Reviewing Movies

Picked up a DVD copy of Stanley Kubrick's 1987 Viet Nam epic and was disappointed to discover that it contains nothing but the basic movie with zero extras--at least it was a decent transfer. The movie depicts the dehumanizing experience that is basic training. In my estimation no individual should be granted the kind of power over the life of other human beings that a drill sergeant is apparently given; symbolically this one gets what he deserves when the fat boy snaps.

Abruptly we find ourselves in Vietnam. Joker, the war correspondent, played by Matthew Modine, is anxious to see action and as the adage goes watch what you ask for lest you get it. Adam Baldwin plays a gung-ho trigger-happy hard ass. The vent for any frustrating situation seems to be the firing of an automatic weapon, whether or not a legitimate target is in view or not. Seeing bullets sprayed around the landscape like water from a hose at a high school car wash makes death by friendly fire extremely comprehensible. Arliss Howard; an actor I've always liked who always seems to have one of those roles that makes one say--I forgot he was in that one; plays Cowboy--an allusion to the fact that he's from Texas but lacks the height one would expect from 'everything in Texas is larger than life'. In fact everyone is referred to by a nickname--again reinforcing the notion of anonymity that seems to prevail. Even the enemy has a nick name--Charley--and the average grunt looks sidelong at anyone whose skin has a yellow cast and eyes are slanted. Though when it comes to sexual gratification business is business. The movie ends with the troops marching to a rest area singing the Mickey Mouse Club Theme epitomizing the frustration at a war that seems pointless and the joy of having survived it.