Director Sam Mendes’ (“Road to Perdition”) “Jarhead” is an adaptation of Anthony Swofford’s own experiences in the first Gulf War in Saudi Arabia. Though waiting in the heat of the desert to just fight a little, many of the marines drive themselves into insanity. In “Jarhead,” their slow transformation from men to animals is truly jaw-dropping.

Anthony Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal, “Donnie Darko”) has just joined the Marines. After being constantly teased by both his squad mates and Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx, “Ray”), he successfully completes his training. Though through his training he is recognized to be a successful sniper, he and Troy (Peter Sarsgaard, “Flightplan”) are partners in a sniping unit. In time, war has been declared in the Middle East and his troops are sent into Saudi Arabia as part of Operation: Desert Shield.

When they arrive, they entertain themselves by sharing stories, criticizing one another, and sharing letters and pictures of loved ones. After a long time, they grow bored and hostile towards one another—especially Swofford. They still haven’t seen any combat. The heat is terrible.

They start getting messages from girlfriends that they’ve found someone else, and start a wall of shame full of pictures. The heat is still terrible; they still have not seen any combat. The team begins to realize that even though they are at war, the world doesn’t stop just because they aren’t there. They feel they have no effect upon life whatsoever, that horrible feeling of being inferior. The heat is terrible. Still no combat. They begin to make stupid decisions and when combat seems it could arise and doesn’t, they pout. The idea of war and people wanting to join the corp. just wanting to kill something leads me to this; chaos can alter judgment, and can make men foolish, into monsters, or completely insane.

This is another one of those movies in which personality evolves. In a way the characters are like kids messing around in class, they’re having fun, not doing what they’re supposed to do. The teacher cracks down and punishes them, but crackdown too much and make them feel like horrible people.

In the beginning of the film, they’re messing around and getting drunk, but then the heat gets to them, and they’re sorry they ever came. The acting of the marines that we see are perfectly adjusted to what Sam Mendes was hoping for, de-evolving from men into animals. De-humanizing themselves. Staff Sergeant Sykes is the only one who seems to keep his cool. Obviously he has seen many other battles, and when you look at him, he’s really giving the message, these boys weren’t ready and didn’t know what to expect.

If you look at war from a different point of view, waiting for battle, waiting to fight, waiting to die, is actually the war happening inside oneself rather than externally—in a way.

Gyllenhaal and Sarsgaard hold the strongest performances. There is a scene in which they believe they have the snipe shot, but instead they are stopped because an air strike was ordered in and may give them away. That was probably one of the most climactic parts of the film. “Just let him take the shot, just let him take this shot”, says Sarsgaard, who then breaks into an immediate sob.

“Four days, four hours, one minute,” says Swofford as he slowly comes back to reality towards the end of the film. Some of the shots in this film are visually stunning, especially a scene in which the marines are walking through the desert and you can see ever-burning oil wells in the distance.

I think many people can agree that “Jarhead” is probably one of the most emotionally powerful films of the year.

Rated R for pervasive language, some violent images, and strong sexual content. Running Time 123 minutes.