I'm surprised at how war-time movies are actually very often a genre I enjoy. I don't see myself as much of a soldier; I would never consider joining the army but somehow the whole experience appeals to me
The first half of this movie is spent in a marine training camp. Everything about the place is ridiculously strict and everything is done in unison, getting up and going to bed is done as a drill. Every time someone other than the drill sergeant speaks they must shout and they must say "sir" both before and after they've finished speaking.
This whole section of the movie seems like it goes on for a very long time. This isn't necessarily a bad thing because it is quite interesting to see it all happening but there doesn't really appear to be a storyline. It's just shot after shot of drill training. You get quite sick of the constant shouting after a while. The only vaguely interesting thing is to see Private Pyle, being not as physically fit as the rest of them, struggling to keep up. He is picked on from the very first day by the drill sergeant, and its interesting to see him being slowly driven more and more insane by the whole experience. His friend, Private 'Joker', who tries to help Pyle throughout his experience ends up being the main focus on the rest of the film.
The rest feels like a totally different film. Just as you are starting to think the whole film will just be at the training camp, the movie begins. Its quite clever because you get the juxtaposition between the way soldiers are trained to behave and the way they actually behave. The feel of it is quite relaxed, and the soldiers are hardly ever given direct orders, but they still have that background training to always obey when they are given them.
The scene that sticks in my mind in the second half of the film Is the bit where they are trying to take down a sniper. It's really interesting to see army tactics being put into practice in the real world. It all looks quite simple when on paper but when the soldiers are really out there there's a lot of uncertainty a lot of change of plans.
Also "Surfin' Bird" is in the soundtrack. Pretty weird for it to be taken seriously after seeing Peter Griffin from "Family Guy" dancing to it.
