War is Hell!

Rating: 7/10 (5 January 2015)

I am a fan of Stanley Kubrick's films but this is not one of my favorites. He follows marine soldiers from boot camp on Parris Island where they are dehumanized and demoralized all at once. The marines go to fight in Vietnam where they find themselves an unwanted presence. Matthew Modine plays a soldier and a reporter for the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Modine gives a terrific performance about a man disillusioned with war. Kubrick is a perfectionist and a realist. This film is crude, honest, candid, brutal, and realistic. It is an anti-war film anyway. I still don't understand the ending. The war scenes are realistic and violent all at once.