An irreverent and edgy look at modern warfare from a soldier's point of view from Universal Studios Home Entertainment. Starring Oscar winner Jamie Foxx (Ray, Collateral) and Jake Gyllenhaal (Brokeback Mountain, Proof), and directed by Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, The Road to Perdition), the film follows a naive young recruit and his platoon mates from the intensity and comradery of boot camp to being shipped to a lonely outpost in a surreal desert setting. Jarhead delivers a militantly apolitical story of hope, frustration, bonding and survival, loaded with first-rate performances from a stellar cast including Peter Sarsgaard (Kinsey, Garden State) and Academy Award winner Chris Cooper (Seabiscuit, The Bourne Identity). Adapted from Anthony Swofford's best-selling memoir by Academy Award*-winning screenwriter and ex-Marine pilot William Broyles, Jr. (Apollo 13, Cast Away), Jarhead redefines war for a new generation against a backdrop of high-alert anticipation, sporadic violence and unsettling lulls.
Drawing on Swofford's bracing firsthand account of the Gulf War, Jarhead follows a third generation military enlistee (Jake Gyllenhaal) from basic training to first deployment as his unit awaits orders in the scorching Kuwaiti sun. When excruciating physical conditions coupled with the uncertainty of waiting cracks the soldiers' discipline, it sets in motion a tragic conflict.