Anti-war masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2008)

There's something to be said for watching this after a few hours of Call of Duty (and also followed by Harold + Kumar and something called The Giant Gila Monster - but that's another story), but I'm not sure exactly what it is. Suffice to say, the great disconnect between these two forms of entertainment, both dealing with war, is stunning and affecting.
This is a sobering and infuriating piece of work. The characters and dialogue are a little too on-the-nose and obvious, but I'd be lying if I said that they didn't anger me anyway. I'm rapidly getting the sense that Kubrick likes to deal with the dichotomy between superficial 'high' society and passionate 'low' society, and he expands on it here to great effect. The carefully chosen vocabulary of the various generals and other higher-ups contrasts exceedingly well with the dialectic slang of the soldiers, with Dax being somewhat of a bridge between the two classes. With that in mind, it's the eloquence and articulation of the generals as they call for soldiers to be made an example of that truly angers me, as their silver-tongued calls for patriotism and loyalty while they hide behind their fortifications is utterly maddening, if a bit heavy-handed.
But it's also in the depiction of the battlefield where the film really gets me. The utterly alien landscape of the trenches at night, as the patrol scampers about, is a suitable reflection of the totally inhuman trial that will soon dominate the film. Combined with the claustrophobic tracking shots through the trenches, as well as that great pan during the actual attack, this is as well-directed a film as Kubrick ever made. And that final scene, when the soldiers realize what they have lost and what war has done to them, is heartbreaking.
Simply one of the finest anti-war films ever made.