Jarhead

Jarhead

2005

Director: Sam Mendes

Writer: William Broyles

125 Minutes

One of the first films to tackle the Gulf War was a film not about war. Not really. It was about trained killers not being able to kill.

That’s what the military is capable of doing.

In the film Jarhead, the audience follows Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) through his military basic training, sniper school, and into the Gulf War. His best friend and sniper partner, Alan Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), follows him on the path, though these two characters believe such different ideals.

Swofford wants to get out. Troy wants to stay in.

This conflict happens often in the military – some men love it, others hate it - yet most “lifers” don’t get kicked like Troy does.

Troy enjoys the military. He enjoys the training, mission, and message. He enjoys being a killer. Though, he is never allowed to kill.

Conflict.

In the scene above, Swofford and Troy get their mission and patiently make their way to their target. They take good position, set their sights, and wait for the orders to fire.

Before the orders come, they are interrupted by a higher-ranking officer who calls in an air strike, taking away Swofford and Troy’s kill. Troy pleads with the higher-ranking officer, explaining to him for them to simply take the shot then call in the air strike, but it falls on death ears.

Troy flips out stating, “this is our fucking kill!”

These men have been trained as hyper-masculine men, trained killers. They have been programmed. They are machines. They want this kill. They need this kill. It is there release. It is their freedom.

Kill.

Jarhead explores the idea that even when you are trained to do something, if that action goes unfulfilled, it causes more conflict than not.

In the end of the film, Swofford, Troy, and the rest of their company fire their rifles into the air. They released the aggression, killer-instinct, and hostility within and find peace through this violent release. It's the only release they get. Yet, this mindset has permanently affected Swofford as he recalls:

“A story: A man fires a rifle for many years, and he goes to war. And afterward he turns the rifle in at the armory, and he believes he's finished with the rifle. But no matter what else he might do with his hands, love a woman, build a house, change his son's diaper; his hands remember the rifle.”

It stay with them. The training stays with them. And the need to kill stays with them.

It is never released, only suppressed.