💿 Technical Specifications
The film
"Sam Mendes treats complex subject matter with just the right amount of grace and incredulity in this stunning satire of American imperialism and toxic masculinity."
At the height of the second invasion of Iraq and the escalation of America's Forever War, Sam Mendes adapted former Marine Anthony Swofford's book, Jarhead, into a major motion picture. How they got the permission or the money to do so, especially with major stars like Jake Gyllenhaal and Jamie Foxx in the leads, is still a mystery. Especially as Jarhead is one of the most damning portraits of American military service and the toxic personalities it cultivates. It would not get made today.
Set during the first Gulf War, where America went gun-ho into battle against an enemy they didn't understand, and ended up with their second major defeat since Vietnam, Jarhead is a depiction of the lost souls who wind up in the service, and who never get out – not even when they've been discharged for years.
Gyllenhaal plays Swofford, whose memoirs the film is based on. Unlike a traditional biography, Swofford wastes no time in admitting that he's a part of the problem. Lost and without prospects, Swofford is an angry, tormented young man who wants to direct his frustrations into something tangible, like killing a person in combat. Throughout the next two hours, we follow him into the depths of Marine training, the endless boredom of deployment, and the long, insufferable wait to pull the trigger.
Mendes smartly and with great precision toys with audience empathy and expectations, at once making us culpable in Swofford's fantasy as we are bystanders to the whole thing. By the end, we're just as frustrated and disgusted by Swofford's desire to kill and his continued inability to do so.
Told in an episodic format, Jarhead reveals much by saying very little. Everyone here is broken, especially the system that preys upon weak and lost little boys, giving them a new dictionary of Marine language that removes them from reality. In this bizarro-Neverland, they become like the lost boys of The Lord of the Flies, before they're unleashed upon another country in the name of oligarchs everywhere.
As the decades have rolled on, things have only gotten worse. Today, Jarhead looks almost quaint, even at its broadest, most damning moments. We've gone so far beyond the looking glass that what once was unconscionable is now everyday. That might be the scariest revelation of them all.
Video quality
"Superlative transfer that's the best the film has ever looked."
Shot by Roger Deakins, who is a master of the format, Jarhead looks as stunning today as it did back in 2005. Deakins used a bleached intermediary to create a washed-out and drab look for the film, and somehow none of that texture is lost in the 4K transfer. Instead, Jarhead looks almost corrosively accurate, with every bead of sweat fully visible in the pristine image.
The nighttime sequences, like the horrifying oil field burning scene, are as immaculate today as they were 20 years ago. The desolation looks like a doorway to hell, and the way Deakins and Mendes frame Gyllenhaal and Foxx against the backdrop, speaking about how they love this hellish life, is still one of the most arresting pieces of American cinema in the modern era.
Audio quality
"Stunning audio mix."
The bombastic Dolby Atmos mix elevates the already great DTS-HD Master Audio mix from the Blu-ray even higher. For the first half of the film, it's very center-heavy, with lots of dialogue, and only the occasional oomph from a training scenario to liven up the surround speakers. But once the story moves to Iraq, the Atmos mix amplifies the void and the insanity beautifully, and by the time we get burning oil fields and roaring jets overhead, the dynamics prove out of this world.
This is a robust and smartly mixed update that is a perfect step up from previous versions.
Extras
"Just fine extras, though better than most."
The extras are fine, if not the best you could hope for. I'm especially bummed that it's been over 20 years since Jarhead came out, yet we don't have any new extras from the cast and crew to discuss America's Forever War or how things have only gotten worse since Mendes' absurdist take on the military industrial complex of the early 2000s. Everything here is from way back from the original DVD release.
The commentary by screenwriter William Broyles Jr. and author Anthony Swofford is easily the highlight, as both discuss the ways the materials differ and how they still complement one another despite their different formats.
Verdict
"One of the best war films ever made, now with just an OK 4K release."
Jarhead remains an impressive and devastating act of filmmaking that still resonates over two decades later. Things have only gotten worse since then, which makes Mendes' keen observations stand out even better. The 4K edition is pristine on a technical level; it's just a shame that it has nothing new in terms of extras.
