Jarhead 2005

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: The people you feel most badly for in Jarhead are not the men played by these talented actors, but the marketing department at Universal Pictures, saddled with the impossible task of selling a war movie that doesn't contain any actual war in it. Read more

Allison Benedikt, Chicago Tribune: A good, not great movie. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Jarhead is often a film about boredom, but it's never boring; full of unexpected touches and detailed character turns. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: The invigorating thing about Jarhead is it makes us encounter the truth in its undigested form. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: This is a very strong film with really good performances. Read more

Bob Longino, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: While Jarhead, based on Anthony Swofford's best seller about his modern-day experiences in the Marines, has its moments, it never quite attains its loftiest goals. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Screenwriter William Broyles, Jr., a former Vietnam pilot and Newsweek editor, connects reasonably well with the material, but American Beauty director Sam Mendes has a tendency to smooth out the rough edges, and the film goes flat as month-old soda. Read more

Bill Muller, Arizona Republic: It's a good thing Jarhead features strong acting; otherwise the uneven ratio of exposition to action would become unbearable. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The film evokes Three Kings, Full Metal Jacket, Catch-22, and other touchstones of the genre without ever establishing its own identity. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: As much as we intellectually admire Jarhead, it's a cold film that only sporadically makes the kind of emotional connection it's after. Read more

Amy Biancolli, Houston Chronicle: I dare anyone to watch this bold exercise in postponed gratification and not come away with a new, disturbed sense of the genre. Read more

Paul Clinton (CNN.com), CNN.com: As a study of one man's war experience, Jarhead has its moments. But if you want a great movie about the Gulf War, rent David O. Russell's Three Kings. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Jarhead is a minimalist epic -- a grunt's eye view of the 1991 Persian Gulf War that, in more ways than one, never lifts its gaze higher. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Jarhead does an impressive job of articulating the weird, often volatile convergence of the antisocial with the utterly loyal that seems to be the M.O. of a lot of men not yet grown. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: Watching Jarhead, these unvarnished snapshots of what can really happen among U.S. combat troops all but slap you with their observational force. Read more

Philip Wuntch, Dallas Morning News: Jarhead will leave many viewers satisfied and others scratching their heads. But everybody will be asking questions. Read more

Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly: An impeccably well-made piece of Oscar bait that tells us almost nothing we haven't heard before about the dejection and disillusionment of men in war. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: [A] sweltering and pristine portrait of one Marine's experience of the first Persian Gulf war. Read more

Ken Tucker, New York Magazine/Vulture: Jarhead is utterly predictable (boys endure tough training; boys encounter another culture and are baffled), studded with first-rate performances. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: The movie is so good you wish it were even better, particularly in its characterizations. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: The movie has some of the washed-out look of David O. Russell's excellent Three Kings, but none of the edge. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: In all respects, Jarhead is straight from the horse's mouth. See it. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Jarhead can't shoot its way out of its own cliches. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Jarhead is compelling in the way it presents a new facet of a genre that some would argue was mined out long ago. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: It is not often that a movie catches exactly what it was like to be this person in this place at this time, but Jarhead does. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: As hard as the actors work, Jarhead feels false right down to its seductive visuals. Read more

David Edelstein, Slate: Jarhead feels detached, and the internal turmoil of its protagonist (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) lacks urgency -- even with first-person narration to fill in some of the gaps. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: It's the cinematic equivalent of marching in circles. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A war picture that, trying to pass off fidelity to the book as objectivity, sacrifices any voice of its own, and ends up not knowing what to think. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Jarhead makes its points less obviously than most war films, and with more brains than blood. Read more

Richard Schickel, TIME Magazine: The best war movies -- and this one, despite its being overlong and repetitive, is among them -- hold that men fight (or in this case, are ready to fight) not for causes, but to survive and to help their comrades do the same. Read more

Ben Walters, Time Out: The film's strong suit is vagueness, presenting combat as a semi-surreal state of ignorant expectation and dislocated experience: these warriors loll in the desert awaiting action or trying to make sense of its consequences. Read more

Mike Clark, USA Today: Director Sam Mendes' third screen outing pretty well nails Swofford's tone, which was mordant without being disrespectful, and, in fact, is begrudgingly reverent of the Corps. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Sam Mendes' third feature has numerous arresting moments but never achieves a confident, consistent or sufficiently audacious tone. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: The movie is oppressively heavy even when mischievously lighthearted. Read more

Stephen Hunter, Washington Post: What's so good about the movie is Gyllenhaal's refusal to show off; he doesn't seem jealous of the camera's attention when it goes to others and is content, for long stretches, to serve simply as a prism though which other young men can be observed. Read more