Jarhead Movie

A Sam Mendes film · Universal, 2005

Welcome to the suck, and to four months of waiting

Mendes filmed Anthony Swofford's 2003 memoir from a screenplay by William Broyles Jr, with Roger Deakins photographing, Dennis Gassner designing, Walter Murch cutting and Thomas Newman scoring. The Imperial Valley and Mexicali stood in for Kuwait.

Start with the shoot
The 2005 Universal theatrical one-sheet for Jarhead — a dog tag on a chain against a black field, burning wells reflected in the metal, and the line “Welcome to the suck” beneath it
The campaign sold the picture on the fire it barely shows.Poster: Universal Pictures, 2005 · via Wikimedia Commons

Jake Gyllenhaal · Jamie Foxx · Peter Sarsgaard · Chris Cooper · Lucas Black · Brian Geraghty · Jacob Vargas · Evan Jones · Dennis Haysbert
Photographed by Roger Deakins · Music by Thomas Newman · Production design by Dennis Gassner · Edited by Walter Murch · Screenplay by William Broyles Jr · From the book by Anthony Swofford · Directed by Sam Mendes

Sam Mendes filmed a war picture in which almost nobody fires a shot.

2003Swofford publishes Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles.
2005Universal releases the film on 9 November, per the studio's own release schedule.
$97mWorldwide gross as recorded by Box Office Mojo, against a budget reported at roughly $72m.
1991The Kuwaiti wells burn from February; the last of the fires is capped in November of the same year.
Roger Deakins at the eyepiece of an anamorphic camera mounted on a low dolly, focus puller beside him, flat desert horizon, hard midday sun

The Making · Photography

Deakins Shot It Anamorphic, and Let the Sun Do the Grading

Why the desert scenes are bleached to the edge of white and the fire scenes look painted. Both come out of one decision: shoot the available light, in the widest frame going, and refuse to fix it later.

Read it
Wide Imperial Valley shot with a small film crew, trucks and a crane amid dunes stretching to the horizon

The Making

How Mendes, Deakins, Gassner and Newman built a war film in the California desert.

7 pieces The 2003 Scribner hardback of Jarhead by Anthony Swofford photographed flat on a table in raking light, spine visible

The Book

Anthony Swofford's 2003 memoir, its reception, and where the film departs from it.

4 pieces A rank of Blu-ray spines stood on a shelf — Three Kings, Jarhead, The Hurt Locker, American Sniper, Generation Kill — titles legible, raking light

The Field

The Gulf War on screen — from Three Kings to The Hurt Locker, and the shadow of Apocalypse Now.

8 pieces
Film crew at work on a desert dolly track — camera operator at the eyepiece, focus puller and dolly grip beside him, dunes behind, all adults
Track laid across sand near Glamis. The unit worked the Valley through the hottest part of the year, then moved south to Mexicali.Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels

Eight frames

A tall fire and thick black smoke shoot skyward from a burning oil well in an open field01 Stills The Burning Wells: Six Frames and What Deakins Did with Them Silhouetted figures walk in a line across the desert against a fiery orange horizon02 Stills Oil Rain on a Marching Column: How That Shot Was Made Sweeping sand dunes cast in shadow under a hazy desert sky03 Stills Sand, Smoke, and the Colours Deakins Refused to Correct Worker in a protective suit and respirator kneels to inspect chemical containers in a warehouse04 The Making What the MOPP Suit Actually Is, and What It Cost to Wear One on Screen Rippled sand dunes curve under a clear blue sky in the desert05 The Making Glamis, Brawley, and a Mexicali Stand-In for Kuwait Musicians with laptops and a grand piano perform on a sand-covered concert hall floor06 The Making Newman Scored the Waiting, Not the War Man with short beard wearing a blue blazer and gold chain at a film premiere07 Credits Gyllenhaal, Foxx, Sarsgaard: How the Principal Cast Was Assembled A man sits with hands clasped in prayer while a crowded protest plays on an old television08 The Field The War That Played Live, and What That Did to Every Film That Followed
A tall fire and thick black smoke shoot skyward from a burning oil well in an open field

Stills

Frame-by-frame: the cinematography of the oil fields, the desert and the waiting.

3 pieces Movie poster for Jarhead showing a military dog tag on a chain

Credits

The cast, the crew, the release record and the awards history, attributed and dated.

4 pieces
A cinema marquee at night with Jarhead on the letters, wet pavement reflecting the sign, a few adults visible at the box office below
Universal opened it on 9 November 2005, per the studio's release schedule.Photo: Joaquin Carfagna / Pexels

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