The rhythm of the first half is very lively, accompanied by the dark humor in many military camps. R. Lee Ermey, who played the instructor, was indeed a Marine Corps instructor in the Vietnam War, and a lot of his lines were based on some of his memories. This part of the story is to demonstrate through the harsh training of this iron-blooded instructor that the soldiers who have been brainwashed are not to be trained to be robots, but to kill machines. And even the most cowardly and incompetent "Gomer Pyle" among them, eventually shot the 7.62mm metal bullet case at his always timid instructor without hesitation.
The content of the second half is a bit loose. However, we can still see some clues from the dialogues of many characters:
1) In order to boost morale, the US military made fake news (which is quite political).
2) The United States did not enter the war to fight for the freedom of the Vietnamese people ("Doc Jay" quoted LBJ's words to satirize the Vietnam War: "We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves". Connecting to today’s Iraq and Afghanistan, this joke has no expiration date).
3) The US military shot and killed civilians, even women and children innocently ("Animal Mother": This isn't about freedom; this is a slaughter.).
4) The morale of the US military is low, and everyone is looking forward to the day of returning home ("Cowboy": Tough break for Hand Job. He was all set to get shipped out on a medical. ).
5) The bargaining skills of U.S. soldiers when calling prostitutes (Five dollars is all my mom allows me to spend).
6) The best strategy for the so-called U.S. Marines who have been trained to be extremely strong-willed is to wait for tank support when they encounter a blocker but have an absolute advantage in numbers. The middle strategy is to abandon the injured team to retreat, and the next strategy is to face it.
The combination of music is unworldly.
The adaptation of the script is also seamless.
The lens is the usual Kubrick style.
But the final climax of the show (Joker struggled to end up with the young Viet Cong sniper girl) was diluted by Joker's monologue in the final Mickey Mouse March. Why is he not afraid anymore? Just because he didn't die? Shouldn't he be confused and world-weary? The ending is to inspire the audience that war should make people cherish life more? Or Kubrick just wanted to add a little relaxed atmosphere after the solemn orgasm. I don’t know why.
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