• Tagline: Every man fights his own war.
• Director: Sam Mendes
• Writer: William Broyles Jr. & Anthony Swofford
• Release Date: 4 November 2005 (USA)
• MPAA Rating: Rated R for pervasive language, some violent images and strong sexual content.
• Parents Guide: View content advisory for parents
• Genre: Biography | Drama | War
• Runtime: 125 min
• Box Office #s: Here
Anthony “Swoff” Swofford, a Camus-reading kid from Sacramento, enlists in the Marines in the late 1980s. He malingers during boot camp, but makes it through as a sniper, paired with the usually-reliable Troy. The Gulf War breaks out, and his unit goes to Saudi Arabia for Desert Shield. After 175 days of boredom, adrenaline, heat, worry about his girl-fiend finding someone else, losing it and nearly killing a mate, demotion, latrine cleaning, faulty gas masks, and desert football, Desert Storm begins. In less than five days, it’s over, but not before Swoff sees burned bodies, flaming oil derricks, an oil-drenched horse, and maybe a chance at killing. Where does all the testosterone go?
From the Gallery
Cast Highlights
• Peter Sarsgaard … Alan Troy
• Jamie Foxx … Staff Sgt. Sykes
Trivia
- Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire originally vied for the lead role in the film.
- Filmed in the Imperial Valley in Southern California, which features conditions very similar to Iraq. Marines did use one of the local towns, Brawley, for training purposes due to similarities to Iraq.
- Scenes filmed in the Imperial Valley had the mountains in the background digitally removed. Additional desert scenes were also filmed in Mexico.
- Some desert scenes were also shot on a Universal sound stage with lights doubling as burning oil wells. The lights were later replaced with burning wells courtesy of ILM.
- Most of Swofford’s “anecdotes” are based on Urban Legends of the Marine Corps. He has made his unit the basis for “Did you hear about that guy who…” for most USMC legends.
- One of the pictures on the “Wall of Shame” (just left of center) is of porn performer Kitty.
- The word “fuck” and its variants are used 278 times in this film (38 times with the prefix “mother”).
- Christian Bale, Emile Hirsch, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tobey Maguire, Shane West, Josh Hartnett and Joshua Jackson were both considered for the role of Swoff.
- Michael Keaton, Kurt Russell, and Gary Oldman were all considered for the role of Lt. Col. Kazinski.
- The soldiers watch Apocalypse Now (1979), which was edited by Jarhead editor Walter Murch.
- Travis Aaron Wade was considered and read for the role of Troy.
- According to Iván Fenyö, almost 70% of his performance was cut out. Two months before the release of the movie the director phoned Ivan and told him that the studio didn’t wanted most of the lines he had in the movie. According to the actor, some of his parts was about his notices as an East-European about democracy and the Gulf War.
- Jake Gyllenhaal’s nosebleed during the prank branding scene was digitally added in post-production.
- Staff Sgt. Sykes, played by Jamie Foxx, originally had a tattoo of a panther on the back of his shaved head. Foxx sported it during his award sweeps for Ray (2004/I). The tattoo was eventually digitally removed in post-production by director Sam Mendes, because he felt it made the character too “hard core.”
- John Krasinski (Corporal Harrigan) wrote all of his dialog.
- All of the sex scenes were shot the same day, leading Sam Mendes to comment, “It’s so nice to have sex today after all this war and death.”
- While listed in the credits as Swoff’s sister, Jake Gyllenhaal’s character refers to her as Rini, which is in fact the real name of the actress who played the sister.
- Cinematographer Roger Deakins operated the Steadicam himself in many scenes.
- All Marines are taught to think of each other as brothers, since the production of Jarhead has wrapped, Jake Gyllenhaal and Peter Sarsgaard have actually become brothers in the real world, with the marriage of Peter Sarsgaard to Jake Gyllenhaal’s sister Maggie Gyllenhaal.
