War Movie Month: Jarhead (2005)

"You are no longer black or brown or yellow or red. You are now green! You are light green or dark green, do you understand?"

War is boring as hell. It consists of masturbation, dehumanising an unseen enemy, the fear of what those left at home are doing, more masturbation, cleaning your weapons, endless uncertainty and waiting. Jarhead is a film about war with very little combat and it is also about the mind of a soldier. It is a film resplendent in Sam Mendes' quiet artfulness and Roger Deakins' colourful, handheld cinematography, and a script about people who volunteer to become psychologically damaged, with absorbing performances from its leads.

 Jake Gyllenhaal plays Private Anthony Swofford in Sam Mendes' adaptation of the memoirs of the real life Swofford, a veteran of the first Gulf War. Swofford's uncle and father both served in Vietnam, and the vast gulf of difference between his experiences in the Marines and those of his family comes as a great shock. However, Jamie Foxx's Staff Sergeant Sykes soon recruits both Swofford and Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) to become Scout Snipers. Swofford is consumed by the power and prestige of being a sniper, and captivated by the philosophy of the one perfect moment when an enemy in his cross-hairs. After the Gulf War is declared, his unit is sent to defend oil reserves in the Saudi desert, though the lack of combat and formidable desert climate begin to take their toll on the young men.

Jarhead's world of over-whelming ultra-masculinity and reshaping of language into military distinctions contributes into its message about how war changes people, specifically in a war that's unlike many others. It establishes and reinforces that the psychological effects of war on soldiers goes beyond just the brutality of battle and a hostile training regime. With few fronts, and an almost inhospitable setting, the realities of the Gulf War clash tremendously with the expectations of the recruits, and the results of their training. Swofford is obviously influenced by the romantasiced Great Wars, and by the Vietnam War, which had an entirely different enemy, motive, and result. The Vietnam War was also the first televised war, and one where the transformative psychological impact of the conflict because common knowledge, whether that was the training methods, the combat, the weapons used, or the reception when Western soldiers returned home. In contrast, the characters of Jarhead are almost convinced that by waging war against a despot, they can win a romantic war with the modern attitude of a post-Vietnam United States Army.

.But the uniqueness of their situation becomes increasingly blatant, as the advanced state of the American war machine in contrast to the war in Vietnam puts a new burden on the men. As Sarsgaard's Troy says "This war is going to move too fucking fast for us. We can shoot a thousand yards. To go that far in Vietnam, it'd take a week. In World War One, a year. Here, it's gonna take about ten fucking seconds! By the time we have our rifles dialed the war is gonna be a mile down the road." The film makes the point that men are changed not just by the war itself, but by the lifestyle of being a soldier. Language changes, the consistensies of home change, the very land you live on changes, all at a moments notice, They are mentally and physically separate from the people they are defending, and the pain this causes can be justified if they can kill the enemy. Swofford poetically evokes this with the narrated line "The man's hands remember the rifle." And a state of absurdly overbearing  masculinity becomes the social norm in the separate world. Fitness, aggression, semi-mocking homo-eroticism, and all-consuming phallic power are the tenents of this war's culture. These are men who have had all of their desires pinned onto a single act, the act of killing the enemy. Any time they are denied that, their worth is diminished, and with it their psyche.

                                       
                                          "Every war is different. Every war is the same."


In Jarhead, music is used less often to fill the sound of scenes but rather to bridge them in concert with the editing. This is a technique that gives a timeless quality in direct contrast to the titled "Time in desert" that appears on-screen.  Roger Deakins most often uses steadicam that, alongside the direct though poetic narration, implants the audience as a silent accomplice to the madness on-screen. Mendes first gained notoriety for his artful tale of suburban lusting American Beauty, but in 2012's Skyfall he also showed that he can take a film that usually exists within a certain style or genre and recontextualise it into a something more directly colourful, artistic and psychologically dense. Though Jarhead is more comparable to David O'Russell's Three Kings in setting and colour grading, the use of lighting, psychology and visual metaphors for mentally broken men creates a bridge between two of Mendes' most mainstream and action-filled films. And William Broyles, Jnr's script helps in no small part. Gyllenhaal ranges from dead-eyed detachment to horrifically honest breakdowns that really show his ability, at a time when he was still a rising star. Sarsgaard and Sykes certainly rise up in great support of Gyllenhaal's lead, but the three are certainly distinct from their enjoyable, though one-note support cast. One's an arsehole, one's a dork, one's a Latino family-man, and none are surprising.

Jarhead is perhaps a forgotten gem in the wake of countless 21st century war dramas that are set in the Middle East, but there is certainly plenty to be found. A good script, some excellent performances and direction, and even effective use of Kanye West's music.