Jarhead
“Jarhead,” a film directed by Sam Mendes, is based on a book by the same Anthony Swofford, regarding his experiences as a scout/sniper. The film is set in the early 1990’s, just before Operation: Desert Storm. I’m struggling to think of a way to move forward with this review, if only because the film doesn’t have a narrative. It consists mostly of vignettes, well, no, not even… call them, perhaps, a series of moments in which…
The problem with this approach is that they were using the wrong inspiration. While the Dreamworks approach works in “Shrek,” it really didn’t work in “Shark Tale” or “Madagascar.” Given they had the master storytellers of Pixar in their backyard, one wonders why Disney didn’t watch a few commentary tracks to learn from the…