Jarhead Blu-ray Review

Jarhead

Blu-ray Review
Universal Studios Home Entertainment
Released: November 25, 2008

Jarhead is an interesting movie as it is a war-movie that touches on some very deep topics without actually going to the battlefield or throwing you in the middle of tons of action.

The film takes this idea and tries its best to run with it, and succeeds in many fronts.  The will have you following a group of Marines who never really get into any type of battle, but have plenty of issues of their own.

This is a war story that will keep you off of the battlefield and focus more on the emotions of the soldiers and everything else that goes on in-between.  Much of the film will have you going through boot camp, the issues with being away from home, etc.

The Marines are seen wondering when they are going to see any type of action, and still have to go through this ridiculous training on a daily basis to stay ready.

The movie does a great job of really focusing on the emotions of these soldiers, as the cast headed up by Jamie Foxx, Chris Cooper, Peter Sarsgaard, and Jake Gyllenhaal.

The cast does a fantastic job here of really pulling you into the emotional aspect of war and trying to stay prepared to fight at all times.  It almost does this to a fault in some spots though as you just want to see these guys in action.  Jarhead is worth seeing though just due to its unique factor, and the emotion it brings.

The video quality for the Blu-ray release is near-flawless as it is presented in 1080p in 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

The video quality is fantastic as there are tons of details with the amazing scenery, flesh-tones, etc.  The colors could have been improved a bit, keeping it from the perfect score, but the whole style of the film shines through in some key spots with great sharpness and clarity.

The audio is presented in DTS-HD 5.1 and is a nice audio mix that allows the dialogue to come cross crystal clear, letting the emotions take over with good ambient noises and such in the background.

The Blu-ray release unfortunately does not have all that much in regards to extras, as there are only two commentaries added in.  The first is a commentary with director Sam Mendes, while the second is with author Anthony Swofford and screenwriter William Boyles Jr.

The lack of a U-Control picture-in-picture track is disappointing.  A My Scenes feature is included to collect your favorite clips from the film.

Jarhead is an interesting film as it is a war-movie that really allows you to get into the emotions of these Marines.  The lack of extras though truly hurts this release as you want to learn more about the characters, how the film was done, etc.  I would recommend this as a rental due to the lack of extras only.

Movie: 8.2 An interesting war movie that puts the emotions of the Marines front-and-center.

Video: 9.0 The transfer is very well-done with nice clarity throughout.

Audio: 9.2 A great audio mix that truly captures the entire audio presentation.

Extras: 5.0 Extremely lacking, only the two audio commentaries.

Final Score: 7.8

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