One of Stanley Kubrick's finest films

Rating: 10/10 (13 May 2017)

During his career Stanley Kubrick had repeatedly denied claims that he was a perfectionist when it came to filmmaking, but with classic movies such as "Spartacus" (1960), "Dr. Strangelove" (1964), "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), and "The Shining" (1980), it is hard for people who have seen Kubrick's films to claim otherwise, but with this movie it isn't only one of Kubrick's best films, it is also one of the best war movies ever made. This movie is also the only war movie besides "American Sniper" (2014) to be a character study, the main character being a Marine Corps Private nicknamed "Joker" (Matthew Modine) who after his first day of basic training he and his fellow recruits "Cowboy" (Arliss Howard), "Gomer Pyle" (Vincent D'Onofrio) and many others are under the command of Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey). The first half of the movie are the basic training scenes, while the last half are the expertly shot, and extremely realistic war scenes. Though this isn't the best movie that Stanley Kubrick ever directed, it does have the trademarks of a Kubrick movie such as the character focus shots, and everything else. The movie is just perfect, the screenplay co-written by Kubrick and, the author of the book "The Short Timers" of which the movie is based, the cinematography is top notch, and the performances are very good. The movie also features an excellent supporting cast including Adam Baldwin as a soldier nicknamed "Animal Mother", my personal favorite performance in the movie was from Ermey because he literally embodies his character because of the fact that prior to this movie he was an actual drill sergeant in real life. The movie is a very good mix of totally hilarious and really dramatic, and Ermey gives the best performance of a drill sergeant in motion picture history here. This is one of the best movies of 1987.