Promising at first, but sure to disappoint

Rating: 2/10 (18 August 2002)

This movie has always been a real disappointment for me. While its portrayal of the Marine training sequence is powerful and memorable, Kubrick continues to do a less-than inspiring portrayal of combat in Vietnam. Approaching the diaspora from a different angle than Stone, Kubrick hits upon some of the classic themes left (appropriately) untouched by Platoon. Yet, in some cases the ubiquitous slow-motion violence is needlessly gratuitous and the round-the-body one liner reflections and face-the-camera montage interviews are cheesy, if not reminiscent of other great 'camera-focused' escapades like Kevin Pollak's "Opposite Sex" and the recent "that 70s show".
Pop music is played too often as if FMJ begins to lean towards a self-indulgent glorification of the 60s, even in inappropriate and distracting places. Who can forget Joker and his colleagues (the few bright spots of the film: character development), but the movie fails to depict the subject matter in a realistic or subdued matter when needed.

It seems as if to Kubrick, Vietnam is not a war where Americans were forever traumatized, but rather just another stage for pop culture to spotlight the trite 'duality of man' in an 'animal setting'. I hated the movie. This movie does little justice to the memory of those who were in Vietnam. The movie immediately strays and wavers, becoming an uncomfortable hybrid between 'popular nostalgic war formula' and 'psychological thriller' and proceeds to do both very poorly.