Jarhead DVD Review

Available in standard, HD DVD, and Collector's Editions, Jarhead brings the Gulf War to your living room. Although commonly compared to movies such as Full Metal Jacket, Jarhead, placed in the genre of "War," really doesn't compare simply due to the fact that the movie is more of a telling of the life of a soldier rather than consisting of any action or actual battle scenes. Although true to the book and the source material, Jarhead's advertising itself as a war flick turned off critics and movie-goers who found the movie to be quite different than expected.

However, Jarhead has still found its niche of fans. The movie, if it had not wrongly been classified as a war film, probably could have fared much better in theatres. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a Marine from a long-standing Marine family who joins up to serve in the Gulf War. Opening with boot camp, the movie depicts the life of a Marine as he goes through the verbal, mental, and physical punishment that is laid onto Marines in an attempt to properly prepare them for war. The movie, as it intends to do, brings to life a side of the military that photojournalism, documentaries, and feature films often fail to grasp.

Most war films involve a character or characters triumphing over certain conflicts. They involve action, epic scenes of battle. But Jarhead contains no such scenes. There are no epic battles in the film, but rather the story focuses more on the inner struggles of Jake and other Marines in his troop and tells the story of their experiences in the Gulf War. Not one shot is taken at an enemy by any in the troop in the entire movie, but that doesn't stop the movie from successfully developing a plot and delivering it in a interesting and engaging fashion.

However, a common criticism of the movie is the way the plot ends. The way it unfolds is properly done and is very engaging, but the climax of the movie is almost non-existant and there is virtually no resolution. The movie has a sudden ending that results after a series of build-ups with no final conflict and resolution. This experience tends to leave viewers a bit disappointed.

The extras in the standard DVD edition tend to be pretty sparse. The Collector's Edition contains quite a few fantasy and deleted scenes along with interviews and documentaries. Overall, those who were dissatisfied with the movie in theatres won't be tempted by the DVD, but those who enjoyed the movie should still have enough reason to consider picking it up