Wry and Horrific

Rating: 8/10 (14 March 2019)

I had no context doing into this film, and boy was I surprised. Pleasantly so, I will admit, but surprised and shocked nonetheless. This grim and gory film about a young Marine Journalist and his training, combines dry humor a complete disregard for any sort of decency in regards to graphic violence or language. Joker suffers through personal and large scale atrocities of war, and witnesses madness and clinical sanity alike. The inhumanity on the part of the American troops is showcased both in the treatment of the Marine trainees and of the Vietnam enemy, which Joker responds to with humor, in an effort to remain sane and in control. Stanley Kubrick uses an immersive camera style, where often the shot follows continuous action, so that the audience feels almost present in the scene, and as if one was following along behind the characters. The shots are most often wide angle, and meant to show the uniformity of the troops, and how they are crushed to be interchangeable in training.