a destructive comedy,or a mortifying tragedy ? Or both ?

Rating: Null/10 (19 October 1999)

Kubricks finest(in my opinion) is a funny fish.The first hour is a comedy,all be it one that you're ashamed to laugh at.The gunnery sargeants endless humiliation of Private Pyle is sickeningly hilarious,and like Kubricks "The Shining" you often find you have to berate yourself for chuckling. But how can the first half,littered with Hartmans beautifully obscene taunts(I bet you could suck a golf ball through a hose pipe)be part of the same film that contains such a horiffic depiction of the Vietnam war,old pals being separated by a snipers bullet ? From the first scene with the unknowing privates being inducted to living hell,to some of the same men trooping across a blood drenched wasteland,singing(bizarrely)the theme to the mickey mouse club,the film refuses to let go. True,its a film of two halves,but neither is inferior.