178 JARHEAD
decommissioned but still partially active fa cil i ty about 75 miles northeast of Los
Angeles. The Marine barracks scenes in Saudi Arabia were filmed in and around
the Grand Salon at California State University, Channel Islands in Camarillo, Cali-
fornia. Principal photography ended almost exactly five months after it began
with filming at the 200,000- acre North Algodones Dunes Wilderness Area (aka
Imperial Sand Dunes or Glamis Dunes) in southeast California, 20 miles north of
the U.S.- Mexico border. Ironically, at five months, the shoot took the same amount
of time that Swofford spent on the Arabian Peninsula.Plot Summary
In 1989, Anthony “Swoff” Swofford ( Jake Gyllenhaal) undergoes U.S. Marine Corps
training before being stationed at Camp Pendleton (Ocean side, California). Swof-
ford pretends to be sick to get shirk his duties, but Staff Sergeant Sykes ( Jamie Foxx)
sees some potential in the recruit and enrolls Swofford in his Scout Sniper course.
After a grueling training regimen, the number of soldiers in the course is winnowed
down to eight candidates. Swofford makes the cut and becomes a sniper. His room-
mate, Cpl. Alan Troy (Peter Sarsgaard), serves as spotter. During the Iraqi invasion
of Kuwait, Swofford and his fellow troop members are sent to the Arabian Penin-
sula for Operation Desert Shield. The Marines are keyed up for battle, but are forced
to wait five long months before co ali tion forces are fully deployed in the area and
ready to attack Saddam’s Iraqi Army. In the meantime, life for Swofford and his
fellow Marines is monotonous. To relieve the tedium, Swofford throws a Christ-
mas party, complete with illegal alcohol, and has Pfc. Fergus O’Donnell (Brian Ger-
aghty) cover his watch. O’Donnell mistakenly sets off a crate of flares and wakes
up the entire crew. Sykes pieces together what has happened and demotes Swof-
ford from lance corporal to private. Demotion, humiliating duty, the intense des-
ert sun, the tedium of daily life at the camp, and Swofford’s suspicion that his
girlfriend is being unfaithful drive him toward a mental collapse. Swofford pulls a
rifle on O’Donnell and then makes a complete 180 and demands that O’Donnell
shoot him instead. Operation Desert Storm, the U.S. led- coalition offensive to drive
Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, fi nally begins (on 17 January 1991), and the Marines head
to the Saudi Arabia– Kuwait border. Swofford discovers that Troy has a hidden crim-
inal rec ord, one that will get him discharged from the crew once they get home. The
Marines advance through the desert, encountering no enemy re sis tance, but are
mistakenly attacked by U.S. warplanes and sustain “friendly fire” casualties. Later,
the Marines encounter the infamous “Highway of Death,” a road between Kuwait
and Iraq that is littered with dead, mutilated Iraqi soldiers and burned vehicles— a
grotesque sight that causes Wofford to vomit. The retreating Iraqis set fire to oil
wells, causing a rain of crude black oil droplets to fall from the sky. At long last,
Swofford and Troy are sent on a sniper mission. Lt. Col. Kazinski (Chris Cooper),
the leader of their unit, orders them to eliminate one of two Iraqi Republican Guard
officers in a nearby Iraqi airfield. As Swofford goes to shoot, Major Lincoln (Dennis
Haysbert) interrupts the mission and phones in an airstrike. Not wanting to see
their first real mission quashed, Swofford and Troy beg to proceed, but the two
are overruled and forced to watch bitterly as American warplanes bomb the Iraqi