Jarhead (The Movie)
Posted by redkoireviews on 08/07/2006
Jarhead is an unusual war movie about an unusual war: Desert Storm & the Gulf War. It’s based on the book by Marine Anthony Swofford about his experiences in Saudi Arabia & Kuwait.
The movie follows ‘Swoff’ and his fellow soldiers through the deserts, but mostly follows them through the boredom and directionless of a war fought primarily through air power, at a distance. This makes the rare encounters with death all the more horrific than in other war films. Think ‘Apocolpse now’ meets ‘Waiting for Godo’, except not as good as either of them.
It’s an interesting insight into modern wars and soldiers, but lacked a grand narrative, a message, anything to give it some real punch. Good but certainly not un-missable. As usual, check out the reviews at rotten tomatoes for a second opinion.
My Rating: 2.5 Stars
