RonnySimulacrum said:

'Wake In Fright' - 1971

?

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obtuse said:

omg yes, metal skin lol

i had totally forgotten.

someone should do an Australian 90's underground cult film festival

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DividedQuantum said:

I'm inclined to agree with you. I love Full Metal Jacket, but I have always been bothered by the second half for several reasons. One, the first half (with Lee Ermey and Vincent D'Onofrio) is so fucking good that the second half seems to fall a little flat in comparison. Two, Kubrick shot the movie in England, and it shows. It really does not look like tropical Indochina. He shipped in a lot of palm trees from Spain, but that doesn't really cut it for me. Three, my Dad is a Vietnam vet. He served in the 101st Airborne Division at Foo Bai and was in the Jag corps at Nha Trang, Da Nang, and Saigon. He doesn't like Full Metal Jacket. He says that, first of all, it doesn't look realistic. That is not what it looked and felt like. Also, FMJ depicts a city battle -- in Hue -- and the Vietnam war was anything but a city war. It was a brutal jungle war.

His favorite Vietnam movie, he says by far, is Apocalypse Now. He says it's realistic, and the surreality of it is very close to the mark. He said the bridge scene at night, towards the end, is a mirror image of situations like that that he saw in country. I am not a veteran, but I happen to agree that AN is the best Vietnam movie, and one of the best war movies ever made.

But FMJ, as you say, is a Kubrick film, and I do like it a lot. I think things would be very different if he shot it on location, in the Philippines or something. He should not have let his fear of flying or being far from home affect the quality of his filmmaking. Not that that would have addressed all of my points. Philosophically and thematically, it's a great movie. But it is deeply flawed.

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Hue certainly didn't look like a jungle during the battle portrayed in the film.



and the base (before the first attack on Tet) looks realistic too.



i think the underpinnings in the second act reflect well on the first. everyone is still friendly with eachother, because they know eachother from boot camp, but at the same time, everyone is different- death is expected, and everyone wants to look away (lest it's a gook they are looking at [staring death in the face], or unless it's Animal Mother, whom is unable to hide his humanity and wears it on his sleeve-- why he's so insulting to everyone)

i think, and i'm just trying to be honest here...that you guys have a problem with the pacing more than anything...plot goes from comedic underpinnings, to a major malfunction, but then to a more subdued plot about a singular event, and the tiny moments surrounding it (the media, prostitution, travelling en route to objectives); by the time you hit the action at Hue, it seems too slow and plodding, mayhaps- because it's dealing with the theme of war in a way that isn't as theatric as most war movies- the kills are all accrued by either trap, or the sniper, and zero enemies are killed in any really dramatic fashion (once through the gate at the base, and once as they cross an alley in Hue, that is, before the cameramen are taking that long tracking shot, and they all make quips at them, before long being interviewed, and they all have some very human things to say); that is to say, it's all very shallow (the guy even laughs after the second aforementioned row of kills)...point being, i think the point is that it's NOT taken very seriously, in the sense of what humanity is truly there; that is, until they get lost, and get commanded into what is inevitably the death of most of the squads members. by the time the sniper is saying "shoot", you've seen the triviality of war, in the most human sense...no feelings...just triviality.

i think that was the point.

RonnySimulacrum said:

Shit, also

'Picnic at Hanging Rock' -1975

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clock_of_omens said:

Muriel's Wedding is hilarious. Werner Herzog's Where the Green Ants Dream is based in Australia.

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