Stanley Kubrick's take on Vietnam, Full Metal Jacket is sometimes referred to as the closest to capturing the true nature of a Marine's full trajectory in the war. Largely devoid of the usual onslaught of action in a war film, Kubrick instead divides the film into halves: the first half dedicated to boot camp, the second half to Vietnam. The opening part is a stark, horrific take on the dehumanization and cruelty inherent in all humanity, not just the battlefield. Kubrick's Drill Sergeant, famously played by R. Lee Ermey, shows no mercy to those who fall behind. In order to hack it, most trainees follow suit. The fate of one recruit highlights the ability to break the will of a person in the face of infinite non-compassion. The second part of the film is filled with perversions of down-time and mutant battles, punctuated with snipers instead of firestorms. Despite the tendency for a soldier to put up a harsh facade, in able to survive, the human bonds accumulated during the war come through as members of a platoon slowly die by sniper-fire. In a twist that Vietnam often threw at American forces, they are not killed by a man, but a woman. Beyond all the surface elements that sober a viewer and his or her thoughts, Kubrick, as he always does, allows major philosophic ideas to slip in just out of sight.
Glory (1989)
Glory is the tale of the now-renowned 54th regiment, the first group of black soldiers to fight in the Civil War. An amazing cast fills out this film, including Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, Cary Elwes, Morgan Freeman, and Andre Braugher. Broderick portrays Colonel Robert Shaw, who carries both the old-world stiffness of military society and the tenderness of a man who clearly understood the importance of the equality of race. Washington is brilliant as Trip, an uneducated but stellar soldier, who fights for the freedom of his life and those like him. Director Edward Zwick seamlessly combines the battlefield aspects of the war with the emotional undercurrents of the human situations involved. Watching Glory is a slow build of swelling pride, sadness, and joy. As the plot moves forward, a viewer is reduced to a mere ball of emotion and when the critical mass hits the effect is stunning. Perhaps the best essay and movie on the Civil War yet put to film.