Like all Kubrick films it requires multiple viewings

Rating: 7/10 (18 October 2005)

I always thought of Kubrick as the poet amongst the proza's in Hollywood. Kubrick always tries to tell a bigger picture than he's putting on the screen. But it requires the viewer to see beyond the images. I had to see this film a second time to fully grasp what Kubrick was trying to show me.
The film is divided in two parts: basic training at Parris Island and combat in Vietnam. Both are equally difficult to watch. Kubrick shows us young boys being stripped from every possible individuality, only to be sent into a war that will only damage them and the war-torn country even more.
The film has an eery kind of absurdness to it. The tone of the film balances between hard core anti-war and black comedy. Maybe thats because most of the soldiers in Vietnam (or any war) have the same kind of humor: harsh, but funny in a wrong kind of way. Kubrick lets R. Lee Ermey have his way the young recruits and gives him all the best "wrong lines". The rapid fire of slurs and insults is unbelievable for a normal person. Which all the recruits are in the beginning. Ermey glorifies the fact that Oswald killed Kennedy from 250 feet at a moving target. Oswald learned his skills IN THE MARINES. Yes, be proud.
Kubrick's Vietnam lies in ruins. The American involvement seems to have only negative results. It's native people are being slaugthered by either the VC or the Americans. Youngs girls prostitute themself to GI's. Once a beautiful country with a rich culture and historic buildings, it's not much to look at with tanks and marines roaming the streets. The scenes in the final act where the platoon is being cut to pieces by a sniper are very powerful. Those scenes make a bigger statement. They define the conflict: With all it's firepower, tactics and technology, the platoon lost three soldiers to one girl with an AK. An unwinnable war.
Though and sometimes difficult to watch, this film is not anti-war for pacifists, but anti-war for humanists. Think beyond "oh, war is hell" and you will be satisfied with what Kubrick is telling us.