Jarhead

Director: Sam Mendes
Year: 2005
Source: Based on a Book by Anthony Swofford
Cast: Jake Gyllenhaal, Peter Sarsgaard, Jamie Foxx, Scott MacDonald.
Rating: ***1/2 (out of ****)

Are the soldiers deployed at the front always at war? If not what do they do then? This question ever crossed your mind? Watch Jarhead. See, we have seen many war movies and each one of them claims to be different, but since all wars are same, so are war movies. Soldiers are different, enemy is different, circumstances are different but still war is war, it's cruel, it's demanding, and one not only has to survive but stay sane too. Jarhead focuses on the psyche of a soldier who is struggling to find a purpose, a meaning to his existence rather than the war.

Based on bestselling book by a former marine Anthony Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhal in the movie) about his experiences in the Desert Storm, this movie explores what it takes to be in the unforgiving Gulf and keep oneself ready for war. Cinematography by Roger Deakins and production design ( Gulf was recreated in the desert of Mexico) is breathtakingly spectacular. Jake Gyllenhal's Swof is humane and believable. I'm saying this since what happens in certain war movies is that soldiers are presented in a heroic way who care for whom they kill. They are not some heroes fighting with saintly moral values and all, they can't be. Their job is to kill.