A lot of you missed the point

Rating: Null/10 (24 January 2002)

Many of those who have written comments about this film have talked at length about how absurd the use of the Mickey Mouse club song by Kubrick. One of the major terms used in the military in general to refer to the usual military B.S. is "Mickey Mouse". Some have commented on the obscenity and childishness of the marching songs sung during boot camp. Well, those are PRECISELY the songs we sang while marching. Kubrick has created a really realistic film here and many of the commenters are not qualified to write about it since they never experienced it. So, that said, the performances of the entire cast are brilliantly executed. A true stroke of genius was casting Lee Ermey as SSgt. Hartman, the Senior Drill Instructor. He was recently retired from the Marine Corps and was very convincing! The main star of the film was Matthew Modine, whom I regard as one of the finer actors around today. His performance generated a real personality on screen for Private Joker, such as sitting around the barracks just before they are attacked by the NVA talking tough, but moments later saying he's not ready for combat. Kubrick very skillfully uses the first half of the film to show the transformation of the recruits from civilians to Marines. We don't get to know the recruits very well, excepting Privates Joker and Pyle, but the mix of characters is carefully selected. The fact that we don't know these recruits very well reflects the fact that they are all bald and that boot camp dehumanizes people. Contrast that with the second half, which depicts the horror of the Vietnam War. The character mix in the second half is more important as that in the first and the characters are more developed. Overall, Kubrick's best film ever. A solid 9.9999999 out of 10.