Best Vietnam War movie

[DemPGH]

The only one there I actually don't care for is The Deer Hunter, which is just a long, rambling, depressing movie.

Spiral's observation about FMJ I agree with. The thing is, I think the first half was supposed to set up the second half, but Ermey was so good, and Kubrick struck such gold with him, that he physically takes over the movie. FMJ is Gunnery Sgt. Hartman. So it ends up feeling like two movies rammed together. Still, it is very good. The scene where they are being shelled in the bombed-out city and blindly returning fire, only to find out like 25 minutes later that the sniper was a girl, was an epic combat scene. Epic. Would have had a lot more climactic power had it not been for the golden work Ermey did in the first half.

Apocalypse Now is great in its own right and kind of artsy, really. I love Coppola's noted work. The cinematography of Apocalypse Now is the best of these movies. It's a beautiful experience. But it can suffer from show-don't-tell. Visually, I recommend the 201-minute version.

Platoon is probably the best written, edited, and paced of all of them. So objectively, it's probably the best movie. I also think it does the best job of showing how war can get the best of a person - in this case, Sgt. Barnes.