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Jarhead - Jake Gyllenhaal, Lucas Black, Jamie Foxx, Evan Jones, Sam Mendes

Threat advisory: Elevated - Significant risk of entertaining activities

Movie propaganda

Welcome to the suck.

Jarhead (the self-imposed moniker of the US Marine Corps) follows Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal), a third-generation enlistee, from a sobering stint in boot camp to active duty, sporting a sniper's rifle and a hundred-pound ruck on his back through Middle East deserts with no cover from intolerable heat or from Iraqi soldiers, always potentially just over the next horizon. Swoff and his fellow Marines sustain themselves with sardonic humanity and wicked comedy on blazing desert fields in a country they don't understand against an enemy they can't see for a cause they don't fully fathom.

Jamie Foxx portrays Sergeant Sykes, a Marine lifer who heads up Swofford's scout/sniper platoon, while Peter Sarsgaard is Swoff's friend and mentor, Troy, a die-hard member of STA - their elite Marine Unit.

An irreverent and true account of a war that was antiseptically packaged a decade ago, Jarhead is laced with dark wit, honest inquisition and episodes that are at once surreal and poignant, tragic and absurd. Jarhead is based on Marine Anthony Swofford's bracing memoir that took readers into his disorienting first-hand experience in the Gulf War.

Target demographic movie keyword propaganda

Film Iraq USA USMC marine soldier sniper true history Persian Gulf Gulf War Desert Shield Desert Storm Kuwait

Persons of interest

Jake Gyllenhaal .... Anthony "Swoff" Swofford
Jamie Foxx .... Staff Sergeant Siek
Peter Sarsgaard .... Troy
Laz Alonso .... Escobar
Rini Bell .... Rini
Lucas Black .... Kuhn
Byron Browne .... D Gillooly
Chris Cooper .... Lieutenant Colonel Kazinski
Brianne Davis .... Kristina
Peter Gail .... Doc John
Brian Geraghty .... Fergus
Grant Hayes .... Clark
Dennis Haysbert .... Major Lincoln
Tuukka Jantti .... Sniper
Evan Jones .... Fowler
Kurt Larson .... Lance Corporal
Scott MacDonald .... DI Fitch
Jamie Martz .... Foster
James Morrison .... Mr Swofford
Tyler Sedustine .... Harris
Jocko Sims .... Chris Julius
Tom Vick .... Private Tinker
Travis Aaron Wade .... Payne
Arman Zajic .... Young Swoff
Anthony Swofford .... Author
William Broyles Junior .... Screenwriter
Sam Mendes .... Director

Cinematic intelligence sources

Jarhead official movie site
Jarhead film production notes
Jarhead QuickTime movie trailers
Awards and film festivals:

Visual Effects Society Awards 2005: Nominated: Outstanding Supporting Visual Effects in a Motion Picture (Pablo Helman, Jeanie King, Grady Cofer, Brett Northcutt)

See also Blackhawk down, Buffalo soldiers, Three kings, Tigerland
Studios and distributors:

Universal Pictures * United International Pictures

Intelligence analyst

Special Agent Matti

Theatrical report

What Jarhead tells you is that it sucks to be a Marine, especially a Marine with any kind of brain. And don't get me started on war. The special effects are awesome: you won't even know where they are.