Runtime:
116 minutes
Directed
by: Stanley Kubrick
Starring:
Matthew Modine, R. Lee Ermey (RIP), Vincent D'Onofrio, Adam Baldwin,
Dorian Harewood
From:
Warner Bros.
Yep, this movie is still great, and I am talking about all of it:
No lie, for awhile now I've been wanting to watch this so I could
review it here for the first time, as the last viewing was years ago. I
was gonna do it pretty soon, then I heard the sad news that R. Lee Ermey
had passed away, and that is why I decided to do this now rather than
wait any longer. What a debut for Ermey, an ex-Marine who asked for the
role of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman; Kubrick declined, but he barked an order
at Kubrick and he complied, so he got hired. It is said that only R. Lee
and Peter Sellers were allowed to improvise in a Kubrick picture; what a
great performance from him. There is no doubting him being believable
in the role as the drill instructor who is hard as a tick and tough as
nails as he delivers amazingly profane rants and is a harsh
disciplinarian. I imagine all drill instructors were like that to the
new recruits in basic training, so they could be whipped into shape and
those unworthy would be weeded out.
Anyhow, that role and R. Lee's performance was more than just all those creative insults; he was tremendous and he proved his talent by being successful as a character actor in many different genres and playing more than just “military man” before he passed away. Plenty of people say that once he departs the picture and the action moves to Vietnam proper, the film suffers and it's not as good. That is understandable as he was the most memorable aspect and delivered the best performance. Yet the Vietnam stuff is important as that drives home the main point of the picture, which is how “American patriotism” is a subject worthy of satire as those young men become dehumanized rather quickly and those that can't wait to “get into the shit” quickly realizes their thoughts were in error when they have to deal with hidden snipers, booby traps out of nowhere, and plenty of fire & smoke.
It is not just R. Lee who deserves accolades here for the job they did. The cast was real solid overall, from Matthew Modine to Adam Baldwin to Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Pyle, who was also great as a character that experiences a drastic change. The Vietnam scenes have a few relaxed moments but otherwise are pretty nightmarish due to what I just mentioned. I am sure I don't need to express that Kubrick did a tremendous job in terms of direction, as he did. “Abigail Mead” (actually, his daughter Vivian) did the score and I actually forgot this had a synth soundtrack; it was effective, all those low tones matching pretty well with the movie, where the characters get sucked into the maelstrom and experience the torment that was the Vietnam War.
While this is not the best that Kubrick ever did, that is not a slight being made by me towards one of the greatest directors of all time; I can still confidently give this a very high rating and a main participant recently passing away bears little on the rating.
Anyhow, that role and R. Lee's performance was more than just all those creative insults; he was tremendous and he proved his talent by being successful as a character actor in many different genres and playing more than just “military man” before he passed away. Plenty of people say that once he departs the picture and the action moves to Vietnam proper, the film suffers and it's not as good. That is understandable as he was the most memorable aspect and delivered the best performance. Yet the Vietnam stuff is important as that drives home the main point of the picture, which is how “American patriotism” is a subject worthy of satire as those young men become dehumanized rather quickly and those that can't wait to “get into the shit” quickly realizes their thoughts were in error when they have to deal with hidden snipers, booby traps out of nowhere, and plenty of fire & smoke.
It is not just R. Lee who deserves accolades here for the job they did. The cast was real solid overall, from Matthew Modine to Adam Baldwin to Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Pyle, who was also great as a character that experiences a drastic change. The Vietnam scenes have a few relaxed moments but otherwise are pretty nightmarish due to what I just mentioned. I am sure I don't need to express that Kubrick did a tremendous job in terms of direction, as he did. “Abigail Mead” (actually, his daughter Vivian) did the score and I actually forgot this had a synth soundtrack; it was effective, all those low tones matching pretty well with the movie, where the characters get sucked into the maelstrom and experience the torment that was the Vietnam War.
While this is not the best that Kubrick ever did, that is not a slight being made by me towards one of the greatest directors of all time; I can still confidently give this a very high rating and a main participant recently passing away bears little on the rating.
No comments:
Post a Comment