Jarhead (film)
Jarhead | |
---|---|
Red Wagon Entertainment Neal Street Productions | |
Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 123 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $72 million[1] |
Box office | $97.1 million[1] |
Jarhead is a 2005 American
Universal Pictures released the film November 4, 2005 to mixed reviews and a disappointing box office, grossing $97 million against a $72 million budget. Named for the military slang among U.S. Marines, the film eventually spawned a direct-to-video series of three subsequent films.
Plot
In 1989,
After grueling training, eight Marines graduate: among them Swofford, now a sniper, and Swofford's roommate
Swofford obtains unauthorized alcohol and organizes an impromptu Christmas party, arranging for Fergus to cover his watch so he can celebrate. Fergus accidentally sets fire to a tent while cooking some sausages and ignites a crate of flares, waking the whole camp and enraging Staff Sergeant Sykes. Afterwards, rather than assign blame to Fergus, Swofford accepts full responsibility for the incident. Consequently, Swofford is demoted from lance corporal to private and receives latrine duty as punishment, which involves burning human waste from the camp with diesel fuel. The punishments, combined with the heat, the boredom, and Swofford's suspicions of his girlfriend's infidelity, give Swofford a mental breakdown, to the point where he threatens Fergus with a rifle and then demands that Fergus shoot him.
Later,
Near the end of the war, Swofford and Troy are finally given a sniping mission. Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski, their battalion commander, orders them to kill at least one of two high-ranking
The Marines return home on a transport bus which is boarded by an inebriated Vietnam-era Marine veteran who congratulates them, to their obvious discomfort. They later parade through a town in a jovial celebration of victory. Swofford returns home to his family and girlfriend but his girlfriend's infidelity is confirmed. Fowler is seen with a prostitute in a bar, now as a Corporal, Kruger in a corporate boardroom, Escobar as a supermarket employee, Cortez as a father of three children, and Sykes continuing his service as a first sergeant in the Iraq War. Later, Swofford learns of Troy's death during a surprise visit from Fergus. At Troy's funeral, they reunite with former comrades.
Cast
- Jake Gyllenhaal as Lance Corporal / Private / Corporal Anthony Swofford[2]
- Scott MacDonald as Drill Instructor Fitch
- Peter Sarsgaard as Corporal Alan Troy
- Jamie Foxx as Staff Sergeant Sykes
- Lucas Black as Lance Corporal Chris Kruger
- Brian Geraghty as Private First Class Fergus O'Donnell
- Jacob Vargas as Private First Class Juan Cortez
- Laz Alonso as Lance Corporal Ramon Escobar
- Jocko Sims as Julius
- Evan Jones as Private First Class Dave Fowler
- Chris Cooper as Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski
- Dennis Haysbert as Major Lincoln
- John Krasinski as Corporal Harrigan
- Jamie Martz as Foster
- Rini Bell as Swoff's sister
- Brianne Davis as Kristina
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 60% based on 199 reviews, with an average rating of 6.4/10. The site's consensus states: "This first-person account of the first Gulf War scores with its performances and cinematography but lacks an emotional thrust."[3] Roger Ebert gave the movie three-and-a-half out of four stars, crediting it for its unique portrayal of Gulf War Marines who battled boredom and a sense of isolation rather than enemy combatants.[4] Entertainment Weekly magazine gave the film a "B+" rating and Owen Gleiberman wrote:
Jarhead isn't overtly political, yet by evoking the almost surreal futility of men whose lust for victory through action is dashed, at every turn, by the tactics, terrain, and morality of the war they're in, it sets up a powerfully resonant echo of the one we're in today.[5]
In his review for the
However, in his review for The New York Times, A. O. Scott felt that the film was "full of intensity with almost no real visceral impact", and called it "a minor movie about a minor war, and a film that feels, at the moment, remarkably irrelevant".[10] Kenneth Turan in his review for the Los Angeles Times wrote:
Its polished surfaces and professional style can't compete with the gritty reality conveyed by documentaries like Gunner Palace and Occupation: Dreamland — or, for that matter, by the surreal black comedy of David O. Russell's Three Kings — that show in no uncertain terms what it's like to be a soldier in Iraq.[11]
In his review for the
Nathaniel Fick, another author who is a Marine, gave the film a mixed review (and panned the book on which it is based) in Slate. He wrote, "Jarhead also presents wild scenes that probably could happen in combat units, but strips them of the context that might explain how they're more than sheer lunacy".[13] James Meek, who reported from the battlefields of Iraq, wrote in The Guardian: "The key to a film about war is how it ends, and if the young man at the film's centre is lifted out of the battlefield uninjured and sane, if his family and home life before and after aren't prominent in the picture, the movie is diminished as a film which says something about war and becomes a simpler story of growing up, of jeopardy overcome".[14]
Controversy
In a November 2005
Accolades
Year | Ceremony | Category | Recipients | Result |
---|---|---|---|---|
2005 | 10th Satellite Awards[16] | Best Actor - Drama | Jake Gyllenhaal | Nominated |
Best Supporting Actor – Drama | Peter Sarsgaard | Nominated | ||
Best Screenplay – Adapted | William Broyles Jr. | Nominated | ||
Best Film Editing | Walter Murch | Nominated | ||
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Awards 2005[17] | Best Supporting Actor | Peter Sarsgaard | Nominated |
Sequels
The film was followed by three direct-to-video sequels: Jarhead 2: Field of Fire (2014), Jarhead 3: The Siege (2016) and Jarhead: Law of Return (2019). Unlike the original, all three sequels are entirely fictional. They do not have connection to the original.[18]
References
- ^ a b "Jarhead (2005)". Box Office Mojo. IMDb. Retrieved September 29, 2020.
- ^ "Jarhead". EW.com. August 12, 2005.
- ^ "Jarhead". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved April 8, 2024.
- ^ Ebert, Roger (November 3, 2005). "The hurry-up-and-wait of war". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (November 2, 2005). "Jarhead". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- Washington Post. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Felperin, Leslie (January 2006). "The Longest Days". Sight and Sound. Archived from the original on April 11, 2009. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Clark, Mike (November 4, 2005). "A few good men give 'Jarhead' a solid feel". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 6, 2005. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Schickel, Richard (November 2, 2005). "In the Eye of Desert Storm". Time. Archived from the original on November 6, 2005. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Scott, A.O. (November 4, 2005). "Soldiers in the Desert, Antsy and Apolitical". The New York Times. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Turan, Kenneth (November 4, 2005). "Lost command". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- Village Voice. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Fick, Nathaniel (November 9, 2005). "How Accurate Is Jarhead?". Slate. Retrieved October 28, 2012.
- ^ Meek, James (December 16, 2005). "Visions of hell". The Guardian. London. Retrieved May 29, 2009.
- ^ Carr, David (November 9, 2005). "Jarhead: Whose Stories Are They?". The New York Times. Retrieved May 5, 2010.
- ^ "10th Satellite Awards". Press Academy. Archived from the original on February 2, 2008. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- ^ "2005 WAFCA Awards". wafca.com. Archived from the original on July 9, 2015. Retrieved November 7, 2023.
- ^ "A Look at the Jarhead Series (2005-2019)". The Action Elite. November 12, 2019. Retrieved September 29, 2020.