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531 comments in total

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158 out of 216 people found the following comment useful :-
Kubrick is genius., 10 December 1998

Author: Peach-2 from USA

Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket seems like an uncompleted film, but to me that's poetic justice to one of America's uncompleted wars. The film is harsh and doesn't turn a blind eye to the atrocities of Vietnam. Kubrick is the true master of atmosphere in film. He makes you feel like you are there. Friends of mine have commented that they only like the first half of the film and that the second half falls apart. I believe Kubrick sets up the first half to be an understandable reflection of the terror that would eventually enter the lives of these soldiers during war. It is easy to identify with being picked on because we all have in some way. Not all of us, on the other hand, have fought in war. Kubrick is the master.

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137 out of 180 people found the following comment useful :-
The best war film I have seen, 13 October 2004
Author: thomas8331 from Charlotte, NC

NO SPOILERS! This is a review, not a synopsis.

First of all I love Kubrick's work, so I came into this with a bias. However I have seen a lot of action and war films, and this one, to an individual who never went to war, seems the most true-to-life, taken as a whole. This IS how you have to look at this film, incidentally; trying to break it down into two or three parts and say which was better is missing the point of the film, I think.

In the same way that "Trainspotting" was an anti-drug film that did not gloss over anything, "Full Metal Jacket" is (for me) an anti-war film that stares straight at the ugliness of war and the potential for violence within almost all people, especially those trained, conditioned, even twisted, into military roles, without preaching even a single time. Less allegory and more applicability! Wonderful!

The camera work was superb. I felt like I was walking through the movie with the Marines, from the barracks to the battlefield scenes.

I have seen others criticize this film for the voice over, but I felt that it was used sparingly, and was helpful, not overdone. The narrator doesn't say anything that seems out-of-place.

Others have commented on the music, the acting, and so on, so I won't add my repetitive comments, except that the drill sergeant is perfect!

The combination of the demented treatment the recruits receive in boot camp with the combined "hours of boredom, seconds of terror" feel of the Vietnam scenes is intense and not for everyone, but feels REAL.

10 out of 10, perfect.

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133 out of 187 people found the following comment useful :-
"This is my rifle. There are many like it but this one is mine.", 19 December 2001

Author: Mika Pykäläaho (bygis80@hotmail.com) from Järvenpää, Finland

Legendary Stanley Kubrick - probably the most ingenious film-maker of our time - directed only two movies in the 80's. Someone could thoughtlessly claim that it was a very bad and a slow decade for him but on the contrary: the films happened to be "The Shining" (1980) - the darkest, the greatest and most frightening, superb and impressive horror movie ever made - and "Full Metal Jacket" (1987) the finest war movie in the history of motion picture. The fact that he directed the most beloved classics of two completely different genre is simply unbelievable.

First half of "Full Metal Jacket" is spectacular. Lee Ermey's Drill Instructor Hartman ("I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers. Here you are all equally worthless") is probably the most hateful, forbidding and repulsive character in the history of Kubrick's movies. Jack Nicholson in "The Shining" was like a kitten compared to him. The fact that he is so overdone and the dialogue written to him is so sarcastic, biting and clever makes him also the funniest part of "Full Metal Jacket". Even though this is one of the most pressuring Kubrick movies first half can also be seen as an extremely dark comedy.

Rest of the cast is just as excellent. Matthew Modine in the leading role as Private Joker is simply fabulous but I guess most of the sympathies goes to Vincent D'Onofrio's unforgettable Private Pyle. Audience really feels sorry for him because he's the most regrettable victim of the training period that turns perfectly ordinary nice blokes into merciless killers. Actually I'm not sure if this is the greatest war movie ever made. I've always had my difficulties of choosing between "Full Metal Jacket" and Francis Ford Coppola's outstanding "Apocalypse. Now." Both of these films really shows what war is really about. War is never justified, war is never good. Therefore I think war movie should never glorify war but rather show it as what it really is: nightmarish hell. Second half of "Full Metal Jacket" does it. That makes it probably the most pacifistic war movie I've ever seen.

Interesting fact: at the end of "Full Metal Jacket" soldiers walk on the battlefield and sing an absurd and silly Mickey Mouse marching song. Childish and senseless marching songs of the first half were very comical. This one should be rather funny too but at this time the audience has already seen way too much. This kind of humor no longer amuses and makes you laugh. Song is the final crown of "Full Metal Jacket". It gives the last touch to all this irrationality and I'm positive that was also Kubrick's intention. I'm pretty sure that this is Stanley Kubrick's greatest movie right after excellent "A Clockwork Orange". Magnificent Masterpiece with a capital M. 10 out of 10.

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114 out of 154 people found the following comment useful :-
Kubrick - yay! One of the best war-based movies ever, 5 November 2002
Author: Aidan McGuinness from Dublin, Ireland

I like Kubrick's stuff. Generally any movie he directed was several notches, in quality terms, above any other director (particularly those working nowdays). Does `Full Metal Jacket' continue to show the mastermind behind `2001', `The Shining' and `Dr. Strangelove'? Yup, it does.

As plots go. there isn't much here. I don't particularly care because the script makes up for it. `Full Metal Jacket' is very much a movie of two halves - the first half dealing with a group of conscripts in training at military camp and the hardships they endure under their `hard-as-nails' instructor. The second half is about their exploits in Vietnam itself. Fights? In 'Nam? Haven't we seen all that before? Yes, but rarely with such an experienced hand at work. And it's the camp scenes that are so wonderful.

Gustav Hasford et. Al. have produced an excellent script, particularly for the opening hour. There's barely a moment's pause before you're thrown into the screaming face of Sergeant Hartman. He's hurling abuse at his new recruits with lines so forceful and sharp they'll have you gasping in shock while simultaneously laughing in incredulity. It's the way the script runs in without a pause for breath that helps so wonderfully - and the fact that it's so powerful. It's never just about one-liners from a sergeant, it's also telling a story about how humans work under these conditions. The first half is about how they suffer under their own at home (and very well told it is too), the second half about the human condition under the duress of war. It's an interesting comparison, and a tale well told. The battle may lack some sort of overall context or resolution, but then I feel that's in keeping with the movie - it's about the individual, and not the war, and such elements cannot be easily quantified.

All the characters have a grounded `real world' feel to them, due to both the material and the versatility of the actors. R. Lee Emery is viciously delightful as the manic Sergeant Hartman, while managing to add occasional touches of humanity and a `this is for your own good' attitude through subtle gestures. Matthew Modine is the amiable lead, Private Joker, and as such balances the hard and soft edges admirably (if not spectacularly). The other stand out though is Vincent D'Onofrio as Private Gomer Pyle, the recruit picked upon by Hartman and the other cadets. There's a wonderful innocence about him in the beginning, which transforms into a frightening hardening of his soul later on. The evil/beyond-hope look he gives later on (anyone who has seen the movie will know the one I mean), remains as the most frightening look I've ever seen depicted onscreen. All in all the cast accredit themselves well here.

And so to the direction. It's Kubrick. It's good. Once more there's excellent cinematography - check out the haunting, almost claustrophobic landscapes of Vietnam. There's some lovely use of filters (that haunting blue). There's a brilliant subtle score, that's eerie when used, but never intrusive. There's a very good command of pace - the viewer is never left idle or bored, and the story (particularly in the tremendous first half) flows along smoothly. Great touches abound throughout - check out the many examples, such as the opening scene of Hartman marching right up to the recruits (and to the camera), spitting and screaming vindictive comments, almost as if at the viewer. Some may criticise the almost disconnected feeling you have in the battle scenes towards the end, but I found their stillness, their quietness, and raw power, far more effective than the flash-bang wizardry employed in tripe such as `We Were Heroes'. I can blather on about Kubrick for ages. so I'll stop now.

Is `Full Metal Jacket' perfect? Not quite because of the `two halves' syndrome. Although they do contrast and complement one another, the first half is very much the stronger half. The second feels weaker against it. In and of itself the second half would normally be regarded well, but it doesn't have the visceral power that the first does. I love both bits, but I do love one bit more. This makes the movie suffer just a little. There's so much to like here though that I can't criticise too much - and so much to cherish (especially in the lines delved out). Once more the main man succeeds. Definetely worth seeing. 9/10.

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84 out of 121 people found the following comment useful :-
A Movie that you will always wonder about, 11 March 2006

Author: shannonphoenix from United States

"Full Metal Jacket" is one of the legends of any service person in basic training. As a young recruit in the Army, we talked about it, and we talked about it further and it is one of those movies that you always find something new to say about. The beginning, the young men come to be trained as "killers." And it is at this point where you may realize later that not everyone is meant to be in the military, example, Leonard (Pyle.) He is a nice kid with probably a good sense of humor, probably liked among for his sense of humor and would have done better in college, but instead is in the Marine Corp where he does not fit in well. Then you have Hartman (excellent portrayal by Gunny Ermy) who has the heartless job of making killers out of these young men. It is here that you question if he is truly mean spirited or is doing what he knows he has to do by being as hard as he can so that these young men will survive the horrors of war. This is a point that I think is sometimes missed. Joker, a rather smart young man, attempts to take Leonard under his wing and the two become friends until Leonard messes up and is given a "blanket party" by the rest of the platoon. Hartman is the reason for this, but behind this hides another reason; he has to make them tough and solid so that they will work as a team and have each other's backs in combat. He knows this to be true, but no one else does. This sends Leonard into a psychotic break and for a while, Hartman begins to show interest in Leonard due to his progress. Joker, noticing the change in Leonard, does not bring this to anyone's attention and thus begins his journey through his own private war because he believes from his inaction, he may have been the cause for the aftermath of the confrontation of Leonard and Hartman and the eventual fate of Leonard.

After that, the movie shifts and they are in Vietnam and only then does Joker begin to see why Hartman was so mean as he sees his friends become more like Leonard and may be destined to share his fate. When the young sniper is shot is when a part of humanity returns to Joker and we are left to guess at what follows.

The performances by Ermy, Modine and D'Onofrio were remarkable, especially D'Onofrio. I often wonder what went on behind the scenes, especially with a seasoned Marine war vet such as R. Lee Ermy on the set. I often wonder how much he contributed to the movie as an actual adviser.

By the way, I am a Gulf War I Army Veteran and I am female, so it could be that I may be looking at this differently. Females usually were not in combat situations, but some were. I do wish the movie would have shown that a little, but as far as making you think, I think the movie did what it was suppose to do.

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45 out of 53 people found the following comment useful :-
Repeated viewings reveal more details and connections…, 29 May 2005

Author: ironside (robertfrangie@hotmail.com) from Mexico

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

The first third of Stanley Kubrick's take on the Vietnam War is as powerful and shocking as any film ever made about the military…

In the film's opening shots, we see close-ups of new Marine recruits getting their heads shaved at a military training post… The next shot follows Hartman (R. Lee Ermey) as he strides through a barracks and completes the first stage of the young men's intimidating indoctrination into the Marine Corps… The scene also establishes the measured pace that Kubrick maintains throughout…

Booming, gloriously profane, and imaginative, Sgt. Hartman is a force of nature that will mold these boys into killing machines… At that point, most war films would turn to the young men, sketch out their pasts and then show their transformation into a cohesive unit… These kids are names and archetypes who will react differently to Hartman's approach…

Kubrick makes Ermey such a mesmerizing force that one key early element is easy to overlook… From the first moment we see him in the barber's chair, before we even know his name, it is abundantly clear that Leonard is mad… He has that familiar vacant, smiling, dull-eyed expression of evil that Kubrick also uses to define Little Alex in "A Clockwork Orange" and Jack Torrance in "The Shining." The other characters do not see it, and so the inevitable confrontation between Hartman and Leonard is all the more horrifying…

The middle section of the film establishes Joker's role as a war reporter, working behind the lines during the Tet Offensive of 1968, and his desire for some "trigger time" with his old pals from basic… That's where Kubrick shapes his view of the Vietnam war…

In the third part, a new sociopath named Animal Mother (Adam Baldwin) is introduced, and the focus shifts to a patrol searching through the bombed out city of Hue to root out a sniper… That is where the filmmakers comment most pointedly on the war itself… They see it as a dead-end that serve no purpose… That's certainly a valid artistic interpretation of history… Many other films have made the same points, often more eloquently… But Kubrick isn't interested in eloquence, either…

The three sections are unmistakably separated from each other… The first stands on its own though key elements are stated again at the end…

For the viewer expecting a "traditional" war film, the result is disconcerting, frustrating, and somehow unfinished… Most Kubrick fans will admit that "Paths of Glory" and "Dr. Strangelove" are more enjoyable, but even if their man is not in top form, "Full Metal Jacket" is challenging, and repeated viewings reveal more details and connections…

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68 out of 100 people found the following comment useful :-
Kubrick's version of Vietnam, 28 April 2002

Author: Agent10 from Tucson, AZ

Stanley Kubrick always managed to bring something new to his palate whenever he made a film. He brought dark comedy to the screen with Dr. Stranglove, an epic story with Spartacus, and a film more important for its efforts than box office potential in the film Paths of Glory. This is what makes Full Metal Jacket so entertaining.

Humor, horror and political commentary are the themes which shape Full Metal Jacket. From the overbearing drill sergeant to the war loving soldiers. It all seems to make sense within this film, never overstepping its bounds or being to subtle. Kubrick may have alienated some his hardcore fans with such a mainstream-type story, but then again, he helped mainstream movies take a bold step. What doesn't the current cinema owe Kubrick?

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74 out of 123 people found the following comment useful :-
Like all Kubrick films it requires multiple viewings, 18 October 2005

Author: supah79 from Netherlands

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I always thought of Kubrick as the poet amongst the proza's in Hollywood. Kubrick always tries to tell a bigger picture than he's putting on the screen. But it requires the viewer to see beyond the images. I had to see this film a second time to fully grasp what Kubrick was trying to show me.

The film is divided in two parts: basic training at Parris Island and combat in Vietnam. Both are equally difficult to watch. Kubrick shows us young boys being stripped from every possible individuality, only to be sent into a war that will only damage them and the war-torn country even more.

The film has an eery kind of absurdness to it. The tone of the film balances between hard core anti-war and black comedy. Maybe thats because most of the soldiers in Vietnam (or any war) have the same kind of humor: harsh, but funny in a wrong kind of way. Kubrick lets R. Lee Ermey have his way the young recruits and gives him all the best "wrong lines". The rapid fire of slurs and insults is unbelievable for a normal person. Which all the recruits are in the beginning. Ermey glorifies the fact that Oswald killed Kennedy from 250 feet at a moving target. Oswald learned his skills IN THE MARINES. Yes, be proud.

Kubrick's Vietnam lies in ruins. The American involvement seems to have only negative results. It's native people are being slaugthered by either the VC or the Americans. Youngs girls prostitute themself to GI's. Once a beautiful country with a rich culture and historic buildings, it's not much to look at with tanks and marines roaming the streets. The scenes in the final act where the platoon is being cut to pieces by a sniper are very powerful. Those scenes make a bigger statement. They define the conflict: With all it's firepower, tactics and technology, the platoon lost three soldiers to one girl with an AK. An unwinnable war.

Though and sometimes difficult to watch, this film is not anti-war for pacifists, but anti-war for humanists. Think beyond "oh, war is hell" and you will be satisfied with what Kubrick is telling us.

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37 out of 51 people found the following comment useful :-
`The dead know only one thing: it's better to be alive', 22 August 2003

Author: auberus from Paris

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Mr. Stanley Kubrick was not a prolific director. After 71 years walking this Earth he left us with only 16 movies among which some of the most powerful cinematic experience to date. `Full Metal Jacket' is part of Mr. Kubrick's list of masterpiece and was released 12 years before his last movie `Eyes Wide Shut' as War always precedes Denial.

Having a total control on his Picture from the writing to the editing, what you see on the screen is what he wanted you to see…and what we see is close to a perfect demonstration: One can learn to kill. Through this learning one looses his individuality. By loosing his individuality one can loose is Innocence and reach Madness and of course during all those steps something can go wrong… To make this demonstration as obvious on paper as on screen you have to be methodic (as methodic as Stanley Kubrick) and you have to have the right actors and the right acting. Matthew Modine (Pvt Joker), Vincent D'Onofrio (Pvt Gomer Pyle) and R.Lee Ermey (Gunnery Sgt. Hartman) are a good example of how pristine the casting was. In order to draw a clear conclusion Stanley Kubrick used the chapter technique and delivers a 2 chapters demonstration.

Chapter One – The building of a Corp. – The Training. Here Mr. Kubrick shows us how a Marine Corp. is built, how one can learn to kill and how through this learning one looses his individuality. This building has to go through 2 major processes: Humiliation and Team building. The humiliation process consists in the destruction of your ego, because your ego is what makes you unique. If an organization breaks your ego then you are most likely to be just like everybody else. Private Gomer Pyle is the perfect example of how someone goes through this humiliating process: he is the most humiliated Private and we all remember this wonderful quote from the Gunnery Sergeant Hartman Drill Instructor (R.Lee Ermey):'Are you quitting on me?! Well, are you?! Then quit, you slimy *beep* walrus-looking piece of *beep*! etc…' The second process in the building of a Corp., is in fact the team building process: It is an equally important process because at the end of this process each team member only exists through the team, alone each of them is `equally worthless' as our favorite Sergeant Instructor would say. Obviously something will go wrong because there is no such thing as invincibility (it's a chimer at best, a lie). The suicide scene is therefore the transition between the notion of individuality and the notion of Corp., between chapter one and chapter two. Admirably played by our 3 protagonist (Private Joker and Pyle and the Sergeant Drill Instructor) it emphasis the only true statement of the movie: `we live in a world of *beep*' and `the dead know only one thing: it's better to be alive'.

Chapter Two – Disintegration of a Corp. – The War. This second piece of the demonstration (one can loose his innocence) is fueled with two dynamics: the desire of the killing and the reality of war. The desire of the killing is impersonating by Pvt `Joker', he is a combat correspondent who doesn't really understand the meaning of this War. At the same time he is `born to kill' and think that the combat will bring meaning to this absurdity. This contradiction is very well sum up in the following memorable quote from Pvt Joker: `I wanted to meet stimulating and interesting people of an ancient culture and kill them. I wanted to be the first kid on my block to get a confirmed kill.' As soon as Pvt Joker links up with Pvt Cowboy, Mr. Kubrick makes us dive in `the reality of war' and the disintegration of the Corp. begins: The lieutenant goes first with him the authority, one by one the Marines falls under the fire of a sniper. The climax of this chapter is the fugitive vision of the sniper. The platoon has reached the border of Madness, where `a day without blood is like a day without sunshine'. Did Pvt Joker found the meaning he was looking for? Can we control the dogs of war once we've unleashed them? Once again there is no lesson only one statement as the thoughts of Pvt Joker `drift back to erect nipple wet dreams about Mary Jane Rottencrotch and the Great Homecoming *beep* Fantasy.' He is `so happy that he is alive, in one piece and short. He lives in a world of *beep* yes. But he is alive and not afraid'.

Innocence is lost forever…left on the ground by the corpses and their `Full Metal Jackets'.

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108 out of 194 people found the following comment useful :-
Still modern today, all too modern., 30 November 2004

Author: guy-bellinger (guy.bellinger@wanadoo.fr) from Montigny-lès-Metz, France

One of the greatest war movies ever, a statement very few will dispute. I will therefore not illustrate this point : thousands have done it before me, often brilliantly.I'd rather lay the stress on Kubrick's modernity in "Full Metal Jacket". Indeed the USA being once again at war, it is interesting to compare the way they wage war these days with the way they did back in the sixties. And the comparison is edifying. Just apply the following statements to Iraq and you will realize NOTHING HAS CHANGED : - the marines are trained to become killing machines without being taught minimum knowledge about the people they come to defend. - the boys know nothing about the Vietnamese and reason according to American standards : for instance "Cow-Boy" complains half-jokingly half-seriously that there are no horses in Vietnam. Another example is the soldiers singing the Mickey Mouse Club hymn after fighting, which strikes as particularly out of place. - they try in vain to impose democracy through gruesome violence and destruction. Such similarities abound and testify to the film's absolute - and unfortunate - modernity. I wish Kubrick was still with us. I also wish George Bush and his advisers had seen this masterpiece and - most of all - understood its message. They would have avoided another bloody war doomed to fail.

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