Rating: R
Genre:
War
Theatrical Release: 11/04/2005(USA),
Release Date: 11/25/2008
SubTitles: English/Espanol/French
Dubbed: English/Espanol/French
Sound: DTS/DD2
Run Time: 123 Minutes
Flags: Nudity, Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Adult Humor, Profanity, War Violence, Nudity, Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Adult Humor, Profanity, War Violence
Distributor/Studio: Universal Studios
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, All Movie Guide