Jarhead.2005 - [updated]

The film's first act acts as a deconstruction of civilian flesh. We watch Anthony "Swoff" Swofford (played by Jake Gyllenhaal) undergo the brutal, identity-stripping machine of boot camp. Guided by the volatile Staff Sergeant Sykes (Jamie Foxx), Swofford and his peers—including the intense, deeply secretive Troy (Peter Sarsgaard)—are meticulously conditioned into efficient tools of the state.

When Iraq invades Kuwait, Swofford’s platoon is deployed to the Arabian Peninsula for Operation Desert Shield. What follows is not a swift, heroic insertion, but 175 days of agonizing monotony in the blistering desert heat. The Marines are left to battle dehydration, shifting sandstorms, relationship anxieties, and their own unspent aggression while waiting for an enemy they rarely see. The Cruel Irony of Modern Warfare jarhead.2005