Full Metal Jacket review

There are filmmakers and there are filmmaking legends; without a doubt, Stanley Kubrick was a filmmaker in his own element. While his stories weren't exactly the highlight in his movies, it was his visual style that made him a unique and inventive director. He created films in film styles that made him unique, when he created a science fiction film, he made the sci-fi epic "2001: A Space Odyssey", when he directed a period piece, he released "Barry Lyndon", for comedy, he created the political black comedy "Dr. Strangelove Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" but in the case for war films, two come to mind, one is obscure and rarely heard of, "Paths of Glory", the other, is a film popularized and satirized to the point it has left a large impact on future war films involving Vietnam; this is "Full Metal Jacket".

After an opening with new army recruits getting buzz cuts and then going through orientation by Sgt. Gunnery Hartman (played by Marines drill instructor turned actor R. Lee Ermey) who insults and humiliates the recruits through verbal and physical abuse. The movie focuses on Private "Joker" (played by Matthew Modine) as he undergoes the military's dehumanizing methods of turning their recruits into killing machines. One soldier, Private Leonard Lawrence "Gomer Pyle" (played by Vincent D'Onofrio) can't take the pressure and he suffers a mental breakdown as he finally breaks down and kills the drill sergeant before killing himself. The movie then moves to Vietnam around the time of the Tet Offensive as Pvt. Joker is now a reporter for "Stars and Stripes" as he is sent capture and record imagery of what he sees. What he does see, isn't pretty…

Kubrick's films are unique and different; Full Metal Jacket came around during the time when Oliver Stone's "Platoon" had made it big in bringing an honest representation of a personal experience of Vietnam. But compared to Platoon and Francis Ford Coppola's "Apocalypse Now", this falls short on the actual fighting in Vietnam. But unlike the previous films mentioned, Full Metal Jacket's focus is how the army took honest and decent young men and dehumanized them into the perfect killing machines for war. While many of us would laugh at the first 10 minutes of Full Metal Jacket seeing Lee Ermey swear like a sailor in front of the new recruits but as the training continues, you start to feel horrified as you see Ermey treating these soldiers lower than dirt and degrading them down to psychological levels. You really feel these troops being brainwashed to kill upon being ordered. While the film doesn't have as many famous and striking scenes like the helicopter attack to the tune of 'Ride of the Valkyries' like in "Apocalypse Now" or the scenes of the army platoon taking over a small rice village and killing innocent civilians like in "Platoon" but in its own equal way, it has scenes just a memorable but the two Vietnam war films mentioned above take the spotlight. But if I try to compare this film to "Apocalypse Now" or "Platoon", that would defeat the purpose of the review, so moving on…

The film is not shot entirely in Vietnam, when Kubrick moved to England in the early 60's and he never left to film his movies for the rest of his life. Yet for what he films here, I was fooled into thinking it was Vietnam. Although the movie never goes into a jungle area, it still manages to sell itself off as saying that the movie is set in a war zone. Most of the scenes of the soldiers in battle are set in an area of destroyed buildings that are turning to rubble. Kubrick managed to jump the gun of his budget by not having to fly to the real jungles of Vietnam and yet he manages to convince the audience.

What mainly strikes to me about this film is how funny the dialogue is. Most of the dialogue is composed of hilarious jokes and lines made between the soldiers. Lines like "You can talk the talk, but can you walk the walk?" originate from this film, or so I presume. Also, like a typical Kubrick film, Kubrick manages to use songs that seem to perfectly integrate itself into the movie and fit along with its imagery. An example, there is a scene where we see a battalion of tanks open fire on a ruined city as a documentary crew is filming the soldiers, as this goes on, the song "Surfin' Bird" by The Trashmen plays alongside all this while the soldiers joke about them filming "Vietnam: The Movie" with Pvt. Joker as John Wayne and the VC would be the Indians. This creates a sense of the military's getting their big guns out on the enemy, while it's not a serious song, in fact, a lot of the songs are not very serious, but it creates a goofy sense of comedic relief from all the killing. While that never really occurred for other War films, it works here to show just how the soldiers are used to this sort of thing and it makes them appear laid back when there's not a lot to worry about.

In conclusion, "Full Metal Jacket" is one of those Vietnam War films that stand next to Apocalypse Now and Platoon to show the effects of war on the troops. While Apocalypse Now dealt with the violence and the scenery of Vietnam and Platoon showed the stress the war put on the troops while Full Metal Jacket is stronger in showing the harsh abuse shown to the troops to make them into the killing machines of war. It's hilarious but still horrifying to see the violence and the effects of the fighting on the brainwashed troops made to kill. It's not Kubrick's greatest film but it is still enjoyable film made by the master himself, I definitely recommend this if you're in the mood for a war film with humor.

My Rating: 3 ¾ stars out of 5