Fantastic early Broomfield

I am amazed at how light-hearted this film manages to be given the ultimate message that is delivered at the end by Sergeant Abing. I know it's bad, but I was laughing so hard when the likes of Private Johnson and Alves were being scolded by their superiors. It was on par, dare I say better, than watching sergeant Hartman tear a new *beep* for his recruits in the first part of Full Metal Jacket. However, the fact that Johnson and Alves didn't give a damm took away any guilt you might feel at watching their personalities being torn to shreds by the instructors, and make no mistake, there are some seriously cruel things being said to them, that makes it hard to believe they could ever regain any sort of self-confidence again. All I can say is that Johnson and Alves are two very cool-customers. Anyway, my point was how this almost tongue-in cheek attiude that permeated the film was pretty much made null and void by sergeant Abing's final speech on how joining the army destroyed his soul and killed any ability for him to express human emotion. This shortly being followed by the graduating recruits war chant, of "kill. kill, kill," and all of a sudden the hilarity turns to a frigtnening awe as you realise that you're watching a documentary again.

I urge people to watch this as Nick Broomfield shows his early talents at work in being able to strip away the sleek veneer of fiction, but still keep you enthralled to the end.