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 TWO WORDS: WATCH IT!!Finn S?nnichse
Of course it would take Stanley Kubrick to finally quit the screwing around and show us a real D.I. dehumanizing and rebuilding recruits into killers in a realistic recitation of a Viet Nam era Marine Corps. Boot Camp. Lee Ermey was a D.I. and his Sgt. Hartman profanely ripping a new-one on one Boot after another is a piece of work. And of course, he is brutal to the goat of the platoon, poor fat Leonard (Gomer Pyle), harassing and tormenting him into a homicidal disassociative psychosis. Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio are wonderful as tormetor and tormented. Then there are all the other nice Kubrickian touches, such as Hartman using Charles Whitman (the Texas U. sniper) and Lee Harvey Oswald as positive examples of Marine Corps. marksmanship. No doubt is made of the fact that Hartman's job is to desensitize and harden these young men for combat or they will not survive. But, it is a cruel exercise, just as shoving young, mostly teenage Americans into a faraway & confusing war is a cruel exercise. And, it is a thin line, as Hartman & Leonard's fates attest. So, Kubrick gives us the training then takes us to the war. This is not the jungle war, but the war in the city of Hue during the Tet Offensive. It is more upfront then the guerrilla-style jungle combat, but as we see, just as ambiguous in the end in its execution and purpose. Kubrick gives us lots of little touches and anecdotes. One of my favorites, the Col. breaking Pvt. Joker's chops over his peace button using sports metaphors about "getting on the team and going in for the big score". Wonderful. Kubrick doesn't romanticize the North Vietnamese or the Viet Cong either. The long line of executed villagers lieing in a ditch covered with lye, who had been gulled into reporting to and then murdered by the Cong is shown with an effectively quiet eloquence. Cruelty and savagery abounded there. The final conflict, with the entire squad held-up and shot-up and terrified by what turns out to be a teenage Viet Cong girl says more about who and what we were fighting over there than any long diatribe. The entire might of the U.S. forces, best trained and equipped in the world, can be devastated by an AK47 wielded by a determined teenager. Kubrick does not judge these Marines, nor the enemy they faced. He shows the dilemma, and let's us decide the worth of this effort. He shows death on both sides, and leaves us to ask the questions. And the young troops march to the Perfume River singing the theme from the Mickey Mouse Club. Two cultures in collision? Young men in combat somewhere they never should have been sent? Kubrick's camera work and recreation of combat is as good in its way as Saving Pvt. Ryan's was in its way. His sardonic humorous touches are numerous and welcome. His choice and placement of music is, as was always true in his later movies, nothing less than brilliant. Like all of Kubrick's later movies, when I first saw Full Metal, I was a little disappointed. It didn't seem BIG like Dr. Strangelove or 2001. But, I have seen it many times since, and I cannot find a flaw in it. When it starts, I have to watch it all the way through. Stanley set such a high standard, it always seemed a little disappointing when you first saw the later films, but they age well. Now, I think this is another masterpiece of economy and story telling. It says a lot, without preaching. A terrific film.
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