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There is a lethargy in Jarhead that seeps through its entire core. There is also a lethargy in the U.S. Marines of Jarhead that coils throughout the entire corps. Okay, that was a really pathetic attempt at wordplay, but then again, Sam Mendes' Jarhead is rather a pathetic attempt at showing the rigors of war. Okay, perhaps that was being a bit too harsh. Not necessarily a bad film - far from it, there are moments of intense beauty and impassioned, nearly surreal horror - Mendes' take on the first Gulf War (taken in turn from the same-titled autobiography of Private Anthony Swofford) is a sadly true diatribe on war and the effects it has on those trapped inside its swirling, ridiculous vortex.
There is a moment, at the end of the first act, when all these Marines are watching Apocalypse Now in their rec center. We see the famous Flight of the Valkyries scene, and as the Wagner blares out of the speakers and the Vietnamese village is strifed with gunfire and missles, these Marines - all ready for war to happen - go wild as if animals finally being able to taste the meaty flesh of another animal. The room is electric with testosterone and bloodlust. The men are screaming for the soldiers on the screen. Suddenly the projector is shut off, the lights go up and a voice comes across the loudspeaker. The voice tells these Marines that they are going to war. The bloodlust never abates. The taste of flesh is in their mouths. They are finally going to war. Of course, this is pretty much the most any of these soldiers will see of war. Their entire time in Kuwait is spent walking and looking and waiting. The lethargy sinks in. The bloodlust is never satiated.
This scene, along with perhaps two others (all completely surreal in the manner), are the heart of this film. The rest seems to be nothing more than filler, to harden up the cracks of an otherwise wishy-washy film. Mendes, who made the supremely overrated suburban dark comedy, American Beauty, and the strangely alluring, yet ultimately disappointing Road to Perdition, hits here with pretty much the same kind of film - primarily lackluster, to be occasionally stippled with bruvara images that never really connect outside of their own uniqueness. [11/07/05]
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