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Based on the bestselling memoir by former Marine Anthony Swofford, Jarhead depicts the 1991 Gulf War to liberate Kuwait as an exercise in tedium punctuated by occasional bursts of savagery. Swoff (Jake Gyllenhaal) and his buddies in an elite Marine unit undergo rigorous training and are revved up by their commanding officers -- Staff Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx) and Lt. Col. Kazinski (Chris Cooper) -- in preparation for what they believe will be a hard-fought campaign. But as Operation Desert Shield turns into a borderline siege, member of this elite killing unit are reduced to playing football in the desert and squabbling among themselves to burn off the adrenaline. "All dressed up with nowhere to go" is how you could describe the plight of Swoff and his bloodthirsty buddies, whose energies are gradually dissipated in often self-destructive ways. Operation Desert Storm finally unfolds in the film’s final 30 minutes, and the crew marches northward into Iraq only to encounter bodies roasted by air power and burning oil wells, rather than the expected ground-level combat. Director Sam Mendes (American Beauty) doesn't grind any ideological axes with this engrossing film; instead he focuses on the absurdities of Swofford’s experience as a sniper whose deadly skills are rendered superfluous by whiz-bang smart bombs. Standouts among the impressive ensemble cast are Peter Sarsgaard as Allan Troy, Swoff's more mature partner and mentor, and Foxx, who finds the humanity in a Marine Corps lifer to whom this is just another mission. Mendes borrows a little -- especially in the boot-camp sequences -- from such war films as Full Metal Jacket, but for the most part his is an original, unique vision of armed conflict in the modern age. He's less concerned with the wounds to soldiers' bodies than with those to their psyches, and that makes Jarhead something offbeat and special.

All Movie Guide

A young man gets a crash course in the madness of war in this fact-based drama from director Sam Mendes. Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) decides to join the Marines, just like his father and his father before him, and signs on just in time to be sent to Iraq to fight in the Gulf War in 1991. After experiencing the rigors of boot camp, Swofford and his pal Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) are trained to be snipers, and under the leadership of Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx) and Lt. Col. Kazinski (Chris Cooper), the two land in the middle of a desert where they're up against an enemy they can't always see under a blazing sun with hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Swofford, Troy, and their fellow soldiers rely on the wits, their sense of humor, and their friendship of their brothers in arms to deal with a situation that doesn't much resemble what they saw on television at home. Jarhead was based on the memoirs of the real-life Anthony Swofford, who did serve as a sniper in the 1991 Gulf War; the title comes from military slang for a Marine enlistee. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 025192784323
• Source: UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English, Français, Español
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 2:03:00
• Sales Rank: 19,363

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• The Kingdom & Jarhead
• Jamie Foxx Film Collection
• Action Thriller Starter Pack

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