15 Most Underrated War Movies Of All Time

Directed by American Beauty helmer Sam Mendes, Jarhead was released in 2005 to a rapturous chorus of “… Huh?” from audiences and critics alike.

Not unlike Richard Kelly’s Southland Tales, this Gulf War set flick had a hard time selling audiences on the strange and strangely funny anti-war message it carried.

However unlike Southland Tales, Jarhead did have an extraordinary central performance from a young Jake Gyllenhall, some stunning visuals, and most pointedly a believable, meditative depiction of everyday life in the military which carries far more weight than many more rambunctious and explosively inaccurate film versions of army life. The flick may be slow and seem aimless, but there’s good reason for it—by the end of this singular journey the viewer is left as shook, lost, and disoriented as the young soldiers landed into Iraq were by their first tours of duty.