on the margins

Rating: Null/10 (27 December 2001)

There are some strange things going on in this film. For example, a small statuette of Mickey Mouse sits on a window ledge, waving and smiling at the soldiers in the quonset hut. You can barely see him, but he's there (and later referenced in the final "Mickey Mouse Club" singalong at the end). A poster of Snoopy is also in this same office, overlooking the scene as the lieutenant gives a speech. Both Mickey Mouse and Snoopy seem to be making fun of the Marines. In a later scene, a documentary film crew photographs the soldiers in a long tracking shot. A guy completely swathed in bandages -- his face and hands covered -- walks past, waves at the camera. He looks like the Mummy, another mythic character like Mickey Mouse or Snoopy. There are also phantom presences -- Ann-Margret, who is supposed to show up to entertain the troops but never does, and John Wayne, the very symbol of American self-assurance and swagger, referenced to juxtapose the certainty of the World War II era with the ambiguity of Vietnam. It is also interesting to notice how black characters are treated. The first recruit that Hartman picks on is black ("What's your name, scumbag?"), and this unfortunate receives a racially insensitive nickname ("Snowball"), and is the victim of a racist barb ("We don't serve fried chicken and watermelon..."). Later, Dorian Harewood's character is on the receiving end of Adam Baldwin's racist insults ("Too bad about the Sickle Cell"), has to wait in line to have sex with a Vietnamese hooker, but is the first one sent out to find the sniper.