Full Metal Jacket
by Stanley Kubrick
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Adam Baldwin, Dorian Harewood, Lee Ermey, Matthew Modine, Vincent D'onofrioDirector: Stanley Kubrick
Brand: Warner Brothers
Producer: Stanley Kubrick
Writer: Stanley Kubrick
Producer: Jan Harlan
Writer: Michael Herr
Writer: Gustav Hasford
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language)
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-05-15
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Model: 116311
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product features:
- The story of an 18-year-old marine recruit named Private Joker - from his carnage-and-machismo boot camp to his climactic involvement in the heavy fighting in Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive. Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: R Age: 085391163114 UPC: 085391163114 Manufacturer No: 116311
Movie Reviews of Full Metal Jacket
Movie Review: "A Day Without Blood is a Day Without Sunshine!"
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to say that there is no war movie like Full Metal Jacket. I haven't seen every war movie, so it's safe to say that other war movies share similar themes and there are many movies that depict combat, friendships, and desensitization . But man, Full Metal Jacket has many classic scenes, scenes that can not be duplicated in any other movie. How many other movies feature a forty seven boot camp plot, soldiers singing the Mickey Mouse theme song over charred landscapes, or feature Surfin' Bird over combat and a team filming soldiers? That's right, none. These are few of the many memorable scenes that fill the unique Full Metal Jacket, further delivered by the one of a kind directing from Stanley Kubrick. It's a surprisingly ambiguous and war movie, especially compared to Platoon (frequently compared to Jacket) which is a much more emotionally driven drama, than Full Metal Jacket.
Sure, Full Metal Jacket may not be as emotionally powerful as Saving Private Ryan of Grave of the Fireflies. As a matter of fact, the emotional factor seems to be lacking in Full Metal Jacket, especially compared to other movies. The suicide of Private Pyle has no hint of music that wants us to feel sorry for him (even though we do). The death of Private Cowboy is surprisingly cold and lacks emotional resonance. But really, that's part of the reason why Full Metal Jacket stands out among war movies. It's not an entirely mean-hearted movie by any stretch (though I'm not surprised if this gets criticism for being racist), as there is humanity and goodness within the movie. But when it comes to war movies, there aren't many other war films that have most, if not all, their sentimentality drained as Full Metal Jacket does.
As everybody and their mother knows, Full Metal Jacket is divided into two parts. The first 47 minutes stars actual drill instructor Lee Ermey (according to the box. I forgot his real name) pitting grunts through basic training. After the first half, Full Metal Jacket turns into a wild second half, which almost feels more like set pieces and situations than one plot. However, I find the second half to be just as memorable and compelling, and the set pieces are linked together quite well. It flows, even though there not much of a strict running plot. Quite frankly, it works that way. Not every situation in life is like a story, and Full Metal Jacket is refreshing because of that. This movie never feels like a story, and quite frankly, I like it that way.
The end result makes for a good two hours of war captured on film that you won't find anywhere else. The first half goes through training, while the multiple sequenced second half goes through a fight with a sniper, some time with a sadistic door gunner, The Battle of Hue, and even some time with sleazy Vietnamese prostitutes (Me love you long time originated from this movie, I think). All of this is presented with more flair and creativity than your usual war movie, and the movie is surprisingly funny at times. The dialogue is incredibly quotable and funny. I know Ermey's dialogue is supposed to be cruel, but good lord, these quotes are just hilarious. "Five foot nine I didn't know they stacked _____ that high!" is just one of the many lines that are CLASSIC. The chants he makes the soldiers shout are extremely catchy, for some reason. No, classic even. Seriously. Even beyond this, the quotes and moments in this movie stick in your head. "A Day Without Blood is Like a Day Without Sunshine" has to be the coolest line ever spoken in a war movie.
Another great thing about this movie is the characters, who are much more fun and memorable than your average war movie. As another reviewer put it, the young men portrayed here are fun, cool, somewhat dangerous, and motivated in some way or another. Everybody knows about R. Lee Ermey's performance (cool fact: Ermey plays Sarge from Toy Story), Vincent D'Onofrio's performance as Private Pyle, Adam Baldwin as the nihilistic machine gunner who goes off into crazy fits of shooting, and Matthew Modine as the protagonist. They are all funny, somewhat crazy, have personality, and are entertaining to watch.
Stanley Kubrick's directing makes Full Metal Jacket unique as well. Kubrick is known for making sure every shot was perfect in his eyes, and I think it shows here. He was a master at the camera. For example, the end of the movie, featuring gut-wrenching slow motion details on gunshot wounds, featuring blood splattering like slow motion water, are among nothing else I've seen in a war movie. It's not the slow motion that's unique, it's just the whole way it's constructed. I also like the soundtrack, both Vivian Kubrick's score and the soundtrack featuring rock and pop artists. The lack of soundtrack helps as well, making the movie seem even more unique. Some of the scenes are enhanced further by music, but for the most part, the minimal amount works well. The pop songs conjures up moods rather well, in the way rock and pop songs proved effective in movies like Dazed and Confused, Pulp Fiction, and Trainspotting.
My interpretation of the film may be different from yours, and there are a lot of different interpretations that can said about the scenes, as there are many themes in this movie further established by some ambiguous scenes that actually are open to some interpretation. The first half, in my opinion, is fairly easy to understand, about how war is not for the weak or dependent. Self esteem seems to be in play when it comes to reaction to boot camp training. Some of the soldiers have enough self esteem to harden up, but others, such as the ill-fated Private Pyle, do not. Private Pyle's breakdown and eventual suicide is an interesting theme for me, being one who has seen plenty of bullying thanks to exposure of some lame Vocational class I took (though that class was filled with plenty of socially adapt people, so we weren't all lonely misfits. As a matter of fact, many of us were not). Pyle, unlike the other troops, were socially and mentally slow, which makes it hard for him to gain self esteem. With no escape from a system that chips away at your comfort zone and dependency on others to make you happy, it's no wonder he turned inward and went crazy. That may have been his only comfort zone, but it sure was a lot more devastating than helpful.
As for the second half? The goofy Surfin' Bird certainly makes the ridiculous act of having a camera team shooting soldiers seem stupid and insulting to the soldiers involved. We meet many characters that represent many sides of war, and plenty of situations as well. Even better, aside from the lame scenes regarding Vietnamese woman, all of scenes are watchable and interesting. We see the difference between how we are all much more ignorant about something we have never done before, how some people apparently get a thrill of killing foreigners, and the Jungian thing. It almost seems like this movie is about the perception of war, as we get a million different views from different people at once. A nihilistic view from Animal, a racist view from Eightball, a individualistic side from Joker, and a natural urge to kill from people like Rafterman. At least that's my interpretation. For now, at least.
In short, Full Metal Jacket is definitely a unique war movie. While it will never truly lift your spirits up, the boot camp section, it's set pieces after the boot camp sequence, the performances and characters, and it's dehumanizing themes all contribute to making this movie an exceptional war movie. That's why this movie truly deserves to crack top spots in polls for great war films.
Summary of Full Metal Jacket
The story of an 18-year-old marine recruit named Private Joker - from his carnage-and-machismo boot camp to his climactic involvement in the heavy fighting in Hue during the 1968 Tet Offensive.Stanley Kubrick's 1987, penultimate film seemed to a lot of people to be contrived and out of touch with the '80s vogue for such intensely realistic portrayals of the Vietnam War as Platoon and The Deer Hunter. Certainly, Kubrick gave audiences plenty of reason to wonder why he made the film at all: essentially a two-part drama that begins on a Parris Island boot camp for rookie Marines and abruptly switches to Vietnam (actually shot on sound stages and locations near London), Full Metal Jacket comes across as a series of self-contained chapters in a story whose logical and thematic development is oblique at best. Then again, much the same was said about Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, a masterwork both enthralled with and satiric about the future's role in the unfinished business of human evolution. In a way, Full Metal Jacket is the wholly grim counterpart of 2001. While the latter is a truly 1960s film, both wide-eyed and wary, about the intertwining of progress and isolation (ending in our redemption, finally, by death), Full Metal Jacket is a cynical, Reagan-era view of the 1960s' hunger for experience and consciousness that fulfilled itself in violence. Lee Ermey made film history as the Marine drill instructor whose ritualized debasement of men in the name of tribal uniformity creates its darkest angel in a murderous half-wit (Vincent D'Onofrio). Matthew Modine gives a smart and savvy performance as Private Joker, the clowning, military journalist who yearns to get away from the propaganda machine and know firsthand the horrific revelation of the front line. In Full Metal Jacket, depravity and fulfillment go hand in hand, and it's no wonder Kubrick kept his steely distance from the material to make the point. --Tom Keogh
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