Jarhead

Herald rating: * * *

war movie that's not a war movie. Rather than blood and bullets, this is the personal reminiscence of a 20-year-old man who signed a job contract. It just happened to be with the Marines.

Swofford (Jake Gyllenhaal) is that kid; his spotter, Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), is his best mate in the scouting-sniping unit under Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), the only one in a group of psychos and lost souls who seems to know why he's in the military.

Mostly, they're just sitting in the searing desert waiting to fight a war and killing time in what seems an accurate, if un-focused, essay on the pointlessness of the entire exercise.

Directed by Sam Mendes, the DVD features 11 deleted scenes, including an alternative opening, director's commentary, and an interesting second commentary with Swofford and screenwriter William Broyles, who served in Vietnam.

DVD, video rental out now