Ultimate antiwar flick

Rating: 10/10 (12 November 2001)

The ultimate antiwar movie (very slightly ahead of "All Quiet on the Western Front"), and I believe it always will be. Stanley Kubrick did nicely in "Full Metal Jacket," but here he gets right to the point. Isn't war even more terrible if the enemy is your own officers? Up and up... And war is horrible, period. The evil of the generals who ordered a meaningless suicide charge and their horrible manipulations stands for itself, but most meaningful to me is the overall administrative smugness projected, a personification of all those involved in running a war, any war, who are not themselves doing the fighting. The setting of a court martial hearing with Dax (Kirk Douglas--boy, has anybody ever been better?) defending the three soldiers serves well to dramatize the issues, the basic antiwar theme, which climaxes with the final scene, the apotheosis of the horror and absurdity of war, ranking with Rosebud among the all-time greats.