This was one of Stanley Kubricks best films in my opinion. I think that it is also one of the ones that I can most relate too. Kubrick brings a sense of insanity to this film because of the way the story is laid out. the film starts out with some poor recruit who is nicknamed "Pyle" at boot camp being picked on until he loses his mind. Then he kills himself along with his drill sergent. then the movie jumps into the middle of Vietnam where the mentor of the deranged Pyle's joins the crew of a former boot camp buddy. the film gets weird at the end when the film just abburptly ends with the main character killing a young women who was a viet cong sniper.
The significant message that Kubrick was trying to show society through the use of film is one of compassion and understanding. He tried to show how war changes people. He does this during the last part of the film when he has the innocent semi normal "Joker" give a mercy killing to the wounded sniper. when Joker shots the sniper the audience is in a sense of shock and confusion, because no body is expecting him to kill her and then the movie aburtbly ends using his transformation into a killer as closure to the film. The other purpose for this film is to inform the public to somewhat respect our soliders and that we can't blame them for following orders. at the end of the film we feel a sense of compassion for the soliders who were killed and whos personality's were warped by these tramatic events. For example when Pyle starts calling his gun "Charlene" and becomes detached from the world. these are the people that Kubrick was trying to get society to help. Through this film Kubrick gives us the insit that was despritly needed in order to spark some sort of change. I don't know how much has changed in todays world but in my experience no longer to people spit on soliders.
