I thought I’d do something different and do a short round-up of two films that I have seen lately- Full Metal Jacket and Saving Private Ryan- both remarkable films. Saving Private Ryan is a grimly realistic and visceral portrayal of the 1944 Normandy Campaign from the perspective of an American officer (played by Tom Hanks) charged with rescuing a paratrooper lost behind enemy lines. The much-discussed Omaha Beach sequence with its blood-and-guts action and handheld, camera-shaking tracking shots is one of the most intense and effective battle scenes on film. It is a film which pulls at the heart strings and gets away with it. Full Metal Jacket, which contains considerably less violence, also packs a punch in terms of its stunning cinematography depicting the horrors of the Vietnam War with long, wide shots of stark and despoiled urban landscapes. The first half of the film, set exclusively in a U.S Marines training camp, focuses on the relationship between the protagonist of the film, Private Joker (played by Matthew Modine), Private Leonard (known as Private Pyle) and Sergeant Hartman (played by Lee Ermey), the latter of which is, as a deplorably nasty character, the standout of the first act. Both of these films are unforgettable in their own right and are certainly two of the greatest war films ever made.

© Daniel Cummings 2023