Full Metal Jacket (1987)

Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket is a Vietnam War movie. The first half of the film follows a bunch of recruits in boot camp and the second half of the film looks at some of those recruits now that they are in Vietnam. While both halves had their fair share of moments, I wasn't overly-impressed with either part of the film. The boot camp section was pretty good, but got rather repetitive as the film progressed. The second half had some good battle sequences, but I'm not really sure it accomplished much.

A film of this type is bound to have quite a few actors, and this film is no exception. While there are a few main characters, none of them really stood out much with one exception - R. Lee Ermey played the drill instructor rather brilliantly. He was a former drill instructor in real life so that's probably part of the reason he played the character so well, but he still deserves credit for his work.

Overall, this was a solid film, but it is neither my favorite Kubrick film, nor is it my favorite war film. It seems like most well-regarded war films have a strong message, usually an anti-war message, behind them but I'm not really sure this film had much of a message. It didn't really portray war in a positive manner, but I think the film could have done more in this aspect. It's a good film, but needs to do more to be great.

78/100
C+

UP NEXT: Another Kubrick film - either Paths of Glory or The Killing.

gs78 wrote:

80 for Full Metal Jacket

Got it!

1975?


I thought it was made in the 1980's

1986? or 1987?


Maybe I am wrong

Whoops! I don't know how the hell I typed 1975. I meant 1987

Hey GI, you got girlfriend in Vietnam??

Me so horny....love you LOOONG time!!

Vincent D'Onofrio was BRILLIANT as Private "Pyle" in this movie. I think the message was about the pointlessness of war.

I am a big Kubrick fan though.....

tigersaint wrote:

I am a big Kubrick fan though.....

Have you seen Paths of Glory? I watched the two back-to-back and Paths of Glory made this film seem less impressive.

I have it on my Netflix que for November.

Can't wait to see it then I will have seen ALL of Kubricks movies!!

tigersaint wrote:

Can't wait to see it then I will have seen ALL of Kubricks movies!!

I'm missing two:
Lolita and Eyes Wide Shut

I have seen ALL of Hitchcock's American movies (that's 30!)

I think I've seen parts of Lolita a bunch of times when I was little. I want to say it was on HBO a lot. I remember there was this creepy old guy in the movie and a little girl. I don't remember anything else because I never watched it.

My Kubrick ranking...
The Shining
A Clockwork Orange
2001: A Space Odyssey
Paths of Glory
Dr Strangelove: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
The Killing
Full Metal Jacket
Spartacus
Barry Lyndon
Killer's Kiss

Of those I only found Killer's Kiss to be bad. Barry Lyndon wasn't terribly interesting but the cinematography was about as good as it gets.

Lolita is very slow and a little creepy regarding the relationship between her and Professor. Humbert.

Eyes Wide Shut is a mess but if you enjoy nudity (and LOTS of it...including Nicole Kidman), you will like it.

The soundtrack makes it even more disturbing.

tigersaint wrote:

Eyes Wide Shut is a mess but if you enjoy nudity (and LOTS of it...including Nicole Kidman), you will like it.

I'll see this one (and not just because of the nudity )

tigersaint wrote:

Hey GI, you got girlfriend in Vietnam??

Me so horny....love you LOOONG time!!

Vincent D'Onofrio was BRILLIANT as Private "Pyle" in this movie. I think the message was about the pointlessness of war.

I am a big Kubrick fan though.....

I like the Drill Sergeant that bullied Private Pyle


That guy was a riot


Best part of that movie is when the recurits were doing boot camp



There are clips of it on YouTube

They also have a clip of the mistakes in the movie

Including PVT Joker using a maglite flashlight


Some of that stuff I never noticed until it was pointed out