"Kubrick is Genius",.. "War is Nihilism" .., "Second Segment is Useless" ...

Rating: 8/10 (15 March 2011)

Whoever talked about dehumanization missed the point, it's about desensitization. It's about producing killing machines whose soul is only dedicated to the Marine Corps. It's a brotherhood, a sort of community that transforms you into an animal with the most implacable killing instinct. It makes it clear; you're here to kill, because if you don't, or if you hesitate, then the enemy will exploit this weakness to kill you first. It's a matter of one second but this is the primal basis or survival. The title sums it up : it's all about killing.
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The first part is how to make a killer out of a young man, a boy, an ordinary schmuck not less idealistic and enthusiastic to go defend his country than the next neighbor. How? The answer is incarnated by one man, one attitude, one power. Sergeant Gunnery Hartman.
Hartman incarnates the progressive loss of innocence, of human compassion, of every thing centuries of humanism did fight for. No room for tolerance, for heart, not even for patriotism, the point is to become a man capable of not only killing but not dying. I said no patriotism but that's because the security of a whole nation must rely on men so dedicated that they'd kill anyone who's suspected to be a potential threat for the country. A powerful country needs this spirit, and even patriotism might corrupt this ruthlessness because it's made of idealism, and that's intolerable. In other words, better to be a Lee Harvey Oswald than a John F. Kennedy.
And one soldier will become a Lee Harvey Oswald. Gomer Pyle. A heavy man whose first reaction he inspires us, is how the hell did he make it to the Recruit Camp. He's fat, clumsy, and incapable of any physical effort, therefore an easy target for the foul mouthed intransigent Hartman. Yes their interactions are both sad and funny, but in fact, they're funny cause we're too distant from this world to get the sad aspect, and sad because we're still too distant to get how this is so real.
These boys were like you and I, but by being hit, they learned how to hit. It's all a question of psychology. And it worked for Pyle, it took Hartman's humiliating words, some soap and blankets, until he became as competent as Oswald and as "idealistic" as him. Nothing else mattered except killing. War is the negation of anything that is not War.
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When Pyle kills Hartman, it's the training's success. Pyle had a killing instinct but he reached his breaking point too fast. He was already in a world of you-know-what. It was like the war had already started for him, his war was Hartman Â… Pyle was already illustrating the alienating impact of the war. He named his gun with a girl's name but talked to Charlene in a sensual way, because she was his deliverance. Hartman was his war. God it's like the movie didn't even need to go further to illustrate the whole nihilistic epitome. Just look at Pyle's eyes before he shoots on Hartman and you'll know what's being in a world of you-know-what means, you see in his eyes, there is simply no feeling, no future, nothing ...
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I'm perplexed. This part didn't show me anything I didn't know before. After watching "Platoon", "Apocalypse Now" and even "Born on the Fourth of July", I wonder which newness this part brings. What's her contribution apart from two or maybe three classic scenes: the one with the hooker, with Animal Mother, and with the sniper. It's good, but not Kubrick good.
It's like the quality dropped as soon as the most pivotal characters disappeared as if their whole antagonism were sufficient illustrations of the hellish and nihilistic states of mind war puts you in. I'm frustrated because I wanted to review the second part with the same enthusiastic approach than the first one, I really wanted and I could do it, I could over-analyze the thrilling aspect of the sniper part. The apparent dullness of those who encountered death so many times the sight of dead corpses only inspire one comment : "Better you than me"
I wish I could, but I would feel like losing my time, and like Kubrick lost his, he felt obliged to make a war movie. Without the war, it could have been a risky but genius choice, with the war segment, it's just, well, a war film. Kubrick is too important to be associated with this second segment.
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I guess I share the same feeling than the Marines when they discovered that this sneaky dangerous sniper who wasted three of their friends was just a frail little girl. I had the same feeling ... that could have been worse if it wasn't for the great ending song scene, nothing can describe the effect of the Rolling Stones' "Paint it Black" . A pity it doesn't match the overall quality of the first half of the film.
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Not full appreciation. But to the credit of Kubrick, the first part is one of the most gripping examination of the desensitizing effect of War. And the irreversible damage it exercises on a fragile mind. A genius part, brilliantly written and supported by outstanding performances by D'Onofrio and R. Lee Ermey.
I think Kubrick's nihilistic approach to the war didn't need the second segment. And if this movie needed war, well, it could have been handled better for two reasons: to match all the great war films made before. First point. And second point. We're still talking of a Master named Stanley Kubrick.