The movie follows the life of Private "Joker" during the Vietnam War 1967-8.

Rating: 8/10 (26 March 2013)

The film was incredibly violent at times and the dialogue, especially by Sergeant Hartman, was not appropriate. Many of the things that Sergeant Hartman said to Private Pyle were vile and disgusting in anticipation of improving his athleticism and motivating him to try harder. Ultimately, it doesn't work when Private Pyle breaks at the last day due to amount of pressure and expectation piled up on him and he kills Hartman and himself. The film also has many suspenseful moments, among them the death of Private Pyle and Sergeant Hartman and the patrol in which Joker kills the Vietnamese female sniper. The director constantly chooses to film these scenes in dark rooms or at night, only lit up by a flashlight/moonlight or fires. The music that accompany the scenes provide an eerie atmosphere that really makes the viewer sit at the edge of his seat constantly. The movie shows the two sides of the war, the violent and brutal side of the war that most people think about when they think of Vietnam and also the oppressive and psychological style, where many Marines were pressured to get into the system of following commands and preparing for the war, which led to many Marines losing their mind. Several army terminologies that I learnt from the film were the Rifleman's Creed and the Thousand-yard Stare. A term that I connected with one of the stories in Tim O'Brien was the term "sh*t", which was used constantly in this film. The two major parts in this film where the word "sh*t" was used was before Private Pyle killed himself, claiming he was in a world of sh*t because of all the pressure he faced and the torment he faced from the verbal and physical abuse he faced in camp and Sergeant Joker, who said that even though he was in a world of sh*t, he was glad to be still alive and he was no longer afraid. In the Tim O'Brien book, the term "sh*t field" is used when Kiowa sinks into a mud-filled bog and the soldiers use it often as there is no other word to describe such a place. In conclusion, I believe that this movie effectively showed the two sides of the Vietnam War that the soldiers faced and with the intense shots and appropriate music choices, it created a suspense-filled movie that really engaged me and creeped me out many times.