War is hell

Rating: 10/10 (6 July 2000)

The movie starts at boot camp, as a new group of boys make the transition to manhood. Say goodbye to your girlfriends back home and say hello to your new wife, the M-14. As they are transformed, they are hardened by their Drill Instructor. Lee Ermey is awesome as the relentless DI. He converts the into machines of war. One of them cannot hack and he snaps. The movie then moves out of boot camp and to Viet Nam. From here, the movie loses its satyric edge a bit and becomes more dramatic. To some, this transition seems to be too much, but it works well to show the difference between boot camp and war. No matter how hard your DI, you cannot be prepared for the atrocities of war, and what a person will do, no matter how unthinkable, when their life is at risk. The mood change is appropriate and the war portion would lose alot of its meaning. it is well designed, even if it is a bit non-congruous. As the Helicopter gunner says when asked how do you kill women, and children, "Easy, you just don't lead them so much. Ain't war hell?"