 | ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids. |
 | OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age. |
 | NOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age. |
Jarhead
- Review Date: March 6, 2006
- R
- Genre: Drama
- 2005
Common Sense Media says
Intelligent and bleak; for mature audiences only.
Parents say
QUALITY
Kids say
QUALITY
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that this movie isn't appropriate for kids. It includes frequent scenes of violence, including shooting (at targets and people), hazing rituals, fights, explosions, and grueling training exercises. The film shows frequent images of carcasses (burned and broken along the Gulf war's infamous Highway of Death). Characters curse relentlessly, smoke cigarettes, drink, and do drugs. The troops also engage in frank sex talk (including slang for genitals and masturbation) and gestures; the film includes a brief glimpse at the protagonist's parents in a hotel bed, and scenes from a homemade porn movie (the doggy-style sex act is explicit, without penetration).
What's the story?
Joining the marines, 20-year-old Tony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) seeks sense, maybe a way to fit in. In training camp, he becomes a sniper and learns to dote on his gun. When Swoff and his spotter Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) are sent, along with Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), to the Saudi desert, they're instructed to hydrate and train. Days and days and days they wait. They play football, drink, spit prefab answers for the press, and erect a Wall of Shame to their cheating girlfriends back home to survive the monotony, as they also anticipate the worst. Macho and childish at the same time, they can't imagine the horrors they will behold. At last, they're sent to a battleground that's been decimated by the awesome U.S. air war. Traipsing through the desert until they come on what became known as the Highway of Death, they look out on charred vehicles and corpses, the top layer of sand burned black beneath their boots.
Is it any good?
Adapted from Anthony Swofford's 2003 memoir, Jarhead is a frankly intelligent and beautifully bleak war movie with very little conventional "war" in it. It focuses on the ways that authorities rationalize war "scenarios" and train troops to carry out orders that are, on their face, irrational and costly. The movie depicts the "conflict" as an endless series of traumas that will continue to afflict Swoff and his fellows long after they're "home." The problem with war, according to Jarhead, is precisely that it's endless.
In the horrific Highway of Death scene, Swoff is shown sitting near the dead man, so that each appears in foreground and background, as if they are conversing. The effect is more harrowing than any battle sequence, underlining Jarhead's anguished point: war is not heroic or rousing. It is only devastating.
What families can talk about
Families can talk about the conventional reasons for war, the ways that young men posture for one another in order to prove their "masculine" identities, and defining "enemies" by their differences. How does Tony's experience in the Saudi desert not meet his expectations -- of glory, mission, and camaraderie? How is Tony, as a precise, ground-based sniper, shown to be outmoded by overwhelming air-war technologies?
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AGE
Great Movie!!!
I think this was a great movie.The sex scenes were a little iffy, but other than that it was okay.
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AGE
this movie has so many f- bombs that kids can't repeat
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AGE
The most intellegent and visually stunning war films, but definetly not for kids
Personally, it was a great film for me. On the parental side, this is downright not appropriate for any kids under the age of 15 (hypocritically, yes)
Language throughout, no actual war-violence but you see the effects (burnt bodies, amputated limbs), sex is everywhere (cheating wife sends porn tape, college 'study' sessions)
If you still consider the film for your teenager, watch it then decide
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AGE
Jarhead
A cool movie for those warfare movie lovers. I never saw this movie in theaters, but my friend insisted I watch it with him on DVD. I'm glad I did.
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AGE
thank you... a film that lets me use my brain
This film can be summed up by the lyrics of a single song 'War... huh... what is it good for...absolutly nothing, say it again', i forget who the song is by, but you get the picture. Yet while it manages to display the dissilusionment often felt about modern political war, the film manages to stay clear of too many cleches that surround what life in the miltary is like. This balance is most notable in the role of Sworff played by Jake Gyllenhaal. who simultauously critricses the marine corps, yet willingly partakes in the life he is presented with as a result of being in the marine corps!! All in all the film is an intelligent look into the military and war with the indervidual stories of people found within the marine corps taking the main focus rather than any overt political comment. in my opinion this adds to the films genius, by presenting the facts and reality of the characters it leaves the audience to decide what to make of what happens within the film. In this way forcing the audience to think, and distencing itself from other shoot um up action films where answers to moral dilemers are often given in neat little packages. with this film you have to face in full, the range of human capabilites and feelings, from heroism to cowadice, to anger, hate and love, its all there.
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AGE
interesting
good movie but if you were in the military you will understand
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AGE
Excellent
This is definitly one of those movies that every young adult should see. Especially those considering the military. The story is realistic. The characters are believable. And the content is not too bad given how far they could have gone.
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AGE
The point is...there is no point
This is a well made film with good pacing, amazing scenery and special effects (digging foxholes in a burning oilfield flooded with oil, charred bodies and burned out vehicles, human branding), and excellent acting. What it lacks is plot and a point. Unless, the point is that there is no point and there is no beginning, middle and end to war.
One leaves this film feeling that one has an inside look at what it is like to be a Marine and to be on the desert in war.
There is way more swearing and sexual content than in most war movies. Except for a very graphic scene of the charred bodies after Allied bombing of an Iraqi highway, there is really not much violence or gore. This is mostly about feeling trapped and frustrated and disappointed.
I want to read the book now. There seems to be a really good story trying to get out of the main character. I don't think we really get access to the best part of the story in this movie.
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AGE
One of the great war movies
This was truly an excellant film. For one thing, it is extremly funny. But it is much more than that. It is probably as close to modern warfare as can be dipicted in a movie. I have heard a few first hand stories of Iraq veterans, and this film comes very close to hitting the mark. The soldiers are fighting boredom, not a horrific enemy. There are no huge, epic, stomach churning conflicts in the film. That is because the movie wants to be more serious than that. It is not a pretentious, action packed bloodbath in the vein of Private Ryan. It is a soldiers story, clear and simple, and I think every teenage kid interested in modern warfare and potentialy fighting should see THIS film, not Saving Private Ryan.
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| Studio: | Universal Pictures |
| Director: | Sam Mendes |
| Cast: | Jake Gyllenhaal, Jamie Foxx, Peter Sarsgaard |
| Genre: | Drama |
| Run time: | 123 minutes |
| Theatrical release date: | November 4, 2005 |
| DVD release date: | March 7, 2006 |
| MPAA rating: | R |
| MPAA explanation: | pervasive language, some violent images and strong sexual content |
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