Review

Along with Platoon, this has to be one of the best Vietnam war films around. Starting at the training camp, FMJ follows a Vietnam-bound squad through training at the hands of one of the most recognisable and memorable characters in film history - played by R. Lee Ermey. His rants are the stuff of legend, and out of anything in this film, his character will probably make the most lasting impression.

The second half of the film follows Private Joker during the war. He eventually meets up with a former academy friend and his platoon. As a photogropher, Joker sees some of the most outrageous sights of the war, but when his platoon gets lost and devastated by a sniper, he has to swap his camera for a rifle and transform into the type of person he has almost looked down upon for the rest of the film.

The begining scenes are the most famous, but I think it's the ending scenes which are the most powerfully portrayed. It's rare to see a vietnam film detailing urban combat as opposed to jungle fighting, but this film managed to catch the desolation and fear of such a scenario perfectly.

8/10

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Added by Grand Assault 2 years ago on 24 August 2007 06:09