Stanley Kubrick's disturbingly brilliant war film

Rating: 9/10 (18 September 2008)

This film brilliantly depicts the brutality of warfare from the beginning of basic training to the battlefield, it is set during the Vietnam war but could probably have been set during any modern war.
The film opens with a group of young men having their hair cut so short that they are virtually bald. We next see them in their barracks as they meet they drill instructor for the first time, he soon gives each of them nick names and we don't hear their real names again. It is clear that one of them, Private Pyles, isn't really cut out for life in the Marines Corps, whatever they are expected to do in training he seems incapable of doing it. As training progresses it is clear that Pyles is going gradually insane and we see just how insane he has become in a shocking scene on the night after the recruits have finished training and been given their assignments.
The film then moves to Vietnam where we follow Private Joker who as been assigned to work for "Stars and Stripes", the US Military's newspaper. Apart from Joker the only character from the first half of the film is Private Cowboy, Joker is reunited with him when sent to report of efforts to drive the enemy out of the city of Hue after the Tet offensive. We don't see large battles, instead the main action focuses on the engagement with a single sniper who has wounded one member of the squad in an attempt to draw the others out into the open.
This is very much a film of two halves with only one character having a major role in both. While Matthew Modine is the star of the film the most memorable characters are foul mouthed Gny. Sgt. Hartman played perfectly by former US Marine drill instructor Lee Ermey and Private Pyles played by Vincent D'Onofrio. The action is believable through out, I would never have guessed that it had been filmed entirely in England if I hadn't been told even though I've been to one of the locations used many times. As one would expect from one of Kubrick's films the direction is virtually flawless and he gets the best out of his cast.
I was surprised that this film has recently been reclassified down from 18 to 15 as it is fairly brutal and disturbing through out, in particular Private Pyles descent in to madness as he is bullied and humiliated relentlessly during training. That said it is still a great film that I would recommend to anybody interested in war films.