|
"I'd like to see it as a great hymn to the resilience and bravery of the marines, in the face of nothingness."
Sam Mendes, Cinema Confidential interview
transcript of e-mail sent 1630 on 9/1/06
from neil@cudas.demon.co.uk to Derek@XXXXXXXXXXXX(censored)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Derek,
You requested some feedback on JARHEAD after the press-show this morning. I'd call it the BLACK HAWK DOWN of this year: technically accomplished but somewhat uninvolving tale of elite American soldiers and their adventures overseas, by a 'name' British director (main differences: the cast this time is entirely American, and there's much less action). Nothing much new anywhere here: starts off a bit FULL METAL JACKET (brutalities of bootcamp); goes a bit STARSHIP TROOPERS (brutalities of training); then a bit THREE KINGS (larks and hi-jinks in Gulf War I). Except the story isn't as good as in any of those three: part of the point is that not very much happens to this bunch - it's based on real events, and as usual when this happens the script is a bit too episodic. Our heroes get to the "front line" just as the "war" ends and they have to go home. Box-office wise, I can't see it doing great business over here - the trailer is stylish, but the poster isn't much cop. In the film itself there's not much to appeal to female audiences of any age, apart from lasses who fancy Jake Gyllenhaal and/or Jamie Foxx (both of whom get to show off their gym-buffed physiques). I see it's been given a 15, but most male teenagers will reckon there's too much talk and not enough action. Target audience is probably blokes aged 25-35 who are into Apocalypse Now, etc: the brainier type of war-movie fan: CATCH-22, MASH, etc. The two hours passed painlessly enough - if anybody asked me whether or not they should see it I'd struggle to be enthusiastic either way. Hope this is what you were after. Any other questions, let me know.
Neil
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neil Young
9th January, 2005
JARHEAD : [5/10] : USA 2005 : Sam MENDES : 123 mins (BBFC timing)
seen at Odeon cinema, Newcastle-upon-Tyne (UK), 9th January 2006 - press show
note :
Jarhead filled me with such inertia that, once I'd written the requested 'instant verdict' reproduced above, I couldn't quite bring myself to write another review in more orthodox style. American Beauty seems to have been one heck of a false dawn in the light of Mendes' two follow-ups - first Road to Perdition, now this.
He clearly needs to select his scripts more carefully: if he keeps on like this, we'll have another Mike Newell (esteemed British director "famed" for studies of enclosed American societies) to contend with. Jarhead, though by no means a bad film per se, fails the basic litmus test of any literary adaptation: are we more or less likely, having seen the film, to buy/read the source book?
The message of both book (Anthony Swofford's memoir of same title) and film seems to be that war is stupid/brutal/beautiful/surreal/absurd/boring, but that the US Marines are a fundamentally decent bunch who struggle to retain their humanity in the face of the stupidity/brutality/surrealism/absurdity/boredom of it all. Neither pro-war nor anti-war... thuddingly, ennui-stirringly neutral. See also documentaries Gunner Palace and Occupation : Dreamland (both about the aftermath of Gulf War II).
Mendes and his scriptwriter William Broyles Jr (whose patchy, hack-for-hire record encompasses Cast Away, Unfaithful, The Polar Express and Entrapment) don't bring anything especially new to the table: it also doesn't help that the picture is so dominated by the central character, who narrates (largely in a zonked-out, Mogadon style) throughout.
This places a major burden on the pumped-up shoulders of Jake Gyllenhaal who, flavour-of-the-month status notwithstanding, has never convinced me of his leading-man status. Mendes also manages the seemingly-impossible feat of eliciting so-so performances from two American actors who are normally must-sees: Lucas Black (from Friday Night Lights, lost in the chaotic ensemble here) and Peter Sarsgaard.
Many Oscar pundits reckoned this might be the chance for the Academy to rectify the absurdity that Sarsgaard - born on an Air Force Base, as it happens (and reportedly dating Gyllenhaal's more-talented sister Maggie) - has never yet been nominated for their awards. But, as sniper Gyllenhaal's "scout" partner, he remains a forbidding zone of negative energy - even Broyles seems a touch alienated by him, as his character's fate remains frustratingly opaque at the end. A criticism which can also, coincidentally, be levelled at Gyllenhaal's other, better, current release, Brokeback Mountain.
NY, 14/15.1.06
|
