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Till the Trumpet Sounds Again: Volume 1

Nicol Randall

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This is a story of soldiers at war against the background the two battalions of the Scots Guards who...

Whispers Across the Atlantick: General William Howe and the American Revolution

David Smith

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General William Howe was the commander-in-chief of the British forces during the early campaigns of...

Known and Unknown: A Memoir

Donald Rumsfeld

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With the same directness that defined his career in public service, Rumsfeld's memoir is filled with...

Microcosm: A Portrait of a Central European City

Norman Davies and Roger Moorehouse

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Book

The story of Central Europe is anything but simple. As the region located between East and West, it...

The Cybernetics Moment: Or Why We Call Our Age the Information Age

Ronald R. Kline

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Book

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Cybernetics-the science of communication and control as it...

LoganCrews (2861 KP) rated Jarhead (2005) in Movies

Sep 20, 2020

Jarhead (2005)

2005 | Drama

5.0

(5 Ratings)

Movie Rating

𝘉𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘥. At least 90% surface-level and even more largely reductive - of course it is - but it's also totally incompetent. A 2+ hour torture session slog through a barren wasteland visually (Deakins of course shoots the living hell out of it, so there's some damn fine imagery every now and again but Jesus Christ could we do more than two fucking [mawkish and over-obviously symbolized] colors for this whole thing?) but moreso narratively, where this has absolutely nothing to say. You'd think this intentionally dances right around any sort of gift-wrapped commentary about the Gulf War, toxic masculinity, the late 1980s, the American military for young men, or literally anything at all with how dead and non-thematic this awkward crawl is. It can't even be bothered in exploring its own characters lives, I kept forgetting who these people even were - the movie clearly didn't care about them so why should I? Also has the same problem most of these one-dimensional, pandering, tedious war flicks have where it rushes right through the supposed pivotal moment all of this arduous buildup was clearly meant for when they all return home and it's only like 5 minutes of soap opera-level crap and a cheesy 'mic drop' finisher. At its best when it gets weird and Sam Mendes-y, and I can't say it's without solid moments of haunt - plus Gyllenhaal, Sarsgaard, and Foxx keep it marginally more tolerable - but even if it *could* handle its tone (spoiler alert, it can't) this still plays like it was made by complete idiots who only cared about this being would-be Oscar bait.