Fair-to-Good Adaptation of Book (Spoiler)

Rating: 8/10 (12 June 2011)

I give this movie a solid "8", meaning 80%. I would have loved to give it more but I feel that a lot more might have been done to add a sense of loneliness and emptiness for this film's Gulf War soldier. The acting was superb all-around, but the misanthropic disillusion that A. Swofford communicates in his memoir is shared between the other actors in the film adaptation. I've read several dip-sh*t reviews alluding that this is a movie about liberals from Hollywood. Well, Swofford might have hoped to cash out... but he just wrote a book, not a movie.
In total, the Gulf War was a unique situation, where ground troops saw minimal resistance. Swofford's book is told in a fragmented pattern, skipping non-chronologically. The movie tells the tale chronologically, and collapses details. Swofford's partner Johnny Rotten is combined with Fowler in the movie. An oil-covered horse beneath the glow of burning oil derricks is added for "Apocalypse Now" artistic flair.
It's a good movie, but it was not Full Metal Jacket, few are.