Classic Movie Review: Full Metal Jacket (1987; Remastered 2007)

The late 70’s up to the late 80’s saw an influx of Vietnam War films: The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Hamburger Hill, Platoon Leader, and whole company of others. While all of these are classic war films in their own right, FullMetal Jacket comes out somewhat different from the rest.

Coming out in 1987 and being remastered in 2007, the movie is about part of the lives of a group of Marines in a part of the Vietnam War in the late 60’s. Unlike other Vietnam era films shot on location, Full Metal Jacket was shot primarily on stages and outdoor sets in England. What makes the film stand out from the rest is that it starts out with the Marines in training at boot camp, showing the whole brutality of Marine training at its finest. The grunts then graduate and see the reality and horrors of Vietnam.

The film is directed by Stanley Kubrick, who makes every single character deliver into the maximum, no matter how big or small the role is.

Matthew Modine (Memphis Belle, 1990, and Dep. Comm. Peter Foley, The Dark Knight Rises) is Private Joker, a Marine torn between serving his country and wanting to write the truth. Adam Baldwin (John Casey, Chuck) is Animal Mother, a grunt who just wants to kill the enemy. Vincent D’Onofrio (Det. Robert Goren, Law & Order: Criminal Intent), gives a superb role as Gomer Pyle, a somewhat semi-retarded misfit. R. Lee Ermey (police captain, Se7en), probably gives the best role as Sgt. Hartman, the gunnery sergeant who badmouths the grunts from day one.

Some of the best scenes in the film are from Ermey. In the great tradition of drill instructors, he gives great brio and amazing creative obscenity that are now known classic scenes, and earned Ermey a place in the top 100 of all-time movie quotes. The encounter in the head between Pyle and Sgt. Hartman had audiences feeling sad when they had to bid goodbye to both characters.

Kubrick’s aim in the film is not to deliver a straight story like other Vietnam War films, but, to show individual characters and how they reacted to their surroundings. While Kubrick loves to use clichés in the war scenes, such as pinned down Marines, you tend to see the masterpiece of the film by its showing just how an aimless war can be as brutal as one with a real purpose.