but slowly putting it in front of him again. Eventually the dog will get fed up and lunge for it, going insane. I don’t think you can safely train humans to lust to kill and not let them do it.
The way this theme manifests itself in the movie I thought was done very well. Instead of being a gunho action movie we see what it is like for a marine to sit around and wait. And wait. And while they wait we watch them find things to do, and then start to see their lust to kill infect each other and themselves. For example, there is one incredible scene where Swofford basically snaps, and becomes extremely aggressive and hostile towards a peaceful and well meaning fellow soldier, only to turn the gun on himself and try to get his comrade to shoot him. It certainly was very intense to see, and was one of the darker and more surreal scenes in the film.
There are other unreal, dreamlike scenes; like when they find themselves in the oil field. It is as if they are not even on earth. They are somewhere unnatural, not meant to be. Or when they come across the firebombed convoy of people trying to escape; it was just so otherworldly and makes a none political message about war. I feel as if Jarhead did a supreme job at presenting its messages and themes without becoming overbearing or preachy.
The other components of the film are equally as first-rate. The direction and cinematography, I thought, deserved at least a few nominations. Of course, this is a Sam Mendes film, so this is of no surprise. He also did a bang up job of selecting a series of music titles as well as using very good original music.
The acting is pretty incredible. All the supporting actors did good jobs, but the spotlight was clearly on Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard. Gyllenhaal was supreme in his ability of portraying a marine gone crazy and had a nice way of being a quite guy sometimes, and insane party crasher at others. Sarsgaard however takes the prize. I think he deserved a Best Supporting actor nomination at the Academy Awards. His character is quiet, and reserved, but wise and realizes what war really is. His most powerful performance was near the end in the sniper tower as they are about to take the shot. He basically breaks downs because of what the marine corps has taught him to do but denies him permission to practice. It really hit me, his performance. Excellent job, and I look forward to seeing what Sarsgaad has for us in the future.
Overall, Jarhead is a very well put together movie. Production values are very high, the acting is very good, and in some cases award worthy. The themes presented are resonant, not preachy and very well presented. I have to say, I think Jarhead is one of the underrated movies to come out of 2005. If you haven’t seen it already, give it a rent for sure. Some may think it is too macho macho, but hopefully they realize this is purposely done and hopefully they see the symbolism behind it.
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