Fridae

Oh all those beautiful boys baking semi-nude in the burning fields
of the Arabian desert...Such cruelty, these men in uniforms, and
what brutality you can't help but fall in lust with them.

The same can't be said for the film though, which is most likely
to split the audience into the twin camps of supporters and detractors.
Sam Mendes has come a long way down from American Beauty.
Road to Perdition was a sign. He must have missed that
in the dark.

Having said that, there is no denial his latest still is a pleasurable
assault on the senses. Harnessing the talent of cinematographer
Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo)
to paint in harsh, desaturated palette the portraiture of the desert
landscape, the film articulates through its visuals much of the
oppressive emptiness experienced by these young warriors-in-khakis
as they awaited their first encounter with the enemy forces. Based
on the memoir of Anthony Swofford, it recounts his experience as
a jarhead (slang for a US marine) in the first gulf war. The bloodshed
never came, and towards the end of the film a young marine asked,
to no one in particular: "Are we ever going to get to kill
anyone?" Well darling, you can desert storm me anytime you
want...

In the role of Swofford is Hollywood's young rising star Jake Gyllenhall,
and what impeccable pecs he has. He has been working those acting
chops I see... Thoroughly mesmering in every frame, he captures
the cockiness of a young jarhead, still wet behind his ears, with
knee-jellying bravado. He struts, he sneers, he reads Camus in the
loo, and you wonder what else this boy will do when no one's watching.

In fact, everyone in this film is so ruggedly gorgeous you'd feel
as if you're drowning in a heatwave of masculinity, forgiving any
faults the film does possess — hollowness, for example. Though
it retreads the territory of Full Metal Jacket, it has
none of the intellectual restraint. What we see here is merely a
commendable rigour to details and a conscious effort in keeping
the actions to the minimal — kind of tried-and-tested formulaic
in its execution. Having said that, the film is still worth watching
for the charisma of its stars.

Audience who can't get enough of this lean, mean fighting machine
can get a second ride on Brokeback Mountain, the seminal
gay film from Hollywood this year, along with Transamerica.