Full Metal Jacket Review

 

        Another Stanley Kubrick classic with this one. I always feel that this one is well known by general audiences when asked about favorite Stanley Kubrick film, they’ll point to this movie or The Shining. Full Metal Jacket is his second look at war, this time with Vietnam as the backdrop. It’s obvious that this is one of his best movies. Well, he hasn’t made a bad film as far as I’m aware. One more thing, this film is based on a autobiographical book called The Short Timers. 

1. War Film in Two Parts

        When watching this film, it can be divided into two sections. The recruiting act and the war act is the most basic simplistic approach to the film. We follow a group of cadets go into boot camp in South Carolina called Parris Island. They have their hair shaved off as they’re about to become welcomed to the world of being a United States Marine. 

    

        I might as well go into the star stealer. R. Lee Ermey is the man who absolutely steals the entire first act. It helps that just before he was an actor, he was in the Marine Corps. I think what’s funny is that Stanley Kubrick had lines prepared for Ermey. He wasn’t prepared for the level of intensity Ermey brought when he improv his lines.

        Sergeant Gunnery Hartman breaks down the incoming privates to their core. So much so that they give them nicknames which are demoralizing. From there we follow Private Davis who is given the name of Joker. Throughout the first act, Hartman instills his authority to the whole battalion. The thing that is stressed is that he’s training them to be killers. 

        Ermey’s performance as I said steals the entire show. He never loses a beat when he’s barking orders. Not even a moment where his voice cracks from the incessant shouting. Right down to have them compare their rifle to their actual privates. And it’s another example of a great performance that was snubbed since he wasn’t nominate by the Academy Awards to at least be best supporting actor. 

        With all that, Vincent D’Onofrio plays Private Pyle. I thought that he was going to be the one character you feel bad because he’s fat and he’s constantly getting berated by Hartman. What he represents is just how much the abuse can easily turn him wrong. It’s interesting to see the whole evolution of him slowly losing his mind. Compounding it visually is those slow zoom ins that the camera does to him. The recurring motif with any Kubrick film is the Kubrick Stare, which represents that the character is not well. Or just beyond help.

        I feel that the second half of the movie isn’t as good as the first. Now, the movie is great, but I feel that with everything going on in the training act is the most interesting and intense. Like just how Pyle has Joker as his only friend and shows him respect after being constantly berated. With the second act, we see Joker now working as a journalist for Stars and Stripes. I’ll talk about him in the next tab.

2. Duality of Man

        So Joker is probably the only instance where the main character gets overshadowed by the other supporting casts. The knock on him is that as much as he jokes during basic training and while he’s stationed in Vietnam, he hasn’t seen any action. What the other troopers call it as “The Shit”, compounded with that they have the “Thousand Yard Stare”. He gets heckled a lot since he doesn’t have that on him. Some things that he wears is a peace pin and the words scribed on his helmet “Born to Kill”. 

        He is endearing when he’s confronted with the other soldiers such as Animal Mother. That guy is carrying a big weapon and has the metaphorical guns. He chastises him for not seeing combat and Joker reverts to doing a John Wayne impression to throw it back at him. I think why Joker does the impression is a way to feel tough without ever feeling violent. Mostly to break the tension since he appears that he doesn’t appear violent. 

        His change is gradual as we see throughout the film. He’s seen enough where he doesn’t immediately become hardened that he’s unrecognizable. I love how the entire Tet offensive takes place in a series of days. Leading up to when Joker’s squad are tasked to scout the city Hue, he encounters his friend getting shot. The whole setting is sunset with his face having a lit and darkened look. 

        The film's saving grace is the overall message of the film. While one can say that it's an super exaggeration of one man becoming a killing machine and losing his humanity. I think it's a statement on masculinity on how much one can just become desensitized with being exposed with loads of carnage that it makes you lose yourself. As we've seen with Pyle, Joker seems to be the one who's gonna make it out of Vietnam as a normal man.  

3. Overall

        It was tough to pick the war films about Vietnam. I left out Apocalypse Now and Platoon since I wanted to talk about two films. Maybe in the future I’ll talk about those. Full Metal Jacket is a great movie, despite having the second part not being as good as the first section. 

        Full Metal Jacket gets a four out of five.