1h 56m
Director: Stanley Kubrick

It's a film in two halves.

The first half follows Joker through marine basic training and explores the psychological strain which serving in the forces places a soldier under in the preparation for war. Private Pile (Vincent D'Onofrio) is the focus of attention because he is quickly identified as weak by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) who continuously bullies him until he starts to make a consented effort.

Some of the Gunnery Sergeant dialogue is superb as he delivers a constant barrage of imaginative insults to his recruits and these scenes alone make for memorable moments to take away with you. Here's a taster from YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tHxf17yJsKs

However, this has the effect on Private Pile of first motivating him to get good and eventually twisting him to psychosis where he eventually shoots the Gunnery Sergeant then turns the gun on himself. The turning point of all this appears to be when the Gunnery Sergeant starts to punish the recruits for Private Pile's incompetence leading them to turn against him.

The second half of the film puts Joker in the field of battle in Vietnam as a reporter on the front lines.

There are a few scenes which illustrate some of the degeneracy of an invading force and some exploitation by the locals. The troops seem particularly disrespectful towards the Vietnamese and we see a scene where Joker and his photographer friend seemingly get distracted and he has his camera stolen.

It appears that prostitution was common but there isn't really any discussion about drug usage, which was apparently rife amongst the armed forces there - perhaps because the film was made in 1987 and it may have been unacceptable at the time (not a problem now though, have you seen Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas?).

There is a scene where Joker and his photographer are on board a chopper and the gunner is shooting indiscriminately at the civilians they fly over. The photographer is shown to be nauseous whereas the gunner appears to be in his element, gleefully firing away illustrating the dehumanisation of the enemy and his desensitisation to extreme behaviour during war. Private Joker asks, "How can you shoot women or children?". The gunner replies, "Easy! Ya just don't lead 'em so much! Ain't war hell?". Satirical and harsh but it makes the point.

This all leads to the set up for what appears to be Kubrick's main point. It sees our platoon encounter a sniper who first wounds a scout to draw out a medic, then injures the medic and finally kills the detachment commander as he uses the radio from a vulnerable position. The film is careful to illustrate that the sniper is using an assault rifle (AK-47, a short to medium range firearm eg. not even a long-ranged rifle) with iron sights (no magnification) from an elevated position.

The death of the detachment commander causes the troops to rally an assault to get the sniper, partly charged with anger. Joker is the first to encounter the enemy from behind and he has the drop on them, should be an easy kill but as he raises his weapon and fires, the gun jams, the sniper hears the click and turns to return fire. We see Joker completely lose his cool, drop his assault rifle, move to cover and reach for his sidearm. Meanwhile we realise that the sniper is a young girl with pigtails, who opens fire on Joker, further freaking him out.

One of his comrades hears the commotion and fatally injures the girl before she can cause any more damage.

There we see what I reckon is Kubrick's point, all that basic training, all that military hardware, all that bravado and a young girl, likely with no training and a basic rifle gets 3 kills and seriously tilts an entire platoon. It's a statement about the power of necessity and desperation in the face of overwhelming odds.

There is also a moment when the troops must choose whether to try and save the girl or end her there and then. It's interesting to see how you personally feel about that decision given the events that lead up to that moment.

I honestly didn't think there would be a lot to say about this movie but as you can see I was completely wrong! There's a lot of good scenes, they're gritty but you are left feeling like you've experienced what it might be like to serve in the marines in Vietnam.

Overall, it's not a fun action flick with glamorised violence but if you don't mind being confronted with some of the actual horrors of war then it will certainly leave you better educated about it, it's a fairly serious exploration of the subject matter.



Trailer: