A young man gets a crash course in the madness of war in this fact-based drama from director Sam Mendes. Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) decides to join the Marines, just like his father and his father before him, and signs on just in time to be sent to Iraq to fight in the Gulf War in 1991. After experiencing the rigors of boot camp, Swofford and his pal Troy (Peter Sarsgaard) are trained to be snipers, and under the leadership of Sgt. Sykes (Jamie Foxx) and Lt. Col. Kazinski (Chris Cooper), the two land in the middle of a desert where they're up against an enemy they can't always see under a blazing sun with hours of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Swofford, Troy, and their fellow soldiers rely on the wits, their sense of humor, and their friendship of their brothers in arms to deal with a situation that doesn't much resemble what they saw on television at home. Jarhead was based on the memoirs of the real-life Anthony Swofford, who did serve as a sniper in the 1991 Gulf War; the title comes from military slang for a Marine enlistee. Mark Deming, Rovi
- Genre: Military & War
- Category War Drama, Biopic [feature]
- Theme: Military Life, Home From the War
- Studio: Universal Studios
- Run Time: 02 hr 03 min
- Language: French, English, Spanish
- Subtitle Language: French, Spanish
- Picture Format: widescreen
- Format: DVD
- Release Date: March 7, 2006
- Lead Actor: Peter Sarsgaard, Lucas Black, Brian Geraghty, Jacob Vargas, Jake Gyllenhaal
- Supporting Actor: Christian Reeve, John Krasinski, Mark Davis, Marty Papazian, Donna Kimball, Kareem J. Grimes, Jaimie Martz, Peter Gail, Ivan Fenyo, Kristin Richardson, Joel Prato, Jonathon R. Mize, Jocko Sims, Tyler Sedustine, Brian Casey, Brianne Davis, Arman Zajic, James Morrison, Dendrie Allyn Taylor, Rini Bell, Craig Coyne, Riad Galayini, Damion Poitier, Kevin Foster, Ming Lo, Scott MacDonald, Jamie Foxx, Dennis Haysbert, Chris Cooper, Evan Jones, Laz Alonso, Mike Akrawi, Toufiq Tulsiram, Jubin K., Hari Bali, Kurt Larson, Ammar Daraiesh, Al Faris, V.J. Foster, Ernest Ozuna
- Director: Sam Mendes
