Gyllenhaal can, in fact, act, so the blame must fall elsewhere for his dim performance, all topless tears and soulful voiceovers. The same goes for Peter Sarsgaard, Chris Cooper and Jamie Foxx, three good actors forced into contortions of theatrics.

| Jan 16, 2018

Jarhead is simultaneously audaciously original and so mired in the clichés it knowingly acknowledges, sends up and honours that it has little new to say.

Full Review | Sep 28, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 1, 2006

It's another fine Gyllenhaal performance, but not really enough, because his suffering doesn't amount to a hill of Kuwaiti sand in the end.

| Feb 10, 2006

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.

| Feb 9, 2006

Jarhead takes a perverse pleasure in confounding your expectations of what a war movie should be.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 17, 2006

Stunning to look at and to listen to, with elegantly chosen pop songs unspooling on the soundtrack under each fresh new horror.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 14, 2006

Jarhead is utterly predictable (boys endure tough training; boys encounter another culture and are baffled), studded with first-rate performances.

Full Review | Dec 9, 2005

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.

Full Review | Dec 6, 2005

It is clear, fairly early on, that David O' Russell's vastly superior Three Kings is still the definitive opus on the first Gulf War.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 6, 2005

It's not a pretty picture, but it is a lovely film.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 6, 2005

This is a very strong film with really good performances.

Full Review | Nov 7, 2005

Jarhead is a frustrating piece of craftsmanship, a fantastically made movie on a technical level that leaves viewers with nothing in the end.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Nov 5, 2005

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.

| Nov 4, 2005

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.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 4, 2005

Jarhead makes its points less obviously than most war films, and with more brains than blood.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Nov 4, 2005

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.

| Nov 4, 2005

Jarhead is often a film about boredom, but it's never boring; full of unexpected touches and detailed character turns.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 4, 2005

The invigorating thing about Jarhead is it makes us encounter the truth in its undigested form.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 4, 2005

As hard as the actors work, Jarhead feels false right down to its seductive visuals.

Full Review | Nov 4, 2005