Jarhead

“Jarhead” is adapted from Anthony Swofford’s best-selling novel of the same title in 2003. The Author is the former marine and serviced in the First Gulf War. Directed by Sam Mendes, who directed “American Beauty,” and its script written by William Broyles Jr., who is the former marine as well, this movie is based on Swofford’s pre-Desert Storm experiences in Saudi Arabia.

The movie starts from a group of “Jarhead,” freshman soldiers who have the haircut similar to the jar shape, are sent to the desert in Saudi Arabia to training and prepare for fighting in Kuwait. They don’t know where their enemies are, but just accept the training and wait for next order in the arid desert day after day. At first, they eager to kill enemies in a real battle; however, they spend most of time to waiting for a battle coming. During the long wait, they just play football, read the letters or pornography from hometown, and get drunk to waste their time and energy. After the long wait, operation of the Desert Storm, they are finally dispatched to the Saudi-Kuwaiti border to practice the military campaign. They walk through the desert, see the burned oil wells, the battle-destroyed ruins and the causalities, but still face no enemy in person. After the war, they join the parade celebrating the victory of war. And their good mood is disturbed by a Vietnam veteran suffering from the memories of the war experiences. Afterwards, they come back home and keep going on their lives, but still have the effects of war.

Basically, this movie is an anti-war movie. Anti-war movies often denounce the brutality of war, and praise the development of friendships from battle via displaying realistically the war scenes. For example, in “Black Hawk Down,” it takes almost over 100 minutes to rebuild the real battle scenes. However, unlike other anti-war movies, “Jarhead” just describes the visceral mentality of soldiers in the war- the endless and aimless waiting.
The marines in the film are not so brave and skillful as the press reports before. They always wait for the command, repeat the military training, play footballs, read letters and pornography to waste their time. Waiting is a whole part of their lives. They are always waiting for next order, next letter, and next mission. There is no battle and killing scene in the movie, except some dead bodies. Even in the end of the war, the marines still don’t encounter any enemy. They are frustrated and anxious, and only they can do is shooting to the sky. After they come home, they still have to try to get used to the normal life and to forget the experiences from the desert. Ironically, they don’t really know what the war really is, but still suffer from the effects of war. This movie points out that the brutality of the war for soldiers is not cruel killing in the battle but endless and aimless waiting during the war and alienation from the real life after the war.

Differing from the former anti-war films, the director uses different techniques to present this film. He doesn’t use the magnificent background music as former war films but use rock music instead. And he uses hand-held camera and fast-rhythm editing to express the anxiety of marines. The director emphasizes on that these marines are not fighting for any humanitarian cause; instead, they don’t know who they are fighting against and they are dying in frustrated and anxious feelings.
The movie uses some elements of classic war movies to make metaphors. For example, a group of soldiers watch the village attack scene in Francis Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” For another example, one soldier plays “The Dear Hunter,” but he finds that the content is about his wife having sex with his neighbor. And then he is close to breakdown immediately. On the one hand, the scenes express that these soldiers cannot go to the real battles, they only can watch the Vietnam War movies to be satisfied with the present situation. On the other hand, thee scenes describe the soldiers’ anxiety about the relationship with their lovers. They are afraid that their relationship would be broken up because of the war.

In this movie, it satirizes the credulity of news reports. Staff sergeant forces the unit to wear NBC (an acronym of nuclear, biological, and chemical) suit and play football in high temperature in order to show the good equipment and the discipline of military when the reporters come. However, when the cameras roll, the marines don’t play the game but do some sex-intention actions. Staff is embarrassed by their actions that show poor disciplines. He removes cameras and punishes his crew later.
This scene reflects that the news reporting can be designed and lack of credulity. The report of war shows “the reality of war” might be just propaganda. We cannot just totally believe the news because the news can be made up for political purpose.
For another example, after the marines come back hometown, they join the parade celebrating the victory of war. People admire and welcome the brave and royal soldiers coming back home. People don’t know the real situation the soldiers meet in the war, the only source of information they can get is from the press reporting. The gap made from the press reporting is not only between the reality and audiences but also between soldiers and the public.
Another interesting point is the interview of individual marine. Someone is conservative to respond the formal answer that he’s glad to fight for justice. Someone is excited about joining the war. Someone keeps quite to express his compliant. Someone misses his relatives and home. And the main character, Anthony Swofford, says that he is scared and regrets to join the war. This not only breaks up the normal image of the marines that is always with one voice, but also reveals that the speech would be controlled by military. The movie shows the duality of the press reporting-it can manipulate or disclose the reality.


“Jarhead,” as an anti-war movie, doesn’t accuse the cruelty of war. It just reflects the mentality of some soldiers. “Welcome to the suck.” is their comment to the nature of the military life. These soldiers waste their time waiting, don’t know what they fight for and who they fight against, and even don’t really encounter any enemy. After the war ends, they feel alienated to the public and still suffer from the memories of war. It seems to be absurd but it’s really happened. In addition, the reality of war is not the same as the press reporting reveals. The information of war can be designed and recombined. This makes a gap between the public and the soldiers. This movie makes some links to the Vietnam War and the First Gulf War, and breaks up the myth of hero soldiers and the war of justice. Just like the character Anthony Swofford says, “Every war is different, every war is the same,” now America encounters another war in the Middle East. The movie seems to warn not to make the same mistake again.