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Parents' Guide to

Jarhead

By Cynthia Fuchs, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 16+

Intelligent and bleak; for mature audiences only.

Movie R 2005 123 minutes
Jarhead Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Community Reviews

age 15+

Based on 5 parent reviews

age 13+

Great Movie

Some of these reviews just don’t make sense. If you were appalled by this movie, then you are a snowflake. Plain and simple. Nobody should make a review on a movie they didn’t watch through its entirety. This movie is about war and therefore contains violence and explicit language and imagery... What did you expect, though? It’s a war movie. It has comedic scenes and serious scenes, but it has an ultimate point to it as well if you pay close enough attention. It teaches a lesson on soldiers with PTSD and how war never changes (i.e, “they’re still in the desert,” “he will always remember the rifle,” “semper fi, marines.”) It touched me and I have watched it more than a few times with family and friends alike, who all also enjoyed the movie.
age 14+

Good for adults

If your child has seen other war/violent movies and seen innaproprite images then should be fine if you are interested in joining the military this movie is great for you

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (5 ):
Kids say (5 ):

This adaptation of a memoir is a smart and beautifully shot -- if bleak -- war movie with very little conventional "war" in it. Jarhead 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 Gulf War as an endless series of traumas that will continue to afflict Swofford 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, Swofford is shown sitting near the dead men, 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.

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