I’m not really into war films but decided to have a look at 2005’s Jarhead for a number of reasons. First, the movie was mentioned in a documentary titled Theaters of War (2022). What that documentary said or implied is that the US Department of Defense refused to lend its support to Jarhead due to it being too realistic. And that’s an interesting statement because (spoiler alert) the movie, which is about the Gulf War, features virtually no fighting on the part of American soldiers.
Secondly, I recently became of fan of Jake Gyllenhaal after peeping the remake of Roadhouse (2024). Moreover, I saw that Jarhead co-starred Jamie Foxx. And I have yet to see a film in which Jamie is featured that he failed to entertain.
“YOU ARE THE SUNSHINE OF MY LIFE” IN “JARHEAD”
But the reason I’m writing this post is not to critique the film. Rather, there was a particular scene, featuring an exchange between Gyllenhaal’s character and that of Foxx.
The latter is the military superior of the former. And during that semi-comedic scene, Jamie forces Jake into a rendition of You Are the Sunshine of the My Life (1972), by humming it as if he were playing a bugle. And the interesting thing about it is that Gyllenhaal actually does an exceptional job. It wasn’t only a shoutout to Stevie Wonder but furthermore a worthy one, all things considered. You can check out the scene below (profanity warning).
I did some quick research, and there doesn’t appear to be any direct past history between Gyllenhaal and Stevie. But of course, the same is not the case with Jamie Foxx.
Foxx, like Stevie, is an African-American R&B/soul singer with a very-high standing in the music industry. So I knew, even before looking it up, that they had to have crossed paths before. In fact, they’ve done so too many times to document in this brief post. But I did want to point out a couple of incidents which stands out amongst their numerous interactions.
“ISN’T SHE LOVELY” BY STEVIE & JAMIE FOXX (2011)
The legendary Oprah Winfrey Show went off the air, after a 25 year run, in 2011. The final episode, which aired on May 25th of that year, surprisingly featured a plethora of A-listers. Amongst them were Stevie Wonder and Jamie Foxx. In fact, they teamed up to sing Isn’t She Lovely (1976) to Oprah. Stevie fans would recognize that tune as being one of his most-recognizable songs and a single from his signature album, Songs in the Keys of Life.
You know how Oprah audience members get, and there were a whopping 13,000 of them in attendance during this final episode. It’s really a cool clip, which I advise you check out (as embedded above). Stevie and Jamie are exceptional singers/entertainers, and they both do their thing. But the best part of the performance is the reaction of Oprah and her fans.
JAMIE IMITATES STEVIE @ THE 2015 GRAMMYS
Then there was the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, which were held in 2015. Together, Jamie and Stevie presented the award for Record of Year (which went to the Darkchild version of Sam Smith’s Stay with Me). Their presentation made headlines, as Foxx used to occasion to imitate oWonder or ‘pretend to be blind’. Unfortunately, I can’t find the video online to embed into this post but did include the below pic via IMDb.
Also to note, three days after the 2015 Grammys, there was a related Stevie-tribute event held titled Songs in the Key of Life – An All-Star Salute. It featured a number of popular musicians – including John Legend, Ed Sheeran and Beyoncé – performing songs by Wonder. I hope to get the opportunity to delve deeper into that event soon.
CONCLUSION
Here’s an interesting fact to close this post out. Similar to Stevie, Jake Gyllenhaal is legally blind. This is something he just revealed to the world about a week ago, even going as far as to say that the condition is “advantageous” to him. It’s obvious though that Stevie’s blindness is a lot worse than that of Jake. But that being said, it was cool how Gyllenhaal and Foxx acknowledged Wonder in Jarhead.