Antiwar classic

Rating: 8/10 (31 March 2012)

What a cast, what a story, what a director. This two-part antiwar saga follows Marine recruits through basic training and then takes some of them to Vietnam in 1968, the year of the Tet Offensive. Matthew Modine narrates this gripping tale as a recruit who becomes a war correspondent journalist for the military. There' isn't anything here we haven't seen before, but Kubrick puts his own unique spin on things. I have always preferred the training portion of the movie to the combat portion, but that's me. I have seen equally good if not better war scenes in a dozen other war movies. The highlight of the training segment is the interaction between drill sergeant Lee Ermey and fumbling recruit Vincent D'Onofrio, which ends in unspeakable tragedy. Once seen, it can never be forgotten.