what a fantastic film - Kubrick has done it yet again

Rating: 10/10 (4 January 2008)

Some reviews on here make me wince. A lot of people here obviously don't appreciate the art of film making anymore if you believe that Kubrick is a bad director. You don't have to like him but at least appreciate the pure genius of how he messes with your head Just like he did in the absolutely spell binding Shining. The movie is in a way philosophically one movie, but mentally like two. The first part lets the audience in on what it truly is like to be trained and pushed and pressurised to become at the end of the day - a killer. Kubrick's monotonous and often perverse and disturbing shots of the marines doing the same thing over and over and over again is just fantastic because not a lot is going on on screen - and yet your eyes are glued. Then all of a sudden, Kubrick jolts you with absolute horror to show how perfectly nice but slow people were and still are tortured for being different, for not being able to reach this demands which as human beings I truly believe we just aren't supposed to be able to meet- the scene when the other men are abusing Vincent Denoffrio could have been banal, boring and corny and yet it is a directorial masterpiece and this movie isn't even a horror but the toilet scene kept me up for two nights. The second part of the movie is simply wonderful. It's subtleties and short choppy scenes really are a clever way to make you truly believe you were there, in Nam. It becomes a 'war movie' that also tackles much deeper and emotional issues. I am part of a much younger generation, I was born in 1991 and had just finished studying this part of history in class and I felt an even deeper passion for these people and this awful, awful war. Kubrick is a genius bottom line- may he always be remembered for fantastic works of art such as this amazing portrayal of war, and humanity.