This is to appreciate the films that are made on war. The first movie that comes to my mind is Apocalypse Now. Coppola after tasting enormous success with the godfather movies came up with this Vietnam War theme. A basic requirement of any war movies if it’s a conventional one is to give you that smell of napalm. There are few movies which achieves more than just that, making them profound. Apocalypse now is one such movie. It embarks you on a journey which is as much the journey of the protagonist as is of the viewer. There is a glaring similarity between Apocalypse now and 2001 apart from the fact that their directors are masters of this craft. The similarity being the way the movie unravels in an almost stagnant pace on the back of a mysterious element. The pace of Apocalypse now is just perfect that it engrosses the audience in it’s’ details of the war field. Some of the scenes may have no purpose at all as it seems like the space station docking sequence in 2001, carrying the analogy, but they are there for a larger purpose, which is to make the wait more thrilling. The cinematography is perhaps the best I have seen in any film. Apocalypse Now perhaps has got the weakest plot in terms of the scenes contributing to the pace or complexities of the narration and yet Coppola with the moments he created is able to the have a grip on the audience, a true sign of genius in direction. Wherever he has shot the film it has got to be Vietnam, somehow he creates that authenticity. And the end of it all another master registers his presence. The impact he creates in the little time towards the end makes the wait worthwhile. Marlan Brando oozes insanity and commands the bewilderment we got for the character.

The next Vietnam War movie is Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick immerses you into a world which is so desolate, cruel, mysterious and yet believable. I doubt if there was a director who could disorient the audience as much as he does. Full Metal jacket is essentially made up of two segments. They can be viewed in any order without losing much of its impact. The first segment shows what it takes to serve the army. The colonel in charge of the regiment is so detestable that you almost take him to being frivolous. The mental conditioning in the film as he did with A Clockwork Orange is so masterfully handled. The grin that is taken away from a trainee is the most palpable one. The scene where he is obscurely beaten up by his mates is agonizingly shot with the music adding to the chillness. Kubrick is perhaps the best director to work on already written work. His ability to assimilate from a novel and give it in just 150 odd minutes without losing the slightest of what the novel conveys is a skill all directors would love to possess. The climax of the first segment i opine a by product of war is hardly dealt with in movies of this genre. The second part gives you a feel as if while all this while you were watching now it is time to march on. The same regiment is posted for duty in what I believe is suburbs of Vietnam with a guerilla war to fight. The scene from a chopper where Vietnamese are shot dead irrationally and another scene involving a prostitute lets us know the intentions of Kubrick. A scene involving a steady march forward of the troop is so beautifully shot that it gives you the dynamics involved with guerilla warfare. The climax again has Kubrick written all over it. The troops trained so hard have as their rival a young girl with almost no ammunition. Whatever he suggested of Vietnam War is understood well in the closing moments. The end was not judgmental of the war but was ridiculing in a way as only Kubrick can conceive.