Astonishing war movie

Rating: 10/10 (6 December 2010)

The comments by many vets on this site, saying that this film to some degree reflects the nature of war, should be the highest praise for this film. I scanned the reviews looking for the comments of vets and found, in the first 14 pages, 6 vets stating that key elements of this film mirrored to some degree their experiences in Vietnam. I found this movie amazing. I agree with many of the more widely-held conclusions about this film. R. Lee Ermey as Gunnery Sgt. Hartman is incredible, as is Vincent D'Onofrio as the tragic Pvt. Pyle. There certainly are two sections to this film, but the inspiration for both parts come from the same book and so, if both parts of the movie can be inspired by the same real lives, then it seems we should accept that both parts reflect different aspects of the military experience. I think that is fair. Capturing the emotional and psychological brutality of bootcamp, along with the horrors and the banality of war seem to be reasonable things to include in the same film.
If anyone thinks that this film glamorizes war-from the death of Pvt. Pyle to the predicted destruction of the unit charged with taking out the sniper, as well as the sniper at the end of the film-they must be a psychopath.